If you're looking for a little variety in your concert experience, Numbskull Productions and Good Medicine Presents have cooked up two amazing concerts this week with a stack of great bands at both shows.

It all starts this Friday, Oct. 22, when Dustbowl Revival and The Mother Hips share the bill at Castoro Cellars (doors at 6 p.m.; all ages; $30 plus fees presale at eventbrite.com or $35 at the door).

Dustbowl Revival has really evolved over the years, working in and around Americana sounds. But their horn section brings in a lot of jazz, soul, and R&B elements. You just can't pigeonhole this band's sound.

Led by songwriter and singer Z. Lupetin and featuring founding members Josh Heffernan and Ulf Bjorlin, the band didn't escape the pandemic unscathed. Former singer Liz Beebe left the band, but her replacement—Lashon Halley—has arrived with her own unique addition to the Dustbowl sound. She's got the sass and swagger of an R&B powerhouse, which you can really feel on "Feels Good."

In 2020, the band teamed with producer Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Josh Ritter) and engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens) on Is It You, Is It Me, an album that explores the intersection between folk and funk. It's also surprisingly political, especially on the potent "Get Rid of You," which was "inspired by the student activists who emerged from the tragic Parkland High School shooting in Florida," according to press materials. The song is an emotion bomb!

Over the past 13 years, Dustbowl Revival has really come into its own. It all started when Lupetin arrived in LA from the Midwest and shared an ad on Craigslist looking for "fellow musicians who shared his roving love of Louis Armstrong, Bob Wills, Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, and the brass bands of New Orleans, but also wanted to write songs like Americana pioneers Wilco, Lucinda Williams, and even Bruce Springsteen."

"Maybe we don't know where this journey will take us or how long it will last," Lupetin acknowledged. "That's my take on the importance of what we try to do. Music elevates us, lifts us up, makes us change our minds, takes us out of our comfort zones. If just one person can be moved by just one song, that's enough."

Quintessential California rockers The Mother Hips also have a new album out, Glowing Lantern, of which co-founder Tim Bluhm said, "The glowing lantern is a universal symbol for sanctuary. That's what we wanted this album to be: a warm safe place to get in out of the dark cold night."

Written while hunkered down in the pandemic, Bluhm and co-founder Greg Loiacono produced the album themselves. The musicianship is evidence from the opening track, "Sunset Blues," with syncopated guitars and rhythms. And then in come those voices! This is a band that clearly loves the '70s California sound. The band is calling Glowing Lantern the most collaborative record they've made.

"In some ways, making this record brought us right back to the early days when Tim and I used to live together," Loiacono said in press materials. "It brought us back to the roots of what this band was all about."

They two were college students at Chico 30 years ago when the band came together, and they were such an immediate sensation that super producer Rick Rubin signed the band to his American Recordings label before they'd even graduated. They've made consistently good music ever since.

Numbskull and Good Medicine's other big show this week is a tripleheader with The Brothers Comatose, Soul Scratch, and Bear Market Riot playing the BarrelHouse Jam at BarrelHouse Brewing on Sunday, Oct. 24 (4 p.m.; all ages; $25 plus fees presale at eventbrite.com or $30 at the door; kids 12 and under are free).

The Brothers Comatose are an amazing American band with grit to spare, playing traditional bluegrass, country, and rock 'n' roll music. They're a string band that feels like a rock concert.

Soul Scratch delivers phat soul sounds, and the band's frontman, Dale Spollett is the real deal blue-eyed soulman. They deliver a mind-blowing live show! "We're on a mission to cure the world of hate, and educate all people in the power of love, peace, and music," said the band.

And Bear Market Riot is a two-man powerhouse of percussive folk rock. This is going to be a hoot.

Triple threat

Lucia Micarelli can do it all. A talented violinist, gifted singer, and up-and-coming actress (Treme, Manhattan, The Christmas Bow), she's a massive talent, and she's coming to Harold J. Miossi Cultural & Performing Arts Center at Cuesta College this Friday, Oct. 22 (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $35 and up, tickets at ovationtix.com) thanks to Festival Mozaic.

She was a violin student at the Manhattan School of Music when she started moonlighting at local jazz and rock clubs in New York City. Later, she joined the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as a featured violinist and concertmaster.

Two solo albums—Music From A Farther Room and Interlude—followed, and in 2009 she got her big acting break when she was cast as Annie in HBO's critically acclaimed series Treme, which ran for four seasons and won a Peabody Award as well as a Primetime Emmy Award.

She also had her own PBS special, An Evening with Lucia Micarelli, in 2018.

I especially love her interpretations of the great American Songbook, like her take on Ella Fitzgerald's "Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most." And if you need a good cry, watch her YouTube video of "Time After Time," which she dedicated to her father.

Get Fitz

Indie pop and neo soul band Fitz and The Tantrums plays the Vina Robles Amphitheatre this Friday, Oct. 22 (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $36 to $76 plus fees at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com), and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Diversify the Stage, which "seeks to foster more diverse and inclusive workforces and access to equitable opportunities for historically excluded communities in concerts events and to tour through next-gen education and to provide resources for finding qualified staff."

The multi-platinum artists' newest record is 2019's All the Feels, which generated the singles "123456" and "I Just Wanna Shine." They make music that's basically irresistibly fun. Other hits include "HandClap," "The Walker," and "Out of My League."

13 million

Ethan Snoreck was just a 15-year-old kid living in Chicago when he dropped his remix of "XE3" by MssingNo to Vine. Later it landed on SoundCloud, where the track blew up, with 13 million plays and climbing. Now the busy 22-year-old DJ and producer known professionally as Whethan is a hot commodity, and this Friday, Oct. 22, he'll play the Fremont Theater (8 p.m.; 18-and-older; $28 plus fees at fremontslo.com).

According to his bio, he "likes his music either very loud or very quiet. A hard-working producer and DJ, known for arena-pummeling collaborations and remixes, the loud part makes sense. Listen to his explosive take on 'XE3' by MssingNo and it's obvious this is a young man who understands losing himself in low end. The quiet part, though, that's the surprise. When listening quietly, he explains that he's accessing the most musical part of the song: 'I'm not listening to the bass, I'm just getting the vocal—the highest part of the frequency. You can hear that clearly and imagine everything else.'"

More music ...

The Basin Street Regulars host a livestream performance this Sunday, Oct. 24, starting at noon (visit facebook.com/BasinStreetRegulars/ to tune in), and featuring hot jazz artists Tom Rigney and Flambeau plus the Creole Syncopators. The concert is free, but there's a virtual tip jar at paypal.me/basinstreetregulars. Expect some spicy Cajun/NOLA sounds.

The city of Morro Bay hosts a free Concert in Cloisters Community Park this Sunday, Oct. 24 (3 to 4:30 p.m.), featuring LP And The Vinyl. This inaugural family-friendly concert will feature familiar songs from the blues to the Beatles to David Bowie. According to organizers, this 90-minute program is a "test" to see how a cultural concert overlooking beautiful Morro Rock would engage the community. Bring a beach chair and join the fun. Δ

Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.