TREVOR HALL
7 p.m., Juanita's. Free.

What's not to love about a free show? So here's one to take advantage of. Claiming to have been engulfed by music after Dad handed over the sticks to his drum kit, Trevor Hall's been writing and performing since age 14. Crediting the Bobs Dylan and Marley, Ben Harper and Bjork as primary influences, the acoustic rocker has released six albums in just four short years, as well as the song “Other Ways” on the “Shrek the Third” soundtrack, and an appearance on “The Endless Highway,” a tribute album to the Band. Today, we find him supporting his 2009 self-titled CD, courtesy of Vanguard Records, which just nosed its way into the Billboard album chart upon debut — at No. 199.

—Paul Peterson

ROYAL BANGS
8 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $7.

These rockers from Knoxville know how to get experimental. Royal Bangs mixes fuzzboxed, synthesized, highly percussive instrumentation with spacey, warped vocals — a combination that would've been right at home in the mid-'80s. But beneath the strange layering lies quality songwriting and smart lyrics, as is evident on tunes such as “Brainbow” and “Maniverse,” where we're coached: “If you love something you should fight for it, if it fights you back you should conquer it, if it conquers you, you should crawl right back, but at least you tried to get your love back.” What may separate this crew from others of similar ilk is a jovial approach to being raucous while simultaneously groovy. Currently Royal Bangs has two CDs under its belt, “Let It Beep,” and “We Breed Champions.”

‘BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH'
8 p.m., Robinson Center Music Hall. $20-$58.

It's back to Beethoven at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Last month, audiences heard Beethoven's fifth piano concerto. This weekend, they'll get a taste of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, perhaps the most recognized symphonic composition of all time. George Hanson, candidate three among five in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's search for a new conductor, returns to the ASO as a finalist in the search for the second time. He was in the hunt back in 1992, the year David Itkin won the job. For more than a decade, he's served as music director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Along with Beethoven, Hanson conducts the ASO in selections by two more German composers — Brahms' “Tragic Overture” and Schumann's Cello Concerto, which features guest cellist Joshua Roman. The program repeats on Sunday at 3 p.m. Same place, same price.

FRIDAY 11/6

In case you missed the show last March, here's your chance at redemption. For a brutal combination of Hellbilly and metal, Hank III, complete outlaw and famed son of Hank Williams Jr., brings the Damned Band, Assjack, and special guests Those Poor Bastards for a triple bill like none other in town. Expect country and metal sets, and a finale with both genres, and more cussin, drinkin' and smokin' than we've seen 'round these parts in a long time. This 18-and-up performance at Juanita's costs $18 advance and $20 the day of show. Not one for the faint-hearted and not one to miss, either.

Hugely popular Memphis cover act Venus Mission specializes in the '80s; the band plays at Sticky Fingerz, 9:30 p.m., $7.

The brothers Kerby try to out-holler each other at White Water, with Kevin playing with his band Battery and Josh fronting San Antokyo, a group that also features Kevin, 10 p.m., $5.

DJ g-force provides the soundtrack at Rio's Lounge, the new nighttime incarnation of Gaucho's, 9:30 p.m.

Local crooner Cody Belew stops in at the Afterthought for a long set, 9 p.m., $7.

SATURDAY 11/7

After big success in the early part of the decade, Atlanta's Jagged Edge is plotting a comeback. The R&B group performs at the Delta Classic for Literacy after a party in the Peabody Ballroom, 8 p.m., $10 adv., $25 d.o.s.

Casey Donahew is big in Texas and, increasingly, throughout country music. He makes his first stop at Revolution, with Hwy. 5 opening, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.

At Sticky Fingerz, Memphis' The Dempseys play high-flyin' (literally) throwback rock 'n' roll; expect all sorts of instrumental acrobatics, including lots of upright bass balancing, 9:30 p.m., $7.

Local blues woman Charlotte Taylor plays SpeakEasy, 9 p.m., free.

Local pyschobillies Josh the Devil and the Sinners come to White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $5.

Popular post-hardcore act Silverstein stops in at the Village with Madina Lake, I See Stars, Closure in Mosco and the Word Alive supporting, 7:30 p.m., $13 adv., $15 d.o.s. 

Soul duo Ramona Smith and Carl Mouton play songs you know at the Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7.

‘A DARK, DARK HOUSE'
7:30 p.m., Weekend Theater. $10-$14.

Neil LaBute loves to write about the people you hate. The dramatist, a Weekend Theater favorite, has built a career on the backs of sexual predators, misogynists and the white-collar vacuous. But within his typical men-behaving-badly framework, LaBute's plays offer a rare and unclouded glimpse into the psyche of the American male. Or at least that's the conventional, critical wisdom, and the angle the Weekend Theater is pushing in promotion of “A Dark, Dark House,” a drama that centers around two brothers, one stuck in a psych unit after a booze- and drug-fueled car crash and another visiting. Corroborating details from a shared past, the psych patient believes, is key to his release. As anyone familiar with LaBute knows, there's never anything pretty behind that door. The play continues through Nov. 21.

In a new mix, Lucky Dog Audio's Charles Wyrick pairs Elizabeth Bishop reading her poem "Rooster" (“At four o’clock / in the gun-metal blue dark / we hear the first crow of the first cock") with Ludacris' "Money Maker" ("let me give you some swimming lessons on the penis / Backstroke, breast stroke, stroke of a genius"). And it works! Later, Edna St. Vincent Millay is revealed as the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's long lost muse and, with a bit of rejiggering, Louise Bogan and Sinead O'Connor sound perfectly desolate together.

It's the third in Wyricks' mixes-inspired-by-books series, which, with apologies to the Daily Baz, is the best single-topic blog series going in these parts. This one draws inspiration from Nicholson Baker's "The Anthologist," a novel mostly about a man obsessed with poetry. All the songs and poems in the mix appear in the book.

Make sure you check out Wyrick's previous mixes, on John Wray's "Lowboy" and Colson Whitehead's "Sag Harbor."

Prolific local singer/songwriter Adam Faucett stops in at White Water, with a full band, amidst a national tour; Pete Stein, the lead singer of Florida rock act Truckstop Coffee opens, 9:30 p.m., $5.

Former Gettys front man Matt Joyce plays solo at West End, 9 p.m., $5.

Local saxophonist Gerald Johnson teams with the SpeakEasy Light Orchestra at the new SpeakEasy Supper Club and Piano Bar on Louisiana, 8 p.m., free.

At the Afterthought, the Flying Balloon'o Brothers do classic rock, 8 p.m., $5.

From Dallas, Chant specializes in a combination of blues, funk and soul at Cajun's, 9:30 p.m., $5.

A trio of local rock acts shares the bill at the at Revolution: Calling Drake, Townshed and the Natural State, 9 p.m., $5-$10.

AND: It's Shop n Sip in Hillcrest. Mandy McBryde is playing at the Station, where they're also having an apple pie contest.

"Punk would've been nothing without fashion."

Once upon a time, two blue-blooded, musically gifted brothers from Arizona started a band. This was during the hardcore heyday of the early ‘80s, and though the winds were blowing strongly in the direction of harder-faster-louder, the siblings had an abiding love of such punk anathema as Neil Young and the Grateful Dead.

In short order, the Meat Puppets signed to the label SST and released a slew of albums — at least two of which are masterpieces — which combined the theretofore-disparate sounds of punk, country and psychedelia. They also earned the admiration of a certain scraggly, blonde-headed youngster who went on to start his own band of some considerable renown.

OZARK FOLK FESTIVAL
7 p.m., Downtown Eureka Springs. Free-$30.

Loudon Wainwright III found a kindred spirit in Charlie Poole. Wainwright, famous for his 1973 hit “Dead Skunk” (“Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose/Roll up your window and hold your nose”), which he brags in his bio held the number 1 spot in Little Rock for six weeks, headlines the Ozark Folk Festival with a concert at noon Friday in the Auditorium. He's touring behind a new album inspired by the life of Poole, who isn't remembered like the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, but who was a hugely influential folk performer in the Jazz Age. Look for Wainwright to do wonders with Poole's story (he died at age 39 after a 13-week bender) and songs (full of sly humor and drunken bombast). Other acts of note include Gary Jules, known for his version of “Mad World” on the “Donnie Darko” soundtrack, and Michael Brewer, half of the duo Brewer and Shipley, who had a hit with “One Toke Over the Line.” Get the full schedule at ozarkfolkfestival.com.

TECH N9E
8 p.m., The Village. $18-$22.

If there's anything I've learned from eight years of constantly going to concerts, it's that you can't predict a crowd. But if anyone can break the Village's streak of big hip-hop concerts (like DMX and Snoop) not drawing, I'm putting money on Tech N9ne. Nearly 30 years into the game, the Kansas City rapper might be the most successful indie rapper in the industry. Last year, he was the third highest grossing urban tour in the country behind only Kanye West and Jay-Z. Look for versatility. Throughout his career, he's dabbled in everything from horrorcore to thug rap to R&B and, accordingly, built a following that includes everyone from hip-hop heads to Juggalos. Tech N9e comes with his Strange Records crew in tow — Krizz Kailko, Kutt Calhoun and Big Scoob. Also on the bill: Slaughterhouse, which XXL has called a “rap fan's dream come true … like having Manny, Vlad, Pujols and Santana all on your fantasy baseball team.” The hip-hop group features revered underground MCs Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5'9.

DIRT DAUBERS
9:30 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $7.

Just a few weeks after he made his directorial debut at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Legendary Shackshakers front man J.D. Wilkes returns to Central Arkansas with a new band he's calling Dirt Daubers. The bluegrass-influenced side project, which also features Wilkes' wife, Jessica, and “Slow” Layne Hendrickson, put out its self-titled debut in June. The album's full of rollicking, hillbilly-hokum — righteous kazoo solos, articulate banjo picking and rowdy vocals. The Western Kentucky hooligans mix in a few standards, too. With self-cited influences including Dock Boggs, Cab Calloway and the Louvin Brothers, Dirt Daubers seem sure to get the crowd a-stompin'.

—Paul Peterson

THE MEAT PUPPETS
8:30 p.m., Revolution. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

Almost two years to the day since they last came to town, the Meat Puppets are back. Who'd have thought, after a hiatus that stretched across much of the last decade, including at least a year when brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood didn't speak, that the band would be on such steady, productive ground these days? You can't even really call it a comeback at this point. This line-up, featuring the brothers Kirkwood and replacement drummer Ted Marcus, has been at it for more than three years, touring the States and Europe and cutting two albums, both of which come close to recapturing the glory of their output in the '80s and '90s. You know, cowpunk at its finest — an infectious blend of laid-back psychedelia, desert rock and oddball, mumble-y lyrics. Locals Big Boots and the Dangerous Idiots open.

‘LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE'
8 p.m., Robinson Center Music Hall. $20-$52.

Since her star-making run as Laura Ingalls on “Little House on the Prairie,” Melissa Gilbert has not always lived the good life. She's been jilted by Rob Lowe twice, received a bad nose job, battled with drugs and alcoholism and guest starred on “Nip/Tuck” as a woman who gets intimate with her dog. But with a new book (“Prairie Tale”) and the lead role, as Ma, in this musical adaptation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder book, everything's looking up. With a book by Tony Award-winner Rachel Sheinkin and music by Oscar winner Rachel Portman, the musical's already managed positive reviews in its short run. For die-hards who can't imagine a “Little House” that deviates from the NBC mini-series standard, Gilbert has a few words of warning. “My Ma's a little more feisty,” she told the New York Times in September. “I'm a redhead … So there's some fire under those petticoats.” The musical continues with performances 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

KING'S SINGERS
7:30 p.m. UCA Reynolds Performance Hall. $30-$35.

Central Arkansas should feel lucky to host a group that's graced high-end concert halls, performed in private for the British royal family and has an expanded repertoire of 2,000 works. Created in Cambridge, England, in 1968, by six choral scholars, this a cappella musical force has evolved into international sensation. Its operating principle is known as the “Pyramid of Sound,” a heavy blended baritone/bass foundation upon which the other voices sit. Concerts are typically divided into distinct groups, including madrigals, folk songs, spirituals, recent commissions and “close harmonies.” Which could mean anything from Beatles, Billy Joel, Queen and Gershwin tunes, usually arranged by top-shelf composers specifically for the group. Although no original members are in the current lineup, their 12-to-20-year tenure average speaks for itself, as do their collective and individual voices.