The Weeknd, Nas, Dave Matthews Band, and Kesha headline Philly music this week

This week in Philly music features the Philadelphia Orchestra playing a classic hip-hop album, the Dave Matthews Band doing its annual two-night stand in Camden, Kesha and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard playing the Mann, a music-filled weekend at FDR Park in South Philly and — after the weekend is over — two shows by the Weeknd at Lincoln Financial Field.

The music gets going on a busy Thursday. Throwback soul man Anthony Hamilton sings at the Dell Music Center in Strawberry Mansion, with Tamar Braxton featuring Lyfe Jennings as opener. Hurray for the Riff Raff plays Elkton Music Hall, and Philly indie songwriter Greg Mendez opens.

Grace Potter plays Concerts Under the Stars that night in King of Prussia. There’s a cool double bill at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine teaming with I’m With Her, the folk supergroup of Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sarah Jarosz. Its first album in seven years is Wild and Clear and Blue.

Also Thursday, Ron & the Hip-Tones plays Abington Art Center, Brooklyn indie rocker Raavi is at Warehouse on Watts, and Drive-By Truckers and Deer Tick team up at Archer Music Hall in Allentown. “No genre, all drama” Brooklyn indie-pop artist Jhariah plays for free at Spruce Street Harbor Park, and Hymn for Her and the Fractals are at the Fallser Club.

Any shortlist of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time has Nas’ 1993 debut, Illmatic, near the top. (Fun fact: The Brooklyn pborn, Queens-raised rapper’s first pre-Illmatic single, “Halftime,“ as Nasty Nas, was released on Conshohocken’s Ruffhouse label.)

Nas performed Illmatic at the 2024 Roots Picnic, and he’s doing it again on Friday at the Mann. The Queens-raised rapper — the son of singer Olu Dara — will perform with the backing of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Steven Reineke. DJ Wendel Patrick and Orchestra librarian Nicole Jordan will team for an opening segment, schooling the crowd on the history of classical music in hip-hop.

Three decades ago, Dave Matthews Band broke out with the albums Under The Table and Dreaming and Crash. The latter included the singles “Too Much” and “Two Step.” On Friday and Saturday, the band will do its annual twofer at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden. If DMB fans are fortunate, the band will keep the cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” it played in New Hampshire on Tuesday in its set.

This year, Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better Foundation’s fundraising concert expands to two days and takes place in FDR Park. Lucy Dacus, Hop Along, and Jay Som play Friday. Remi Wolf, Magdalena Bay, and Annie DiRusso are on Sunday. In between, on Saturday morning, Diplo’s Run Club will do a 5K that starts and ends in the park, followed by DJ sets by A-Trak and Diplo himself.

Bartees Strange has a new album called Horror. (It’s not to be confused with the Mekons’ Horror; great minds think alike.) He is about to head off to tour Europe, but first he’s doing a free show at Spruce Street Harbor Park on Saturday.

There’s metal and country at Hersheypark Stadium this weekend. Friday it’s Pantera, who opened for Metallica at the Linc in May. And Saturday is Canadian country star Shania Twain, who returned after a 15-year break with Now in 2017 followed by 2023’s Queen of Me.

Philly poet, activist, and musician Moor Mother — a.k.a. Camae Ayewa — has released 15 albums under her own name or in collaboration with others since 2016. The latest is the bone-rattling The Film, with American Canadian metal band Sumac. They pair off at Warehouse on Watts on Saturday.

Talking Heads are not reuniting, but the band’s keyboardist Jerry Harrison and guitarist Adrian Belew, who played on the Head’s 1980 album Remain in Light, bring their project named for that album to King of Prussia on Sunday. Philly bass player Julie Slick is in the band.

1990s Oakland rap group Souls of Mischief is at Ardmore Muic Hall on Sunday, with a pair of Philly MCs: Reef The Lost Cause and Dell-P.

A trio of notable shows at the Mann early next week starts with oncology nurse turned indie pop star Kesha on Sunday, followed by prolific Australian genre-blenders King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard on its “Phantom Island” tour on Monday with Sarah Hicks and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Then Kesha and Scissor Sisters perform on Tuesday with a stop on their tour whose name I’m not sure I’m allowed to say in the newspaper.

TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe has a burner of a solo album called Thee Black Boltz, but he’s not touring as a solo artist. Instead it’s a six-date TVOTR U.S. tour that will kick off at Franklin Music Hall on Tuesday.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were first co-stars in the 2007 Dublin-set musical film Once, then musical and romantic partners as the Swell Season. They broke up and went their separate ways in the early 2010s. Now the Irish and Czech duo is back with Forward, their first album in 16 years, and at the Met Philly on Tuesday.

Abel Tesfaye has said he’s going to stop calling himself the Weeknd and go back to using his real name, telling Variety this year that the Weeknd lives “in a headspace I just don’t have any more desire for.”

The Canadian superstar will still be exploring that space when he brings the latest update of his “After Hours Till Dawn” tour — which will incorporate music from his 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow — to Lincoln Financial Field for shows, Tuesday and Wednesday. Playboi Carti opens.

This weekend at the Shore, the John Oates-less Daryl Hall is at Ovation Hall on Friday. Stephen and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley are there Saturday. Country singer Sam Hunt plays Hard Rock Live on Friday, and Chicago is at the venue on Saturday and Sunday. And it’s a busy weekend at Anchor Rock Club, with Easy Honey and the Afterthoughts on Thursday, and the Washups, Gutter Drunk, and the Only Way on Friday.