Music Forecast for the week

Gillian Welch, with David Rawlings
Gillian Welch is still best known for her stunning contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack; her vocals with Alison Krauss on “I’ll Fly Away” are spine-tinglingly gorgeous. But Welch was apparently uninterested in being lumped in too closely with the old-timey folk crowd; on subsequent releases, she has tried on a more polished, relatively modern folk-pop sound for size. It’d been about eight years since the last proper Welch album when she returned earlier this summer with The Harrow & the Harvest, which should please fans of her early Appalachian folk and bluegrass. Her frequent collaborator, David Rawlings, joins her on the tour.
Sunday, September 4, at Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts, 785-749-1972)

Ke$ha
The lame dollar sign in her name would seem to signify a boastful wealth, but Ke$ha usually looks like someone who just woke up from a vodka nap behind a nightclub Dumpster. If you believe her songs, that very well might be the case. Her lyrics are unapologetic to the point of being confrontational regarding binge drinking, sexual promiscuity, and various other patterns of self-destructive behavior. If she has a goal beyond becoming as famous as humanly possible, it seems to be to claim a piece of the pop-music moral low ground that male rappers have largely dominated for the past couple of decades. It’s a fucked-up, race-to-the-bottom feminism, inarguably a net negative for society as a whole. The worst part? Two of her songs are kind of good.
Friday, September 2, at Starlight Theatre (4600 Starlight Road in Swope Park, 816-363-7827)

Maroon 5, with Train and Matt Nathanson
You’ve got to think this is the last time we’ll see Maroon 5 before its extraordinarily handsome frontman, Adam Levine, ditches his bandmates and goes all Justin Timberlake. His gig as a judge on NBC’s American Idol knockoff, The Voice, is a strong hint that he’s working to develop his personal brand, and he’s got the charms, smarts and, not to belabor the point but good lord, the looks to pull it off. Train, a cheese-rock relic from the early ’00s, resurfaced with “Hey, Soul Sister,” a lazy, wet fart of a song that shot straight to the top of the iTunes 2010 most-sold list. We have not, it appears, seen the last of Train.
Sunday, September 4, at Starlight Theatre (4600 Starlight Road in Swope Park, 816-363-7827)

Mondo Disco, with DJ Ray Velasquez
DJ Ray Velasquez founded a weekly techno music night, Mondo Disco, at The Granada way back in 1993. The party was a way for Velasquez to introduce what was then obscure, underground electronic music to a wider audience. Now based in New York City, Velasquez returns to the area for Mondo Disco 2011, a party at Czar that doubles as a sort of tour through the history of modern dance music: techno, acid house, rave and more.
Saturday, September 3, at Czar (1531 Grand, 816-421-0300)

Pink Floyd’s The Wall Live
Three years ago, a coterie of local actors and musicians — led by Ron Megee, David Wayne Reed and Cody Wyoming — assembled at La Esquina for a tribute production of The Wall, Pink Floyd’s classic rock opera. This past spring, the cast, musicians and crew brought the production to the Living Room to great acclaim, and this Friday the musicians involved pare it down to just the concert version. Among the performers: Chris Meck, Mark Lowrey, Eric Voeks, Ken Burnham and Brodie Rush, who I hear is pretty remarkable as protagonist Pink.
Friday, September 2, at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522)