Best of The Weekend:
Swedish manpeach Kristian Matsson—aka the Tallest Man on Earth, to be accompanied Sunday night with Sean Carey—is too often compared to a young Dylan. Sure, he’s able to be rambling and confessional in a single verse. But he can also produce some pretty masterful guitar plunking. Generally accompanied only by guitar, he howls out choruses until they reach an emotional breaking point (“The Gardener”). The combination of Matsson and Carey (of Bon Iver) will quiet any traces of ambient noise that have been oversaturating your headspace all summer long. 7 p.m. $15. 9:30 Club.
Best of Friday:
Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s anxiously explore loves and life and the inevitable messiness through surreal, atmospheric folk ballads. Songs like “Will You Love Me Forever” make for perfect prelude music before the winter mehhhs. With the Lonely Forest and Cameron McGill and What Army. 9 p.m. $13. Friday. Black Cat.
Hard-bop jazz pianist Cedar Walton will appear alongside tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson. 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.$35/$42 door.  Bohemian Caverns.

Best of Saturday:
Unfortunately the Basement Bhangra Dance Party with DJ Rheka has sold out. Scavenge tickets if you can. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until Diwali for more Bhangra showdowns. 9:30 p.m. $20. National Geographic.

Shake off any lingering traces of summer with Po Po. Signed to Diplo’s label, the band just finished its tenure on Mad Decent’s summer block-party circuit. Now its released the mixtape for a tour it shared with Sleigh Bells. The novelty of Sunny Ali & The Kid, a “Pakastani post-punk cowboy duo,” is almost too much to handle, really. And nostalgic shoegaze duo the Fair and Kind should temper any last resentments of an angsty summer season with songs  like “November.”6:30 p.m. $10. U Street Music Hall.

Best of Sunday:
Foals first garnered serious buzz with their 2007 debut Antidotes. The five-piece is worth a go-see, with their off-kilter, No-Wave-esque rythyms. Songs like “Spanish Sahara,” “This Orient,” and “What Remains” make a good case for the fact that band seems obsessed with location/dislocation and the music that shows up in those places. With Texas trio Girl in a Coma. 8 p.m. $15. Black Cat.
Rest of Friday:
  • Tambuco. Free. Millenium Stage.
  • National Symphony Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. SOLD OUT. Kennedy Center.
  • Howie Day. SOLD OUT. Jammin Java.
  • Rogue Wave and Midlake. Doors 8 p.m. $20. 9:30 Club.
  • Anduze, Jacob Vanags. 8 p.m. $10. Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse.
  • Justin Nozuka, Alex Cuba, Ry Cuming. 9 p.m. $20.  State Theater.
  • Mushroomhead with Final Trigger, Stygian, Koheleth, Saint Diablo, Histrionic Witch. 6:15 p.m. $18/$20 door. Jaxx.
  • University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra: White Heat at the University of Maryland includes Sibelius’ “Violin Concerto” and  Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony” along with the premiere performance of Fanfare by U-Md. faculty composer Lawrence Moss. 1 p.m. $27.  Clarice Smith Center.
  • The Dance Party. 9:30 p.m. $14. Rock & Roll Hotel.
  • Mariageblanc, Foreign Press. 10 p.m. $8. Velvet Lounge.

Rest of Saturday:

Rest of Sunday: