Mac Miller Nineteen years old may be past the cut off for prodigies but this Pittsburgh native is a dope young talent. Rising from the smoke of Wiz Khalifa putting their hometown on the hip hop map, Miller has won over the usual white rapper skeptics with a flow befitting of your favorite backpacker and a presence beyond his years. Kicking incredibly dope rhymes with him will be N.C.’s own Rapsody, most notably of Kooley High but easily the best female rapper I’ve heard in eons. $13-$15. Amos’ Southend. www.amossouthend.com. (Mike McCray)

Neko Case Dear Neko: I’m hoping you get this in time along with the roses. Just want to say again I’ve been a fan since The Virginian, when I first wondered what angelic voice could sound like Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield. It was all over after that, I just knew you and my various listening devices were meant to be together. I’ve been following you ever since — not literally, of course, because who needs another restraining order?! — through those great LPs with the Sadies and Calexico, as well as your recent critical favorites Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and Middle Cyclone. When you sing it’s like the stars and planets are indeed “deep red bells” and you’re ringing them just for me. (Swoon!) Anyhow, I’ve got to go camp out in line now, so I better vamoose. (Also: If you’d like to reconsider, I haven’t yet returned the ring.) Yours forever or until you lose your voice, JS. $25.50/$29.50. Knight Theater. www.blumenthalarts.org. (John Schacht)

Covers Fest A couple weeks back I caught contrabassist Nat Baldwin delivering a jaw-dropping version of Arthur Russell’s heart-rending love song “A Little Lost,” then bopped over in time to see the Aqualads (with Scott Weaver on vox) nail Peggy Lee’s signature “Fever.” Point being, good cover songs are like musical currency between musicians and listeners. Done well, they can establish creative bona fides and artistic legacies, and exalt the legendary and overlooked alike. This night of all-covers features locals Pullman Strike, Big Lizard, Paint Fumes, Secret Hospital and Thomas Berkau (Yardwork) performing songs by the Ramones, the Dead Milkmen, the Stooges, Prince, Loretta Lynn, and more. $5. Milestone. www.themilestoneclub.com. (John Schacht)

Faster Pussycat L.A. rockers Faster Pussycat didn’t quite achieve the stardom of contemporaries Guns n’ Roses, but they had a run with goodtime party hits from the late ’80s through the early ’90s. Founder/singer Taime Downe remains the only original member, but the blokes still rock and, aside from some industrial rock experimentation, the bottom line remains glam, sleaze rock and hair metal. With Venrez and Hair Nation. $13/$15. Tremont Music Hall. tremontmusichall.com. (Samir Shukla)

Lana Rebel Leaning at times to the Cowboy Junkies or Lucinda Williams and at moments on old schoolers like Loretta Lynn, Lana Rebel’s dusty country music is moody and sparse. She writes wind-strewn tales that populate the recent release, Mistakes We Can Live With, recorded with her band the Broken Promises. Also on the bill: Broken Napoleons and Nightingale News. $5. Snug Harbor. snugrock.com. (Shukla)

Memphis May Fire Sure, there are a ton of bands doing the hard alterna-rock that the Memphis May Fire spews. The guitars, akin to tires spinning in the mud, are touched-up with good ole Southern rock and sharp lyrics that keeps this combo from getting mired in the masses. The alternating sung and growled vocals keep a decent balance. With Decoder, Ten After Two, and That’s Outrageous. $10/$12. Amos’ Southend. amossouthend.com. (Shukla)

Jon Lindsay Charlotte musician Jon Lindsay is the latest to get the live q&a treatment in this ongoing series at the Evening Muse. Offering a different kind of concert than you’d normally see, artists are asked about their songwriting process, lyrical content and more in between acoustic or stripped down versions of their songs. $7. 8 p.m. The Evening Muse. www.eveningmuse.com. (Jeff Hahne)

Dawes The popularity of acts like this L.A. quartet — who just signed to Dave Matthews’ ATO label — is a head-scratcher to me. It’s the sort of middle-of-the-road AOR whose primary trait is inoffensiveness. Yet remarkably, this band gets compared to The Band, and recently collaborated with that band’s Robbie Robertson. That only muddies the waters because, to paraphrase something once said about Dan Quayle (look him up, kids), I knew The Band and you, Dawes, are no The Band. The lyrics are clichéd Dear Diary entries, the melodies and dynamics paint-by-numbers twang. “Anyone that’s making anything new only breaks something else,” the singer emotes, and if only they’d apply that to their music-making instead of sounding like a re-hash of the Counting Crows or Wallflowers. Super “meh.” With Girls Guns and Glory. $12-$14. Visulite Theatre. www.visulite.com. (John Schacht)

The Flaming Lips Maybe in the not-too-distant future, after some religion-inspired cataclysm culls the herd, our descendents will rhetorically wonder via bumper sticker: What Would Wayne Do? Wayne would be Wayne Coyne, front man and high shaman for The Flaming Lips, whose concerts have become secular tent revivals where substance-enhanced good vibes rain down with the confetti and balloons. (Coyne can apparently perform miracles because his guitar’s rarely plugged in). The Lips’ LPs have been uneven as hell since seminal releases The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but when you’re all singing along to “Waiting for Superman” or “Do You Realize” in some beautiful primal moment of tribal togetherness, you will not care a whit about that. With The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. $52. The Fillmore Charlotte. www.livenation.com. (Schacht)