INDIA.ARIE — She not only possesses the most beautiful “Brown Skin” on Mama Nature’s blue planet, but this queen of early-’00s acoustic neo-soul — the sound that continues to spawn earthy R&B singer/songwriters, from Corinne Bailey Rae to Nneka to Michael Kiwanuka — is a live presence to behold. India.Arie’s 2001 debut, Acoustic Soul, and follow-up, Voyage To India, are modern Motown classics that seamlessly blend her folk-based acoustic fare with smooth and polished contemporary soul and R&B, much like prime early-’70s Stevie Wonder, and well in keeping with her label’s rich legacy. Her Testimony albums of 2006 and 2008 — Vol. 1, Life & Relationship and the collaboration-heavy Vol. 2, Love & Politics — found her stretching in some new directions. On the former, she mixes her crisp but warm strumming with lush strings and whimsical electronic dabblings in songs like “These Eyes” and the heavenly “Heart of the Matter”; on the latter, she adds a gritty funk’n’blues stomp to “Better Way,” a collab with contempo bluesman Keb’ Mo’. India.Arie’s local date is part of Sol Kitchen’s “I Am Music Fest 2012” at Belk Theater, which also includes performances from Mint Condition and Laura Reed. $39.50-$79.50. Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m. Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. 704-372-1000.

SONS OF TONATIUH, GROHG — Atlanta’s Sons of Tonatiuh’s latest, Parade of Sorrow, is a fierce, angry southern metal document. Down-tuned guitars skuzz and crunch along, referencing the low crush of sludge born in Georgia and neighboring states (hey, like ours!). But there’s also a Northeastern, urban hardcore metal flavor to the push and aggression of the drums — which launch into frenetic breakbeats as often as they lag to a molasses crawl — not to mention the unhinged, screamed vocals. Grohg also does some testing of heavy-music boundaries. The Raleigh outfit, led by singing drummer Will Goodyear (ex-Between the Buried and Me), heads more in a crossover direction, with spacious, eccentric death metal that is also accessible and fun. Case in point — non-metalheads show up at the band’s hometown shows, yet the Culture of Petty Thieves EP has seen love from metal blogs. How’d they do that? With Vex, and Musket King. $6-$9. Aug. 10, 9 p.m. Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road. 704-398-0472.

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD — For longer than you’ve been alive, original country punk Ray Wylie Hubbard has been singing about a poor West Virginia redneck who’s “not responsible for what he’s doing, because his mother made him what he is.” Hubbard’s “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” may be a great barroom sing-along, but it isn’t necessarily one of his greatest songs. The 65-year-old troubadour is a storyteller of deep and wide-ranging talent who’s inspired a legion of younger fellow Texans like Hayes Carll and Ryan Bingham. Hubbard brings a grizzled wit and allegorical grandeur to the unmanageable lives of miscreants, addicts, gamblers and poets. For instance, in “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” he telescopes a lifetime of daily debauchery in a single line: “Whiskey bottles are scattered like last night’s clothes; cigarettes, papers and Oreos.” His latest, The Grifter’s Hymnal, finds one protagonist wondering how he wound up on “New Year’s Eve at the Gates of Hell.” Hubbard’s “Redneck Mothers” may not be his greatest, but there isn’t much more in life I’d like to see than this scruffy Texas outlaw, in a Charlotte bar, metaphorically throwing a bunch of greasy Tea Party “patriots” up against a wall. $15. Aug. 9, 9 p.m. Double Door Inn, 1218 Charlottetowne Ave. 704-376-1446.

MATH THE BAND This is the next logical step in Bomb the Music Industry’s hyphy take on ska-punk. By almost fully digitizing pop-punk and reducing it to chiptunes beep and skitter, Math the Band maximizes that already chipmunk-energy genre’s frantic sparkle. With lyrics that offer absurd, often deprecating takes on reality and drum machine-and-synth instrumentation, this duo fits right in with the northeast’s weirdo experimentalism. Much like fellow Providence over-stimulators Lightning Bolt, Math the Band matches its spastic bursts of hyperactive post-post-post-punk with bright pastel colors and Lisa Frank imagery. And much like their neighbors in Baltimore, this band is danceable, digital and ridiculous as shit — though Math the Band seems to have more of a sense of humor than their Wham City counterparts. With MC Lars, Adam Warrock, ThoughtCriminals, DJ Justin “Aswell” Blackwood. $10-$12. 9 p.m. Milestone.

FAT FACE TRIO A while back, the Shiprocked crew asked local tuba/trombone maven Molly J. to put together a horn band for their Mardi Gras night, and the six-piece ensemble duly killed. Since then, an informal klatch of local horn-blowers have performed Cinco de Mayo canciones and 4th of July marches as sort of a horn section-for-hire (they’ll get their Oktoberfest oompah-pah on soon, too). As an added bonus, this trumpet/tuba/guitar trio has emerged out of those holiday endeavors and begins a themed, Mondays-in-August residency that will feature plenty of guest spots and additional bands. (So far the theme nights include Jurassic Park, Something Horrible Happened at the Lab, and Time Travel — someone’s a comics fan!) Joining Molly J. (Mike Strauss Band) are trumpeter Matt Postle (Sunshone Still, Sea of Cortez) and guitarist Troy Conn (Bunky Moon, Ocie Davis Trio), as the trio plays standards and originals whose semi-trad heads are just a jump-off point for top-notch musicianship. You wouldn’t call it avant garde, but the trio does venture off the onion skins enough to add considerable spice throughout. If you follow music enough, you know that it’s these kind of semi-informal residencies that yield some of the most magic moments. Plus, you know, it’s free. 9 p.m. Snug Harbor.