Live Music Picks: December 14-20 

• Condie Paul

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY 12/13-15
Tom Petty Tribute Nights
As you might have read in City Weekly's Music Monday blog, local bluesman extraordinaire Tony Holiday is doing booking for The Acoustic Space at The Gateway. Some of his first bookings pay tribute to the great Tom Petty—whose loss still stings, even after two months. Initially, there were only two shows: one on Thursday featuring Royal Bliss and another on Friday, where a slew of talented local musicians pay their musical respects. The RB show sold out fast, though, so Holiday booked them for Wednesday night as well. He says that one's selling quickly, and so is Friday night, which features Talia Keys in the one-off band The Petty Bitches, as well as the Wayne Hoskins Band and a few other pickup groups staffed by local musicians like Zach Griffen, Brooke Macintosh, Brandon Barker (Simply B., SuperBubble), JT Draper, Hilary McDaniel (Canyons, Please Be Human, Palodine), Michelle Moonshine and others. Since the venue is all-ages, this is a great chance for younger fans to see local acts that almost always plays bars—not to mention get better acquainted with Petty's music and influence. May he jangle in peace. The Acoustic Space at The Gateway, 124 S. 400 West, Wednesday & Thursday, 8 p.m.; Friday, 9 p.m., $15, all ages, theacousticspace.com

• Proacguy1 via Wikimedia Commons

THURSDAY 12/14
Lady Gaga
Once in a while, a pop superstar is more than manufactured, assembly-line dreck. So where does Stefani Joanne Angelina "Lady Gaga" Germanotta fall? Is she fab or pre-fab? Let's go with a little of both, but strongly leaning toward the former. After all, she's certainly original. Who else would drape themselves in a curtain of beef, or hire someone to vomit upon them onstage, or ask a dressmaker to combine couture with avionics so she can actually fly? And although she seizes attention in various elaborate ways, she's just as focused on others, engaging in a metric shit-ton of philanthropic activity and political activism. Which, of course, makes the discovery that Gaga's music is rooted in real intelligence and emotion even cooler. She's proven you can be pop as fuck without adhering to corporate music-pushers' refined-to-death chart-topper recipes while, album after album, resisting the temptation to repeat herself. This is the part where one might say, "If only there was an assembly line cranking out more Gagas." No. There can be only one. Vivint Smart Home Arena, 301 W. South Temple, 7:30 p.m., $86-$325, all ages, vivintarena.com

• Anna Webber

Nicole Atkins, Thayer Sarrano
One of the most surprisingly welcome developments in pop music in the high-tech 21st century has been the resurgence of honest-to-goodness songwriting. Case in point: Asbury Park, N.J., native Nicole Atkins, who emerged after high school to attend college in Charlotte, N.C., where she became immersed in the indie music scene. Her music is a fascinating mix of tense Jersey swagger and casual Southern drawl, and her writing is similarly oriented. Her 2007 release Neptune City (Columbia) was an astonishing debut; 10 years later, her fourth full-length release, Goodnight Rhonda Lee (Single Lock, 2017), is a stylistic course change.She's departed from retro-pop and her party-centric "Rhonda Lee" persona (after 2015 alcohol rehab) at the behest of her friend Chris Isaak, with whom she co-wrote album track, "A Little Crazy." Contrasted with her previous work, the effort is a more soulful, at times even hip-hop-influenced approach, which also serves her emotive voice well. She's joined by singer-songwriter Thayer Sarrano, who creates haunting musical narratives in the Southern Gothic mode. (Brian Staker) The State Room, 638 S. State, 8 p.m., $18, 21+, thestateroomslc.com

TUESDAY 12/19
Metro Pop-Up 2 feat. Jooba Loc, Compton AV, Young Drummer Boy & Pomona Dre, Cig Burna + DJ Brisk
The identity of event hosts Giovanni the Host & Syncronice is tough to pin down, and details are a mystery even to Metro's Jeff Hacker (aka DJ/DC), who says he's not sure there was ever a Metro Pop-Up 1. Info on most of the acts, including headliners Jooba Loc and Compton AV, is likewise elusive and sparse, but here's a nugget about Loc: In an interview uploaded to YouTube about a month ago, he tells Say Cheese, "Snoop Dogg called me three months after I got out of jail—my mom predicted it." So begins the cosmic tale of how he got signed to Snoop's Doggy Style Records. Musically, it's West Coast gangsta rap, and you can glean from that how the touring part of the bill—co-headliner and felow Snoop signing Compton AV, plus support acts Young Drummer Boy and Pomona Drey—sound. The lineup is rounded out by local acts, including Cig Burna + DJ Brisk, ShahTeam, Trippy G, Underground Ambitionz, Clearsauce, AP and DJ Tobi Ali. There's even a TBA "Secret Santa Special Guest," and given the event's proximity to Christmas, one can only hope it'll be Snoop himself. But don't get your hopes up. Just go for what's advertised, which also includes beer pong, tacos by El Nene Sammy's food truck and vendors Hempire Distribution, U.T.A.H. Affiliated and The House Management Group—and let surprises remain surprises. Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, 8 p.m., $10 presale; $15 day of show, 21+, metromusichall.com

• Man Alive! via Wikimedia commons

WEDNESDAY 12/20
Gary Numan, Primitive Programme
Is "Cars" the only Gary Numan song you know? It would make sense; it's the only one that ever got any serious radio airplay, still gets played today, and tops his top-five popular songs on Spotify with 21 million plays and counting. But before his solo debut The Pleasure Principle (Atco, 1979) yielded "Cars," Numan put out two albums as the frontman and songwriter for The Tubeway Army. Blending punk, post-punk, new wave, hard rock and electronic music, Tubeway Army and Replicas (Atco, 1978 and 1979) were highly influential, inspiring the likes of Marilyn Manson, Prince, Dave Grohl and Nine Inch Nails; Reznor, in fact, credits Numan as the pioneer of industrial music. Post-"Cars," Numan maintained his critical cred, but never enjoyed commensurate commercial success. His fervent cult survived, however, and continues to scarf up his albums, including the new one, Savage (Songs from a Broken World). Still drawing from the same musical wells, but in a way that inspires rather than equals derivation, the album is based on a post-apocalyptic novel Numan's working on—but it's also a reaction to Donald Trump's watch-the-world-burn presidency, which is interesting, given Numan's center-right political leanings. Something else the fans are gobblin' up: tickets to this show. It's sold out. Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, 7 p.m., sold out, 21+, metromusichall.com