May 6, 2011 | 11:38 AM | By

This Weekend’s Picks: Nat Baldwin, The Fiery Furnaces, Young Widows, Sisters 3, Cage The Elephant, Sleigh Bells

FILED UNDER: Artists, Concert Previews, Events, Cage The Elephant, Nat Baldwin, Sisters 3, Sleigh Bells, The Fiery Furnaces, Young Widows

Nat Baldwin

FRIDAY, MAY 6
Right now, it’s cool for bands to dabble in basketball, but Nat Baldwin doesn’t dabble in it. He turned down a basketball scholarship to study music, and his last record, Most Valuable Player, featured a picture of his MVP trophy from a junior-high-school basketball tournament. Baldwin is most well-known as the bassist for The Dirty Projectors, but he’s been putting out solo work since before he worked with the band. The solo effort consists of Baldwin—often without any back-up—playing the upright bass and singing. His use of melisma (several notes sung over one textual syllable) and erratic falsetto makes him sound, on first listen, strikingly like Dirty Projectors front man Dave Longstreth. But It’s a weak comparison. One obvious difference is the stripped-down acoustic feel of Baldwin’s music; another is his use of drama. Baldwin recently released a new single, “Weights”, from his forthcoming album People Changes (which features a shirtless Baldwin holding a basketball on the cover). By itself, the song might seem too slow or lacking direction. But, in the accompanying video (shot on a Brooklyn basketball court), the slow strings have a deliberate tension, as if there was a competition in Baldwin and his bass. Nat Baldwin perform with Nick Millevoi and Bronze Float at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church; tickets to the all-ages show are $10. —Dave Simpson

Also playing: Young Widows + My Disco, Gods And Queens at Johnny Brenda’s (8 p.m., 21+, $10); The Fiery Furnaces at World Cafe Live (8 p.m., $20); Jukebox The Ghost + Wakey Wakey, Pretty & Nice at First Unitarian Church (8 p.m., all ages, $12-$13)

SATURDAY, MAY 7
Cage The Elephant + The Shackeltons at Electric Factory (8:30 p.m., SOLD OUT); The Sisters 3 (record-release show) + Honey Watts, On The Water, DJ Slow Poke at Johnny Brenda’s (9 p.m., 21+, $10); Denison Witmer + The Oxygen Ponies, Poison Tree at World Cafe Live (7 p.m., $20); D’Amore + Hot Bagels, Best Friends at Danger Danger Gallery (9 p.m., all ages, $5-$10)

SUNDAY, MAY 8
Jerry Blavat’s Mother’s Day Musical Spectacular featuring Frankie Avalon, Jay Black, Kenny Vance & The Planotones, The Tymes, The Orlons at The Kimmel Center (7:30 p.m., $41-$100); Sleigh Bells + CSS, Mr. Dream, Wet Witch at The Trocadero (8 p.m., all ages, SOLD OUT); The Growlers + Adam And Dave’s Bloodline, Uncle Bad Touch at Johnny Brenda’s (9 p.m., 21+, $10)