If you’re looking for a show guaranteed to get your heart racing tonight, look to Newark, where Oakland’s Keyshia Cole brings her house-shaking voice and bad-grrrl cred to Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, topping a bill that also includes Keri Hilson, Bobby V and The-Dream. And don’t go acting all put out by the trek; via either New Jersey Transit or the PATH train, it’s easier to get to NJPAC than it is to reach Red Hook.

Not feeling the funk? We’ve got other options for you:

If you’re dead set on staying closer to home, consider Isis. The mighty postmetal quintet comes to the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in support of its gorgeously dreamy new album, Wavering Radiant. The supporting bill includes local blackened-hardcore combo Tombs and another postmetal mainstay, Pelican.

Argentine composer, arranger and bandleader Guillermo Klein brings his posse of local all-stars, Los Guachos, into the Village Vanguard for the first night of a weeklong run.

If your taste runs to even more adventurous strains of improv, consider making it a double bill at the Stone: Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and laptopper Ikue Mori (two thirds of brilliant trio Mephista) team up with bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Ches Smith (a.k.a. Good for Cows) for an 8pm set, followed by percussionist John Hollenbeck, electric bassist Skúli Sverrisson and saxophonist Håkon Kornstad with a late show at 10pm.

And how can anyone miss the Knitting Factory if it won’t go away? (We kid. Ahem.) The in-limbo club opens its doors tonight for the Knitting Factory AfroBeat Festival, with the exuberant BLK JKS topping the bill.

During a break early in his Friday duo set at Monkey Town with saxist Håkon Kornstad, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, left, explained that the pair’s repertoire was drawn from Christian hymns his grandmother Elise used to sing. The Williamsburg venue’s state-of-the-art back room, which combines a four-wall video projection system with fine-dining service and communal couches, didn’t initially seem like the most appropriate setting for a concert of religious music. But the musicians—dressed much like the effortlessly chic hipsters sprawled around the room—had no trouble adapting, and they held the audience rapt during a tight 40-minute set. Read more »