If you’re looking at a way to support your local museum without having to abide the yucky, messy experience of “art”—heaven forbid!—then the Big Oktoberfest Bash is for you. With all proceeds going to the people who do care about that collection of twigs in the corner called a “sculpture,” the evening offers microbrew tasting, plenty of food from pizza to cherry pie, and music from Crazy Famous, the Spindles and DJ Paul Timberman. Get tipsy, rock out and suffer nary a whit of modern impressionism at the Big Oktoberfest Bash, benefiting the Sonoma County Museum, on Friday, Oct. 9, at the Veterans Memorial Building. 1351 Maple Ave., Santa Rosa. 5–9pm. $35. 707.579.1500.Gabe Meline

To some, the blues were born in Chicago; to others, it has its origins in the Mississippi Delta. Markus James knows the real deal—that to trace the blues back to their true beginnings, one has to travel to Mali and beyond to meet with, share ideas with and play with indigenous African musicians. The result is a wonderful cross-cultural hybrid evident on his latest album Snakeskin Violin that’s been recently featured on NPR. Once an annual event, his concerts have been getting rarer; don’t miss his first West County show in two years with his band, the Wassonrai, on Friday, Oct. 9, at Studio E. Address provided with ticket, Sebastopol. 8pm. $10–$15. 707.823.5316.Gabe Meline

The Raincoats

All-female British post-punk band reunites for very rare small club date; with Section 25 and a special Gang of Four DJ set. Oct 9 at 8. $20-25. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie St, San Francisco. 415.625.8880.Polvo

Mid ’90s Chapel Hill underground icons return in Dinosaur Jr-esque ball of brilliance with their new album, “In Prism.” With Petaluma’s Moggs. Oct 9 at 9. $15. Slim’s, 333 11th St, San Francisco. 415.255.0333.Lester Bowie Tribute

Deceased trumpeter and Art Ensemble of Chicago bandleader is paid tribute by former sideman Roscoe Mitchell, James Carter Quartet and others. Oct 9 at 7:30. $30-$50. Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. 415.392.4400.Short Dogs Grow

What the hell? Short Dogs Grow? Is it, like, 1985 again? Are the Screamin’ Sirens opening the show? Wow. Oct 11 at 1. $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St, San Francisco. 415.621.4455.The Pogues

Yes, Shane MacGowan is back in the band. No, it’s no guarantee he’ll show up. If he does, he will speak incomprehensibly and sing beautifully. Oct 14 at 8. Regency Ballroom, Sutter and Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. 888.745.3000.Gabe Meline

The name Victims Family is synonymous with the Sonoma County underground, and yet no band before or since has ever sounded anything remotely like them. The dizzying trio who blazed an unchartered trail of jazz, hardcore, funk and psychedelia throughout the ’80s and ’90s released six studio albums which to this day defy all convention—their 1990 classic White Bread Blues sees a vinyl re-release on Saint Rose Records later this year. After 25 years, the band plays only very sporadically—Tom Solyan is now a roadie for Sheryl Crow, Larry Boothroyd plays in Triclops and Ralph Spight, naturally, teaches guitar classes—and there’s no better band for Victims Family to share a double bill with than their old tour mates Nomeansno on Sunday, Oct. 11, at the Phoenix Theater. 201 E. Washington St., Petaluma. 8pm. $10. 707.762.3565.Gabe Meline

As the oral secretion, saliva tends to stay in our mouths. As the hard-rock band, Saliva has been in spots for World Wrestling Entertainment, the movie The Fast & the Furious, the theme to Nascar 2005: The Chase for the Cup, commercials for Dog the Bounty Hunter, the Japanese manga episode Dragon Ball Z: Bardock—The Father of Goku, as the highlight video soundtrack for the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Blue Jays, the video games BMX XXX, Project Gotham Racing, Test Drive Overdrive, UFC 2009 Undisputed, MX 2002 featuring Ricky Carmichael, and occasionally, on the Billboard charts. Sometimes, they even play concerts, and if they haven’t infiltrated your personal space quite enough just yet, Saliva appear live on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Last Day Saloon. 120 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 8:30pm. $18-$20. 707.545.2343.Gabe Meline

If you’re simply too car-challenged, energy-deprived or claustrophobic to attend the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park this weekend, there’s at least the comfort of knowing that star headliner Emmylou Harris always visits Santa Rosa as part of her annual West Coast jaunt. Harris’ recent foray into songwriting has served the always-an-interpreter-never-a-songwriter well, and possessed of silken hair and a voice from the heavens, Harris at age 62 still has the power to render breathless even the most callous listeners. Hope for “The Pearl” when she plays with Buddy Miller on Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Wells Fargo Center. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $30-$70. 707.546.3600.Gabe Meline 

Every year, the Maison Dupuy Hotel on Toulouse and Burgundy streets in New Orleans hosts the French Quarter Wine Festival, in which residents of New Orleans celebrate wines from throughout the Napa Valley. Little do they know that across the country, residents of the Napa Valley get together annually to celebrate the food and music of New Orleans. It’s the Wine Country Cajun Food & Music Festival, and it takes over downtown Napa with music by Gator Beat, the Zydeco Flames, Henry Clement, Chief Takawaka & Gumbo Band, the Fred Pepper Dixieland Trio and more. Gumbo, jambalaya and other Louisiana staples will be washed down with beer, beer and more beer, and yes—there’ll even be someone throwing beads from the parade float on Saturday, Oct. 3, in downtown Napa. First & Main, Napa. 1-6pm. Free. 707.257.0322.Gabe Meline 

I thought that Billy Joe Shaver had finally settled down. Here was a man who’d cut off two fingers in a lumber mill accident, had lost his son to a heroin overdose, who’d had a heart attack—you’d think someone was trying to tell him to let his old, rowdy ways fall away. But there’s a relentless spirit inside of Shaver; the same spirit that led him to define the “outlaw country” movement by penning songs for Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. The same spirit that led him to write the incredible album Honky Tonk Heroes. The same spirit, unfortunately, that led him into a 2007 dispute outside Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon in Lorena, Tex., which ended by shooting a man in the face. Both lived to tell the tale—one in court, and Billy Joe Shaver, outlaw extraordinaire, on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Rancho Nicasio. Town Square, Nicasio. 8:30pm. $25. 415.662.2219.Gabe Meline

It’s not just a movie. It’s a way of life. Am I wrong? The Big Lebowski, which screens this week in the small confines of the Cameo Cinema, is fast joining the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as a lifestyle bible for its most devoted, white-Russian-drinking followers, and the one-screen movie theater may never be the same. As the official Lebowski Fest makes its way across the country this September, Napa Valley duderinos have the chance to abide en masse and recite classic lines together back at the screen, and there are oh-so-many of them. Will bowling balls be rolled down the aisles with nihilists? Will someone have the guts to stand outside the theater with a ghetto blaster, playing the Eagles? Will anyone ever really find a rug that really ties a room together? Find out when the cult favorite screens on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at Cameo Cinema. 1340 Main St., St. Helena. 8pm. $5. 707.963.9779.Gabe Meline

Amusing the amnesiac drunks of the world while they slobber Stouffer’s dinners on themselves in the middle of the night isn’t anyone’s idea of a great job. But to Craig Ferguson, it caps a long journey from a young punk rocker in Glasgow, Scotland, to construction worker to bouncer to modern dancer, and finally, to taking the place of Craig Kilborn as host of CBS’ Late Late Show. Ferguson’s new memoir, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, chronicles that journey, with a lot of alcohol and cocaine along the way, but what emerges from the haze is a humble, funny man who very desperately wanted to become an American. He achieved citizenship in 2008, and wears a red, white and blue kilt on the cover of his books and, one would guess, whenever else he can. He appears on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Noon. Free. 415.927.0960.Gabe Meline