For many people, works of visual art fall into two categories: those that look like stuff and those that don’t. Ceramicist Richard Shaw’s work falls solidly in the former. Shaw makes sculptures that very much look like stuff, so to speak. In fact, they belong to the tradition of trompe l’oeil, which literally means “fool the eye” in French. Though they appear to be assemblages of everyday material and found objects, his work is actually meticulously crafted entirely out of porcelain. They look exactly like household objects, albeit strangely arranged and grouped. He has sculpted a wedding cake bisected by an ocean liner, an artist’s sketchbook beside a skull and a series of humanoids that appear to be constructed from pencils and junk-drawer refuse. Shaw will be discussing his work as part of KQED’s “Spark! Arts Lecture Series” on Thursday, Aug. 20, with a wine and cheese reception at di Rosa Preserve. 5200 Carneros Hwy., Napa. 6:30pm. Free with reservation.Daniel Hirsch

If you ever find yourself soaring through a vast void as timeless planets implode on themselves, releasing wispy clouds of beautiful luminous gases, and you are faced with the meaning of your own small existence among the infinite, expanding universe, Kronos Quartet is the music you want to be listening to. The San Francisco–based string quartet has been making heartbreaking, spellbinding and mind-blowing experimental classical music since 1973. They’ve collaborated with the likes of Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, David Bowie, Tom Waits and Bjork. Having composed the soundtrack of intense films like Requiem for a Dream, Kronos often tackles difficult subject matter through their work (their newest album Floodplain takes the barren and damaged landscapes of flood zones as its central inspiration). But the much-acclaimed quartet also isn’t adverse to a little summer fun. They are performing at a lawn barbecue this week. Eat some ribs and ponder existence to Kronos Quartet on Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Rancho Nicasio. 1 Old Rancheria Road, Nicasio. 3pm. $25. 415.662.2219.Dan Hirsch

Dubbed the “James Brown of Africa” by The Oakland Post, Victor Sila, of Sila and the Afrofunk Experience, certainly knows how to get down, feel good and sound good doing it. A few parts Fela Kuti, a few parts George Clinton, a whole heap of soul à la the venerable Mr. Brown, and you’ve got Sila, a Kenyan ex-pat living in San Francisco. Sila’s second release with the Afrofunk Experience, Black President, celebrates the inauguration of his fellow Kenyan-American with irresistibly danceable grooves, up-tempo, polyrhythmic jams and the well-placed socially conscious lyric or two. It’s enough to make you want to get on up. Sila and the Afrofunk Experience will be packing the dance floors on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Hopmonk Tavern. 230 Ave., Sebastopol. 9:30pm. $10–$13. 7070.829.7300.Dan Hirsch 

There are lots of formidable, tough-as-nails baddies named Bruce out there: Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Lee, Bruce Willis and Bruce “the Batman” Wayne among many. But none of them dare compare when it comes to playing the pleasant jazz-bluegrass-country-jam-band piano stylings of the one and only Bruce Hornsby. A three-time Grammy award winner, Hornsby has had a career spanning decades and genres. He played for years with the Grateful Dead, wrote songs for Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley, and is now even penning a Broadway musical featuring a song about Donald Trump called “The Don of Dons.” He may not rock as hard as Springsteen or kick butt as fiercely as Lee, but mild-mannered Hornsby is a Bruce to watch out for. Laser the gaze on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $80. 707.226.7372.Dan Hirsch

The cultures at the rural fringes of the former British Empire have a strangely similar feel. There’s a little bit of West Texas in the ethos and attitude of the Australian Outback, places marked by grilled meat and cowboys scoping the vast desolate frontier, and a little bit of Appalachia in the formidable Aussie twang. With that said, there’s something weirdly right about the songs of Audrey Auld, an Australian singer-songwriter with roots just as deep in Tasmania as they are in Nashville. Auld likes to call her work “music with the dirt left on,” but that dirt doesn’t just include brown dust-bowl or red outback, it also includes California coastal soil—she lived in Marin County for several years. Her mellow Americana melodies and playful songwriting spans all these diverse corners of the globe, referencing eating Vegemite right alongside doing yoga in Bolinas. Auld will be channeling Joan Baez, Tammy Wynette and Mad Max on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the intimate Studio E in Sebastopol which, as if to add to the geographic confusion, requires purchased tickets to obtain the address. 8pm. $25. 707.542.7143.Dan Hirsch

In the pantheon of dark musical comedies, there are few faces as memorable as the elastic pale, grinning visage of Joel Grey’s master of ceremonies in the 1972 film version of Cabaret. His performance as the Brechtian emcee of the Kit Kat Club dazzled, disturbed and earned Grey an Academy Award. Grey has also won four Tony Awards and starred in a little Broadway smash hit called Wicked. But what his high-C-note-belting fans may not know is that Grey is also an accomplished photographer. His images frequently zoom in close to oft-unexamined surfaces. In his most recent collection, Grey continues to look at things in a new way by specifically capturing low quality images on a camera phone. This week, the North Bay gets Grey showing off all his various skills. On Friday, Aug. 14, he presents his collection 1.3: Images from My Phone at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 7pm. Free. 415.927.0960. The next night, he’ll be performing with a full orchestra on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 142 Throckmorton Theatre. 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. 8pm. $85–$135. 415.383.9600.Dan Hirsch 

Yes, Dave Alvin is an amazing guitarist, but the Blasters without Dave Alvin is perfectly fine with us. What’s the reason? Phil Alvin, that’s what. Phil’s voice and his wincing, sweating delivery—illustrated on the Blasters’ first LP—are what make the Blasters great. The songs are what make the Blasters great. Yes, Dave Alvin provides that extra dash of brilliance which makes the Blasters a gift from heaven, as evidenced by their brotherly reunion tour several years ago, but when you’ve got those songs and that voice, frankly, any guitarist will do. “Border Radio,” “Make You Dream,” “I’m Shakin’” and “Marie Marie” are gifts from rock ’n’ roll gods, even with Keith Wyatt. Who’s Keith Wyatt? He’s the poor guitarist who must suffer endless comparisons to Dave Alvin. We say: let the comparisons end! Slam a Michelob, comb back your hair and enjoy the quintessence of full-blooded American rock ’n’ roll when the Blasters cause the nightclub walls to drip condensation on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the 19 Broadway Niteclub. 19 Broadway, Fairfax. 9:30pm. $15–$18. 415.459.1091.Gabe Meline

Stripping down to panties stamped with a strategically placed Star of David while clarinet Klezmer music wails away. Lighting cigars off the menorah. Reciting beat poetry with questions like “Should I fiddle on a fucking roof for you?” It’s all included in the beer-swilling musical-comedy-burlesque show ‘Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad.’ The brainchild of New Yorker Susannah Perlmann, whose bat mitzvah turned into a waterfall of teenage liquor consumption and subsequently supplied her with a hungover critical fisheye on her religion, Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad is saucy, ballsy and irreverent in all the most entertaining ways. Think of it as Beach Blanket Babylon with borscht, rhinoplasty and pasties. It’s the sort of thing they’d never allow on stage at the local synagogue when the Nice Jewish Girls go bad—in a benefit for the local synagogue—on Saturday, Aug. 8, at Judd’s Hill Winery. 2332 Silverado Trail, Napa. 7:30pm. $25–$45. 707.255.2332.Gabe Meline

Plenty of comparisons have historically been made between music and painting—Bill Evans’ liner notes to Kind of Blue summarize the concept perfectly—and yet it’s not often the opportunity arises to admire an artist’s visual painting and his music at the same time. That chance comes this weekend, when abstract expressionist and blues guitarist and singer Mike Henderson appears at the di Rosa Preserve. A faculty member at UC Davis for over 30 years, Henderson works with a paintbrush the way most bluesmen bend nickel-wound strings, and openly states his goal is to reveal a painting that has more questions than answers. As a singer, Henderson is rugged and rough-edged, with a style that cries for empathy. To benefit educational programs, he and his band perform above the lake at the di Rosa in conjunction with his current new work on display in the Gatehouse Gallery. Advance tickets, including VIP seating with buffet dinner, are required when Henderson struts his stuff on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the di Rosa Preserve. 5200 Sonoma Hwy., Napa. 7pm. $50–$100. 707.226.5991.Gabe Meline

It was a hot summer night, and me and this country singer I was dating sleeping with were completely loaded. We grabbed a bottle of Charles Shaw from my apartment, headed downtown, and amused ourselves by flying paper airplanes from the top of a five-story parking garage. The fuzz pulled up, and I was brusquely informed I could either get a ticket for the open container or for littering paper airplanes all over the streets below. “Waazz cheeeeaper?” I slurred. “Open container,” replied the cop. (The country singer promised to split the fine with me, but we fell out shortly afterward.) An open container charge isn’t that big of a deal, but maybe I’d like to get it removed from my record—in which case, I’m in luck and you are, too. Just bring your criminal docket from court, and learn how to expunge criminal charges from your permanent record in a valuable one-hour lecture on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the Sonoma County Bar Association Office. 37 Old Courthouse Square, Ste. #100, Santa Rosa. 5:30pm. $10. 707.546.2924.Gabe Meline