It’s the mark of a fine musician to be able to span decades and remain relevant. While an entire generation of turntable DJs grew up on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” with its industrial beats and extended scratch outro, their parents were vibing out to the visionary pianist’s classic Blue Note albums like Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage. (Not to forget the big siblings in the club, dancing to acid-jazz samples of “Chameleon.”) These days, Hancock’s live set is adventurous as ever, evidenced by a version of “Watermelon Man” in 17/8 time. Alternating between piano, synthesizer, vocoder and keytar, the jazz master plays “Plugged In: A Night of Solo Explorations” on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Green Music Center. 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. 6pm. $25—$85. 866.955.6040.

From Michael Stipe and Woody Allen to Bill Maher and David Bazan, there exists a long line of art borne from men wrestling with their religious upbringing. Three years ago, ‘Wretch Like Me,’ the one-man show written and performed by Bohemian theater critic David Templeton, did this very thing with an added bonus: laughter. Now, in an updated revision, Templeton’s story about coming of age as a fundamentalist puppeteer with an overly devoted (to the Lord) girlfriend returns. Brush up on your New Testament verses and hark back to the weird world of the 1970s in two shows, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28 and 29, at the Occidental Center of the Arts. 3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental. 4pm. $10. 707.874.9392.

If you’ve got one of those friends still clinging to his manual typewriter and Polaroid Land Camera in the other, who extols the virtues of rotary phones and rub-on lettering, who distrusts anything made past 1978 and loudly proclaims so, have we got the gift for him: Michael Hurley’s 1984 album Blue Navigator, reissued in 2010 on 8-Track! We’re not kidding! Nor are we kidding when we report that the initial pressing of 50 sold out, and one later sold on eBay for $46! It’s official, folks: the old-timey trend has reached “drooling weirdo” levels. Hurley, an avid 8-Track fan and underground cult-folk hero, plays Thursday, Sept. 26, at Sweetwater Music Hall. 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. 8pm. $22—$35. 415.388.3850.

It starts with an electrical failure. The lighting buzzes, there’s a couple flashes, and then the camera finally opens on the Winterland stage. It’s The Last Waltz, the star-studded, Scorsese-directed documentary of the Band’s “last show” that would go on to cause short-circuits among band members while appearing on lists of the Greatest Rock Concert Films of All Time. Backstage, arguments ensued and cocaine was plentiful (a bit of the white stuff on Neil Young’s nostril was famously edited out), but the music remains incredible. In a partnership with KRCB and the Last Record Store, Summerfield Cinemas screens the film on Thursday, Sept. 26, at Summerfield Cinemas. 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. 7pm. $7—$10. 707.522.0719.

Accomplished environmentalist author, journalist and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben found himself behind bars in the summer of 2011 after leading a large civil disobedience at the White House in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. Now he’s ready to talk about what led him there in his new book Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist, which intertwines his work with a Vermont beekeeper with his story of leading a growing social movement. The book also ties together the two necessary faces of the global climate fight: the fight against the fossil-fuel industry as a whole and the development of small-scale local answers. With empathy and passion, McKibben draws on why these two aspects are mutually reinforcing and must come hand-in-hand for the success of a movement that could lead to saving the planet. McKibben speaks about Oil and Honey on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at Dominican University. 50 Acacia Ave, San Rafael. 7pm. Free. 415.927.0960.

If you take everything “cool” and infuse it into a single human being, you get one man: Dr. John. The legendary “Night Tripper” has played with Cher, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger—just to name a few. Quite fittingly, Dr. John’s unique musical style doesn’t fit under any one category, but is a type of hybrid voodoo-psychedelic-meets-traditional-New-Orleans-R&B-and-funk. Widely considered a living embodiment of the rich musical heritage of New Orleans, Dr. John proved his life-long love affair with his hometown by stepping up to the plate after Hurricane Katrina with generous relief fundraising concerts, recordings, angry words of protest and a Grammy-winning album, City That Care Forgot. Dr. John plays on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Uptown Theatre. 1350 Third St., Napa. 8pm. $40—$55. 707.259.0123.

Turned away from the Ron Shulamit Conservatory because he was too small to handle a violin, the three-year-old Itzhak Perlman taught himself on a toy fiddle. Now, of course, he’s one of the greatest musical prodigies of our time. Onstage, Perlman communicates an irresistible joy of making music, while offstage, he is beloved for his charm and humanity, and a recent New Yorker piece uncovered Perlman as a closet comedian in the Borscht Belt tradition. Having appeared with every major orchestra, and in recitals and festivals around the world, the reigning virtuoso of the violin isn’t one to miss on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Green Music Center. 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. 6pm. $55—$125. 866.955.6040.