Live: Music Picks Aug 4-10 

THURSDAY 8.4
Pato Banton
At 54, Pato Banton is reggae royalty, originally gaining notice for his work with The English Beat and UB40. Since then, his solo career has birthed numerous releases, including his Grammy-nominated 2000 set Life Is a Miracle. Born Patrick Murray, the Birmingham, England, native's stage name derives from the sound made by a Jamaican night owl, but it also evokes the patois of the genre, and "Banton" is DJ slang for an ace lyricist. Managing to Stay Positive, as his 1996 album is called, while still acknowledging the social issues inherent in reggae music, Banton founded his own record label Gwarn International in 2011, releasing the compilation New Day Dawning. His work is more spiritual lately, as reflected in his 7-CD box set The Words of Christ. (Brian Staker) The Royal, 4760 S. 900 East, 9 p.m., $10, TheRoyalSLC.com
IRIE BONUS! If you don't scratch the reggae itch sufficiently tonight, roots legends Steel Pulse—also from Birmingham—plays the Depot on Tuesday, Aug. 9. (Randy Harward) The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, 8 p.m., $25 in advance, $30 day of show, DepotSLC.com

FRIDAY 8.5
Summerland Tour 2016: Everclear, Sugar Ray, Lit, Sponge
I'm a sucker for nostalgia, with fond memories of some of these bands. But their new stuff? Wack. On their latest, Black Is the New Black (The End), Everclear's porch-grunge sounds cloyingly processed. Sugar Ray ... well, their punk/reggae/power pop sound was perfect summer music, even if they, with singer Mark McGrath, perpetrated one of the great crimes of rock history: an odious new vocal style, a nasal drone meant to sound mellow and sensitive, but that hits somewhere between try-hard and date-rapist—and inspired a legion of MySpace emo bands. Another Orange County, Calif., band, Lit, owns some of the blame for this, and the shtick is alive on both bands' current albums (2009's Music for Cougars and 2012's The View From the Bottom, respectively)—only it sounds sillier coming from middle-aged dudes. Sponge put an explosive, snotty Detroit spin on '90s alt-rock—and they once counted as members two-thirds of the gone-too-soon, shoulda-been-huge power pop trio, The Fags. You'd think they'd have held up best, but Stop the Bleeding (Three One Three, 2013) sounds like reconstituted Nickelback. Personally, past iterations of this '90s nostalgia tour had better lineups, with Marcy Playground and Spacehog—two reliably awesome bands that didn't succumb to desperation. Luckily, the Summerland class of 2016 has plenty of classic crowd-pleasers to play. (RH) The Complex, 536 W. 100 South, 7 p.m., $27 in advance, $32 day of show, TheComplexSLC.com

Aaron Tippin
What's August for, if not kickin' back with your buddies and tippin' a few frosted barley pops? Haaaaa! OK, gettin' serious now. Did you know you have to stand for somethin' or you'll fall for anything? What if you stand for meaningless, jingoistic clichés? Well, Aaron Tippin, since he came bustin' out of the Nashville songwriting pen like the proverbial hyperbolic bull on 'roids, has more up his sleeve than his musical balms for 'Murrica lovers. He writes a great F-you song (see "Kiss This") and has a way of making you appreciate what you got, so long as it came from a hard day's work ("I Got It Honest"). Now those are sentiments I can get behind. (RH), Deseret Peak Complex, 2930 W. Highway 112 (Tooele), 7:45 p.m., $10, DeseretPeakComplex.com

SATURDAY 8.6
Two Sets with Los Lobos
Los Lobos—"The Wolves"—have survived more than 40 years with their signature blend of rock, blues, funk, Tex-Mex, cowpunk and traditional Mexican music, and they continue to kick nalgas and take nombres. The band is known for marathon sets that change nightly and leave you wanting "más y más y más," as the song goes ("Más y Más" from Colossal Head, 1996, Warner). On Saturday, they're doing two sets, which is great news for the band's many Utah fans. You see, they're averaging only nine songs a night on the Wheels of Soul tour with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and the North Mississippi Allstars—which happens the day after at Red Butte Garden. Nothing against the other acts, but that's not nearly enough Lobos for me. Even if Wheels wasn't sold out, this is the better show. Unless you're lucky and rich and can do both. (RH) The State Room, 638 S. State, 9 p.m., $65, TheStateRoomSLC.com

Summer Slaughter Tour: Cannibal Corpse, Nile, After the Burial, Suffocation, Carnifex, Revocation, Krisiun, Slaughter to Prevail, Ingested
Do you ever wonder if the day will come when even death/grind/extreme/black metal bands will start selling out? You know, when songs like "Hammer Smashed Face" by Cannibal Corpse will be licensed for use in commercials plugging over-the-counter headache medicine? Stranger things have happened (see veggie Violent Femmes letting Wendy's use "Blister in the Sun"). In fact, I just tried to stream Nile's Annihilation of the Wicked (Relapse, 2005) on YouTube and had to sit through a Subway ad first. Now I'm all hungry for a "Spawn of Uamenti" footlong with extra "User-Maat-Re" sauce. Song idea, guys: "Om Nom Nom." (RH) The Complex, 536 W. 100 South, 2 p.m., $28 in advance, $33 day of show, TheComplexSLC.com

WEDNESDAY 8.10
BulletBoys
There's only one original BulletBoy in the band today, but Marq Torien was the voice and one of the songwriters behind the Los Angeles glam metal band's towering swagger. Now he's even playing guitar (like he did in an early version of genre heavyweights Ratt) and showing off his pipes, which aren't nearly as rusty as those of his peers from the '80s Sunset Strip scene. In fact, a YouTube clip from a year ago finds Torien crushing it on "Smooth Up in Ya," the band's most recognizable hit. The track was also used in the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, which shows that it, like Torien, has staying power. (RH) Liquid Joe's, 1249 E. 3300 South, 8 p.m., $12 in advance, $15 day of show, LiquidJoes.net

SUNDAY 8.7
Faun Fables
Faun Fables is the vehicle of singer/songwriter "Dawn the Faun" McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl. I first became aware of Frykdahl because of his work with the groups Idiot Flesh and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, both of which blended an atmosphere of 19th-century traveling freakshow with Dadaist performance art and prog-rock level musicianship, all in service of the absurd to a degree that would have Frank Zappa nodding in approval. Their work in Faun Fables has been more squarely in the folk realm, and their newest full-length, Born of the Sun (Drag City) is melodic and dreamy, yet solidly grounded in the folk tradition of embracing the natural world. Locals Vincent Draper and Officer Jenny open. (Brian Staker) Kilby Court, 741 S. 330 West, 7 p.m., $10, KilbyCourt.com

WEDNESDAY 8.10
Adlib and Friends
Philadelphia, Pa., emcee Adlib took his nom-de-rhyme from that most highly prized skill of the rapper, the ability to rhyme extemporaneously. His blunt (you might say) expressions of counter-culture issues are refreshing, including his cannabis advocacy. He is probably best known for his HighWay LP and Teenagers from Marz EP (both on the Sensi Starr label). In a genre noted for collaborations, Adlib has toured or collaborated with the likes of Doodlebug of Digable Planets and Jedi Mind Tricks. The show includes gLife, a recent CMJ "Top Mover," Big Tone and locals violinist Master Q, Clawson, The Hidden Sound and DJ Pookie. (BS) Club X, 445 S. 400 West, 8 p.m., $10, ClubXSLC.com