Music

Constantly bending genres and pushing limits, the P-Funk mothership lands in Chene Park this summer and the always fun Clinton should still be primed to tear the roof off that sucker. Don't go if that funkin' 's kinda hard on you, as Clinton's most recent work (a three-and-a-half hour studio album with Funkadelic) is only meant for those within whom the funk resides. Can you get to that?

The Beach Boys' genius Brian Wilson will perform at the Fox Theatre on his "No Pier Pressure" tour. Along with his classics, he will be performing songs off the new album, which may be his last; there are also reports that this might be his last ever tour, so if you're hesitating, take that into consideration. Rodriguez, the Detroit folk legend and star of Searching for Sugarman, will open up.

Billed provocatively as the "Charli and Jack Do America" tour, you know you're in for a good time with Charli XCX and Bleachers playing together in this intimate venue. Charlie XCX's surprise hit album from last year, the also provocatively titled Sucker, brims with bawdy fun and very fresh pop sounds. Another act who released its first music in 2014, Bleachers, opens up. This emo-pop act is equally influenced by pop songs from the 1980s and John Hughes flicks.

Dad-rock giants the Foo Fighters are coming to the DTE Energy Music Theatre on their "Sonic Highways" North American tour. A first for the veteran Foo Fighters, HBO documented the creation of this album in a series of the same name. This included documenting the unorthodox recording method of album, where each song was recorded in a different city across the U.S. including Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Seattle, New York, Washington D.C., and Nashville. See these experienced rockers perform their 2000s radio hits and new material off of Sonic Highways.

An opportunity to see ZZ Top is an open call to drop everything in your life (especially your worries) and just boogie. These guys destroy with their choogling; they've never stopped being an ace live act. Even ZZT's bad songs are better than the finest work of most any other bluesy rock band on the planet. Remember: No 1970s dino-rock act made the move to video/synthed-out stardom with as much flair as ZZ Top did in the 1980s, with "Eliminator." That's because their songs are awesome, and because their songs are not about anything other than how to have a good time and not be a dick in the process. As power trios go, you don't get much more powerful than the Top. We can't think of a better reason to visit Canada.

The hardest-working band in America comes back to Detroit more famous than they've ever been, thanks to their high-profile late night gig. The Roots have honed their skills coming up in their native Philly and in hundreds, if not thousands, of shows around the world. The alt hip-hop elder statesmen are well-known and loved for their spontaneous and engaging live shows, mixing socially conscious lyrics with impeccable musicianship and a strong desire to experiment beyond the traditional boundaries of hip-hop. Though they've been playing music for close to three decades now, the Roots still seem like a group hungry to keep topping their previous highs.

The game ain't the same since these two hit the scene in the '90s, but that doesn't mean Badu and Nas aren't still must-sees for any R&B or lyrical hip-hop diehards. Badu's neo soul will never go out of style, and she remains one of the coolest and most dynamic artists in the world, with a transfixing voice that'll flow sweetly all the way out to the lawn seats. Neither Badu nor Nas is promoting a new album, so it's safe to expect some dips into the classics. Most who know Nas will want to hear plenty from Illmatic, because even if he's delivered plenty of strong work since then, both commercial and conscious, his career-defining 1994 debut is still one of the greatest rap albums of all-time.

Franklin is a tough artist to talk about in the present tense without resorting to clichés like "living legend" or "queen of soul," but suffice it to say that you could go to every single concert in America for this entire summer, and you will not see anyone else like her. Despite some past health scares, the 73-year-old Franklin is back with a busy run of shows throughout the country this summer. The set lists will surely be tough to predict, as Franklin obviously has a deep vault of songs she can pull from — a vault that's even richer with the recent release of Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, which featured covers of "Rolling in the Deep" and "Nothing Compares 2 U" on top of some old standards. And, of course, there's her legendary voice, no doubt worth the price of admission even if she sings the phonebook. No matter what, Franklin's still one of the best Detroit's ever had.

When a cultural phenomenon begins to fade a bit, one clear advantage if you are a fan of that thing is that now you and the other die-hards can get way more up close and personal in interacting with it. If you want to yell "Dust of the Wind!" at the top of your lungs at a Kansas show these days, you can communicate far more clearly directly with the band when they play a smaller venue. Ditto for American Idol, which used to fill stadiums with their tours, and now is playing at the much nicer Motor City Casino venue. Everyone can get a great sight line when their favorite karaoke-style TV pop singer gets up there and belts it out like there's no tomorrow.

Ageless Australian riff-rock growlers AC/DC will perform at Ford Field. Based on footage from their recent tour in Spain, there will likely be a humongous, flaming, devil-horned stage prop that at one point or another will shoot off enough fireworks to engulf all of downtown in smoke. These explosive theatrics will be contrasted with the no-nonsense classic rock growl which makes AC/DC a consistent hot-button artist for arenas.

Do you really need us to tell you why you should go to this show? Listen to last December's Black Messiah and give us one reason why you wouldn't see D'Angelo in such a great venue like Royal Oak. The record, like all of D'Angelo's work, is a visionary piece of neo-soul and funk complexity that rewards with listen after listen. We've pretty much all agreed that the man is a genius — even if it takes him 15 years to record an album — so the only thing left to do is confirm it by seeing him perform live. And with all GA tickets, you could even get there early and be close enough to touch transcendent greatness. (Note: Please don't touch D'Angelo.)

Welp, whatever chemistry these two singers had when they first recorded an album of covers last year (they won a Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album for their record Cheek to Cheek), that spark looks to have ignited a serious fire, as here they are, touring together in an effort to unite generations of vocal music fans.