Grace Potter and the Nocturnals + The Stepkids

Only a few years ago, smoky-voiced Vermonter Grace Potter was a rootsy singer-songwriter who sounded like Bonnie Raitt and looked like a farmer’s daughter. But she’s sexed up her sound—and herself—to make a play for the big time. She'll be rocking out, and if her recent album-release concert for fourth LP The Lion the Beast the Beat is anything to go by, writhing around on the floor in a rather saucy manner. Arrive promptly to catch Connecticut crew the Stepkids, which blends funk, psych grooves and cosmic jazz with pleasingly trippy effects.