Best Bets: Tom Rigney, Ted Leo, Mike Goodwin, ‘West Side Story,’ ‘ Tragédie De Carmen’

Freebie of the week: There is nothing like a free concert to exemplify how live music instills joy and energy. It doesn’t hurt when the music being tendered features a world class musician. That’s what will happen Thursday in Walnut Creek when the incredibly talented Bay Area fiddler Tom Rigney comes to the Lesher Center to kick off the venue’s Summer Sounds free concert series. Rigney, the son of pro baseball player and manager Bill Rigney (who had the distinction of being the skipper of the Giants during the team’s move from New York to San Francisco) is Bay Area music royalty who’s been electrifying local music fans for half a century. He began as a bluegrass/swing musician but fell in love with Zydeco while touring with the legendary Queen Ida and her Bon Temps Zydeco Band. Today he’s the frontman and central creative force for the popular Cajun/Zydeco outfit Flambeau, which has been spreading cheer since 2000. The band has released a strong collection of albums, including the most recent, “All Fired Up,” which came out in March. Rigney and Flambeau perform an outside concert at the Lesher Center, 1601 Civic Drive, in Walnut Creek at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The Summer Sounds concert series also features the all-woman Americana band Mustangs of the West on July 16 and the Alpha Rhythm Kings on July 30. More information is at www.lesherartscenter.org. 

Leo celebrates Lookout! The Lookout! Records label enjoyed its heyday as a Berkeley-based label known for giving Green Day its start and for serving as a foundation for the emergence of East Bay punk rock and such bands as Operation Ivy, The Mr T Experience, the Queers, Pansy Division, and, a few years later, The Donnas. Another act that recorded with Lookout! Records was Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Leo was not your prototypical Lookout! Artist. For one thing, he lived and worked in the East Coast, formulating his sound in New York City and Washington, D.C. hard core/punk scenes. Also, his sizzling hard-rock sound was not strictly punk, but an intriguing amalgam of punk, hardcore, folk and more. He was also widely sought out as a collaborator and enjoyed a fruitful musical bond with singer-songwriter Aimee Mann (with whom he formed the duo The Both, which released a self-titled album in 2014). In short, Leo exists in the rarified musical category: he’s not quite a mainstream household name, but those familiar with him speak of him with a tone bordering on reverence. Leo and the Pharmacists are back in the Bay Area this week to perform a trio of shows celebrating their Lookout! years at the Bottom of the Hill club in San Francisco. On Thursday, they showcase the band’s 2001 release “The Tyranny of Distance”; on Friday, they spotlight 2003’s “Hearts of Oak”; on Saturday, it’s 2004’s “Shake the Sheets.” All shows start at 8 p.m. and cost $35-$40. They are listed as sold out; but check the Bottom of the Hill website for late ticket releases at www.bottomofthehill.com. 

Comedy without the *$%$##@*!!: When comedian George Carlin debuted his now-legendary routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” in 1972, he did more than make a lot of people laugh. He encapsulated the long-running debate over what is provocative and what is filthy. The issue over what is obscene and whether the government can regulate such content came before the Supreme Court in the 1978 case Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (the court ruled 5-4 that the government did indeed have the right to regulate broadcast decency), but it hardly quelled the controversy. Still, a class of comedians has no fear of such boundaries. The “clean comedy” movement has been around for decades although it fluctuates in popularity. Bob Hope and Bob Newhart were standard-bearers of the genre. Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan are two contemporary stars. Mike Goodwin, who will be performing at Tommy T’s Pleasanton this weekend, is one of the rising stars. The 50-year-old, clean-cut, bow-tie-wearing South Carolina native has a routine that eschews vulgarity, raunchy concepts and nastiness. His favorite target, apparently, is himself, as he builds his routines around self-deprecating observations about his life, his faith, his family, and so on. It may seem as if today’s tense times demand comedians be willing to push the envelope, Goodwin has been featured on “America’s Got Talent,” BET, the USA network, the Lifetime network and more, so somebody must be listening. Goodwin performs at Tommy T’s at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 and 9:45 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $31-$41 at tommyts.com 

There’s a place for you …: And that would be somewhere in San Francisco’s Davies Hall on Thursday or Friday night at 7:30 p.m. as the San Francisco Symphony led by guest conductor Sarah Hicks, plays Leonard Bernstein’s impressive score for “West Side Story,” as the 1961 film starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer plays out on a giant screen over the musicians’ heads. Originally composed for the 1957 hit Broadway musical, the soundtrack for the movie won Bernstein a Grammy the year after its debut. Also starring George Chakiris as Bernardo and Russ Tamblyn as Riff and, most notably, the incomparable Rita Moreno as Anita, the film about the star-crossed lovers and the rivalry between the Sharks and the Jets spins out such classic songs, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, as “Maria,” “Tonight” and the ethereal “Somewhere.” Find tickets, $79-$229, at sfsymphony.org. 

Getting to the essence: Those who may regard Bizet’s “Carmen” as one of their very favorite operas—but for the fact that it drags on a little bit too long (some productions can run more than three hours) — might take heart in what Merola Opera has planned for this weekend. San Francisco Opera’s prestigious training program is presenting “La Tragédie De Carmen,” a condensed version of the classic adapted by the late great theater director Peter Brook in one 90-minute act that pares back the extraneous material to concentrate on the core themes of jealousy, fierce independence and obsession. Starring as the fiery, ill-fated Carmen is Canadian mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach, with English tenor Charles Styles as the besotted Don Jose. Soprano Anna Thompson sings the role of the faithful Micaëla,  and Mexican baritone Raúl Morales Velazco is the swaggering toreador Escamillo. Interestingly, in this sharpened version, Carmen has a husband, the criminal gang leader Garcia, who will be sung by John Mburu. Two returning Merola alums are involved in the production: conductor Stephanie Rhodes Russell (2009) and director Mo Zhou (2015.) The opera takes place in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Hume Concert Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Find tickets, $25-$75, at merola.org.