Music / Nightlife

Patti Smith turned 68 two weeks ago, but her sold-out show at the Moore Theatre Monday had many moments of youthful rebellion. Over an 18-song set Smith danced, sang, swore and screamed.

There are few artists in rock ’n’ roll, particularly ones in their late 60s, who are on quite the tear that Patti Smith has been on the last decade.

She’s put out an acclaimed late-career album (“Banga”), won the National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids,” continued to publish books of poetry and has been elected to the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall of Fame (in 2007).

Merrill Garbus, who has performed under the band name Tune-Yards since 2009, has risen in five years from quirky club favorite (she last played here at the Crocodile) to major venue star, opening for the likes of Arcade Fire and returning to Seattle to play the Moore Theatre. It’s altogether appropriate, then, that her new…

Mary Lambert at Sasquatch! 2014 (Genevieve Alvarez)

The eclectic lineup for KISS 106.1 FM’s Jingle Ball includes Mary Lambert (shown here), Lindsey Stirling, Fences, Jake Miller, Rixton and Magic! But Lambert will be the belle of this ball, particularly now that Fall Out Boy, originally scheduled for the show, has canceled.

Patty Griffin, who is coming to Seattle’s Moore Theatre on Friday, October 24, is touring in support of her seventh album, “American Kid.”

James Mercer performs with The Shins at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music Festival. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)

Like a lonely prophet with a poetic touch, James Mercer was the focal point of the Broken Bells show Sunday at the Moore Theatre, but he and artist-producer Brian Burton (a.k.a. Danger Mouse) proved that their act is greater than the sum of its parts.

Mercer (better known as the frontman of indie rock group The Shins) belted, cajoled and even whistled for a full house, singing with an emotional urgency that sometimes verged on anger. Dressed more like a college professor than a rock star, Mercer clutched his mic like it was a life preserver, taking to heart the words in his song ““Holding on For Life.”

Broken Bells, a collaborative effort from James Mercer (lead vocalist and guitarist of indie-famous rock band The Shins) and Grammy award-winning producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton, who has worked with Jay Z, Cee Lo Green, Beck, and The Black Keys, among others), will be performing their sixties-influenced brand of electropop Sunday, Aug. 10, at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.

Born in a cabin on a Mississippi plantation, Riley “B.B.” King got his start in the late ’40s as a DJ on WDIA, America’s first black radio station (it’s still there, right in Memphis). You know the rest. The 88-year-old blues master, who gave us “Sweet Little Angel” on “Live at the Regal” as well…

(Clay Patrick McBride)

“I think it takes until middle age before you’re interested in your ancestry,” says singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, 58, who has had 11 No. 1 country singles and also happens to be the daughter of the late Johnny Cash. “I thought my connection to the South was just a footnote.”

That was before Cash and her husband (and producer) John Leventhal and her 13-year-old son took a road trip to the South.

Comedian Aziz Ansari will perform two shows on March 30 at the Moore Theatre. Tickets are $25-$45. Ansari, who plays the smooth-talking player Tom Haverford on NBC’s Emmy-nominated “Parks and Recreation,” released his third special, “Buried Alive” in 2013. My interview with Ansari, in which he discussed being dissed…