FRIDAY

>> Expendables bring mix of light and darkness

The Expendables bring their blend of edgy rock and laid-back reggae to The Republik on Friday.

The Santa Cruz, Calif., band was formed by high school buddies Geoff Weers (guitar, vocals), Adam Patterson (drums, vocals), Raul Bianchi (guitar) and Ryan DeMars (bass) in 1997, releasing three albums on their own and getting enough attention to be signed to Slightly Stoopid’s new label in the mid-2000s.

They play with up-tempo reggae rhythms and mix in dueling metal guitar solos and somewhat dark vocals. The band described its music thusly after releasing an eponymous debut album in 2007: “Reggae had sex with metal, punk got in the mix and ska videotaped it all.” The album was a hit with fans, and the next album, “Prove It,” has been the band’s most successful, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.

Among the more recent performances in the group’s recent history was opening for Dirty Heads in 2016, which involved performing in a driving rainstorm in Red Rocks, Colo. You can see the performance and hear the group’s recollections of it at 808ne.ws/2D2gtiK.

>> Sid Wilson of Slipknot will perform in Honolulu as DJ Starstream

Who is that masked man?

If he’s making a lot of noise and jumping into the crowd, it’s probably Sid Wilson, the turntablist for award-winning metal band Slipknot. He’s coming to Honolulu as part of The Mainland Rock Tsunami, an evening of metal at Hawaiian Brian’s.

The Iowa native has been performing since age 15, and became a member of Slipknot in 1998 while in his early 20s. His gritty scratching helped propel the band to the top of the heavy metal/alternative metal world, with 10 Grammy nominations since then and the 2006 tune “Before I Forget” winning for Best Metal Performance.

Wilson performs solo as DJ Starstream, a name derived from his favorite character from the “Transformers” franchise. DJ Starstream has a huge following in Japan and has produced six solo albums.

He wears masks that are based on gas masks, or on robots, another reference to “Transformers.” “I think you become more of someone you used to be,” he said in a video on YouTube. “It’s like this deep root of caveman-like genes, or something like where your human nature is so simplistic: yes, no, good, bad, fire, water, hot, cold.”

Also performing are Washington state metal bands Hellbelly and Sin Circus, and Sammy Hagar tribute band Redfoot.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

>> Ferrell brings extraordinary musical skills to Blue Note Hawaii

Very few musicians explore their instruments the way Rachelle Ferrell explores hers. Guitarists might use different plucking techniques, or wind players might try different embouchure — subtle changes in how the mouth addresses the instrument.

Ferrell, a singer of extraordinary skill and range, sings from the back to the front of the mouth, through open jaws and clenched teeth. She sings, skats, cries, whispers and screams her soul into the jazz classics and contemporary R&B songs she performs.

Ferrell is famous for her six-octave range — most singers have a comfortable range of around two — which she developed as a youngster studying classical music. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, she continues to perform and compose for piano, violin and guitar, with her piano compositions especially rich and full. Appropriately enough, her first album was named “First Instrument” and featured heart-wrenching versions of standards like “Autumn Leaves” and “You Send Me.” It was first released in Japan and took five years to reach the U.S., but it was a hit in both places.

Ferrell sang backup for Patti Labelle, Ray Charles and George Benson early in her career. She’s produced just five solo albums in her nearly 30-year career, but her live performances are what she is known for, especially in the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, which gave Ferrell her major festival debut in 1990 and invited her back 15 times over the next 10 years.

MONDAY

>> Celebrated pianist sees colors in sound

Pianist Joyce Yang, who’s quickly become a favorite among island classical music lovers, returns for a concert of Russian chamber music Monday.

Yang first came to international prominence when she won the silver medal in the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which propelled her to an international touring career.

Aside from a technique and musicality described as “vivid and beautiful” by The New York Times, Yang is known for a rather unusual way of approaching music. In her 2011 recording, “Collage,” she presented the music of Scarlatti, Debussy, Schumann and others not just as an aural experience, but as reactions to visual stimuli — and we’re not talking the “Moonlight Sonata” here. She actually sees chords in colors, like green or purple, or musical motifs in circles and lines.

Her concert here will bring out a lot of musical colors. She will perform two of the great Russian piano chamber works, Rimsky-Korsakov’s posthumous Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, written for piano and wind instruments, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Opus 57, written for piano and strings and one of the composer’s most popular works.