The week in Philly music with Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Joshua Redman, and more

It’s been a landmark year for young women in pop, from Olivia Rodrigo being the hottest concert ticket of the summer, to Charli XCX putting her Brat stamp on the season, to Chappell Roans “Femininomenon” phenomenon.

This week in Philly music is dominated by two more arena headliners arriving at the Wells Fargo Center within days of one another — Billie Eilish who brings her “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” to South Philly on Saturday, and Sabrina Carpenter, who is there with her Short n’ Sweet Tour on Tuesday.

Eilish is the younger of the two — she’s now 22 — but is a veteran when it comes to headlining the South Philly sports arena. She played the Wells Fargo in 2022, and her March 2020 scheduled date there was the first show she was forced to cancel as the pandemic shut down began.

This time she’ll be on the road in support of Hit Me Hard and Soft, her third full-length album of an anti-pop approach that subverts bubble gum expectations and is marked by impressive musical expectations. As usual, she’ll have her brother and musical coconspirator Finneas O’Connell by her side. Opening acts are Nat & Alex Wolf, known to Nickelodeon viewers for their teen pop Naked Brothers Band.

But while Elish has been a Grammy-wining major star for a while now, Carpenter, 25, who was raised in Bucks County, has only broken big this year, with the runaway success of her frothy hits “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”

Both of those songs are from the impressively crafted and tightly constructed album which gave her tour its name. Yes, this is the same album which includes “Feather,” the song whose video shoot in a Brooklyn church played a role in the federal investigation into allegations of corruption on New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Away from those big stages, there are plenty worthy shows happening in the region’s more intimate spaces this week.

On Thursday, bassist, songwriter, bandleader, and all around powerhouse Meshell Ndegeocello plays the World Cafe Live behind her new album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, which takes inspiration from both the author of The Fire Next Time and philosopher, poet and Civil Rights activist Audre Lorde.

Also on Thursday, Alabama country rock band the Red Clay Strays, whose “Wondering Why” took off on TikTok last year, is at the Fillmore behind its new Made by These Moments. And veteran alt-rock favorite Nada Surf is at Undergound Arts, with rising New Zealand three-piece Office Dog opening. And Hoots & Hellmouth, Hezekiah Jones and Andrew Lipke play a Philly triple bill at Ardmore Music Hall that’s a We Live On benefit for Derek Dorsey.

On Friday, Richard Thompson plays a Free at Noon with his full band at World Cafe Live. At Arden Gild Hall, Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band Kaleta & Super Yamba performs. And Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball of Gomez are at City Winery.

Lupe Fiasco is the hip-hop show of the week at Union Transfer on Saturday. Country harmonizers the Lone Bellow sing at the World Cafe Live, also on Saturday and jazz sax great Joshua Redman leads his group featuring vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa into the Zellerbach Theatre in West Philly for a Penn Live Arts show.

The all-star band of Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Danny Carey plays the 1980s music of British prog-rock band King Crimson at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside on Sunday. Brazilian rockers Sepultura headlines a four-band metal bill at Franklin Music Hall, also on Sunday. That same night, the Bacon Brothers play a hometown show at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.