This week in Philly music, a Patti LaBelle party and They Might Be Giants, Cyndi Lauper, a Wu-Tang Clan triple bill

This week in Philly music, Patti LaBelle celebrates 65 years in showbiz. Plus, there’s a Wu Tang Clan triple bill, the lone surviving Monkee, a Wednesday concert on a Sunday, and a slew of offbeat Christmas shows.

The three Wu-Tang members in question are Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and GZA, a.k.a. The Genius. The trio will be celebrating the upcoming 30th anniversary of three of the best Wu-Tang solo albums: Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx (which was filled with Ghostface features), GZA’s Liquid Swords, and Return to the 36 Chambers: the Dirty Version by the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. All three came out in 1995, and Friday’s Franklin Music Hall show is one of only three dates on a mini-tour.

Proudly nerdy indie rockers They Might Be Giants kick off a two-night stand at Union Transfer on Thursday. “Birdhouse in Your Soul” Johns Flansburgh and Linnell have released 18 albums for adults and five for children. In the mid-1980s, they pioneered the pre-internet Dial-A-Song service, and later won a Grammy for “Boss of Me,” their Malcolm in the Middle theme song.

Patti LaBelle turned 80 in May. She’s been performing since she was a student at John Bartram High School in Southwest Philly in the late 1950s. Since then, her career has had many stages, from years with Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles, to 1970s futuristic funk superheroes LaBelle, to her long tenure as a Queen Diva of R&B. She’s celebrating all that time well spent with the “80/65″ tour, commemorating six and half decades in show business, at Parx Casino on Friday.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings’ Woodland is named after the studio the roots music couple own in Nashville, which was almost destroyed in a 2020 hurricane. The album is a sturdy, graceful set of songs about remaining resolute in the face of struggle and strife and has been nominated for a Grammy award for best folk album and for best American performance for “Empty Trainload of Sky.” They play the Annenberg Center in West Philly on Friday.

Since the death of Michael Nesmith in 2021, Micky Dolenz is the last living member of the Monkees, the pre-fab TV band that scored hits with “Daydream Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville” in the 1960s. The drummer and guitarist will tell stories about the Monkees in two shows at the Sellersville Theater on Friday.

The Aimee Mann and Ted Leo Christmas Show comes to the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood on Friday. Mann and Leo seemed like a somewhat unlikely pair when the former ‘Til Tuesday leader and the punk rock veteran teamed up as the Both a decade ago. But their uncompromising attitudes complement one another. The Christmas show also features guests Paul F. Tompkins, Nellie McKay, and Josh Gondelman.

Gospel greats Blind Boys of Alabama play the Queen in Wilmington on Saturday. It’s a Christmas show, with a lot of history behind it. The band that was founded in the 1930s is touring behind its Grammy-winning album Echoes of the South and the members are the subject of Preston Lauterbach’s book Spirit of the Century.

The 4333 Collective hosts its sixth annual Punkmas show at the Ukie Club on Saturday with Millington, Sunday Morning, and My Cousin’s Girlfriend’s House. And Mary Fahl of the October Project brings her Wintersongs show to Sellersville on Sunday.

Brooklyn band Wild Pink is back in town with Philly steel guitarist Mike Brenner in tow for a Free at Noon at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday. Interpol is marking the 20th anniversary of its 2004 album, Antics, at Franklin Music Hall on Friday with Model/Actriz opening. And Dave Pi’s Making Time sets up shop at Warehouse on Watts on Friday night, with Optimo (Espacio), Pearson Sound, x3butterfly, and Analog Soul.

Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 breakout debut album was deeply Philly connected, with her signature “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” penned by “Escalator of Life” songwriter Robert Hazard and “Time After Time” written by Lauper with the Hooters’ Rob Hyman. Lauper is playing a date on her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour” at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City on Saturday.

Basic, the Philly trio of guitarist Chris Forsyth and Nick Millevoi (both of Forsyth’s Solar Motel Band) plus drummer Mikel Patrick Avery, have recorded a transfixing album called This is Basic on the Philly label No Quarter Records. This album takes its cue from Basic, a 1984 album by Lou Reed guitarist Robert Quine. The band plays Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday.

English rock band Ride, which took a 20-year break after 1996’s Tarantula, is on tour for the new Interplay, the band’s third album since re-forming in 2017. It plays Union Transfer on Saturday.

Wednesday is the North Carolina band fronted by Karly Hartzman, whose Rat Saw God was one of the best albums of 2023. She’s playing a rare solo show at the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church on Sunday. Joey Sweeney’s rebranded band JoJo & the Grease plays at 48 Record Bar in Old City on Sunday.

English model and actress Suki Waterhouse plays Franklin Music Hall on Tuesday, behind her fine new single “Supersad” from her album Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. Get there early for Bully, the solo project of singer-guitarist Alicia Bognanno, who hit her stride with last year’s Lucky for You.