Sarah McLachlan

The queen of Lilith may not have the ethereal hold she once did on aspiring female songwriters. But her music holds up just as well as any other of her atmospheric ’90s contemporaries — one reason she’s sold more than 22 million records and earned three Grammy Awards. The Halifax, Nova Scotia, native took a leave of absence from the music biz to do the family thing the past few years, but she’s back rendering songs from her most recent release, “Afterglow.” McLachlan plays 8 p.m. Saturday at Kemper Arena, 1800 Genessee St., Kansas City, Mo.

Kirk Rundstrom Band

Kirk Rundstrom is one productive fellow. Besides holding down his day job as the guitarist for local bluegrass wreckers Split Lip Rayfield, Rundstrom fronts (duh) The Kirk Rundstrom Band — a diverse outfit that indulges his creative muses on everything from country to jazz to prog rock. Rundstrom joins Solagget and Drakkar Sauna 9 p.m. Saturday at The Bottleneck, 737 N.H.

Chicago Afrobeat Project

This eight-member touring outfit performs in the style of the late Fela Kuti, the great Nigerian inventor of afrobeat: the fusion of West African rhythms and melodies with American funk such as James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic. CAbP performs classic Kuti covers and a vast repertoire of originals that mix rock, jazz, soco and juju music with traditional afrobeat. The band appears 10 p.m. today and Saturday at The Jazzhaus, 9261/2 Mass.

‘The Exonerated’

Imagine everything you did between the years 1976 and 1992. Now remove all of it. Those 16 years were taken away from Sunny Jacobs, convicted and sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit. But her story is not unique. And it could happen just as easily to you. “The Exonerated” shares the true experiences of six fascinating people who learned to remain hopeful and found a will to survive, even though they served time for other people’s crimes. The play will be staged at 8 p.m. today at Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main St., Kansas City, Mo., and continue through May 22.

The Bowery Dancers

Some might call them eclectic. By performing a mix of polka and Irish step dance — with fairy-tale interpretations thrown in for good measure — it seems the description is appropriate for the Bowery Dancers. But the Lawrence troupe, composed of seven dancers who met while attending Kansas University, hopes audiences come away from their upcoming show with a few more adjectives, such as talented and entertaining. The company performs at 7:30 p.m. today at Liberty Hall, 642 Mass. Read the review Sunday in Pulse.