Critic’s picks: The 5 best pop music concerts this fall

Luke Combs

Oct 30, BB&T Center, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise. Tickets $40.75+ at Ticketmaster.com.

The king of the country charts with a dozen Top 10 hits in the last four years (soon to be joined by “Cold As You” and “Cold Beer Calling My Name”), Combs remains a down-to-earth storyteller well versed in backroad bars, bad choices and beer. But he also can write a romantic lyric that will hit you deep — see “Beautiful Crazy,” “Forever After All” and “Better Together.” For that he can thank wife Nicole Hocking Combs, who grew up in West Palm Beach.

Metallica

Nov. 4, Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. Tickets $130+ (sold out), MyHRL.com

Not sure anything more need be said: Metallica at Hard Rock Live, the still-feels-new, state-of-the-art venue with a mere 7,000 seats. Consider that Metallica will follow this concert two nights later with one at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Also worth noting is the possibility that the Hard Rock show may include new music — singer James Hetfield’s told “The Fierce Life” outdoors show podcast that the band has used pandemic downtime to work on songs likely destined for the first Metallica album in five years.

Tortuga Music Festival

Nov. 12-14, Fort Lauderdale Beach Park. Tickets start at $138 for one day, $239 for a three-day pass at TortugaMusicFestival.com.

The 2021 festival is actually the third attempt to put on the 2020 festival, if you’re scoring at home, with headliners Miranda Lambert (Nov. 12), Luke Bryan (Nov. 13) and Tim McGraw (Nov. 14). Particularly noteworthy is Lambert, who will be Tortuga’s first female headliner. In the interim, the undercard has lost a few popular acts (Morgan Wallen, Kelsea Ballerini, Toots and the Maytals, Jordan Davis) but gained some luster thanks to new music from Jimmie Allen (the excellent “Bettie James” album), Gabby Barrett (2021 ACM New Female Artist of the Year) and pop-leaning boot-scooter Niko Moon (“Good Time,” “No Sad Songs”), not to mention Rita Wilson, the singer-songwriter married to actor Tom Hanks.

Café Tacvba

Nov. 13, Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave, Miami Beach. Tickets $45+ at LiveNation.com.

For three decades this influential alt-rock quartet from Mexico has weaved colorful elements of rock, punk, electronica and indigenous folk music into a dreamcoat of ambitious musicality and humanity. This is aspirational music, and you (even I) can dance to a lot of it. The timing of this tour could not be more perfect.

Kane Brown

Dec. 2, FTX Arena (formerly AmericanAirlines Arena), 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. Tickets $36.50+ at Ticketmaster.com.

Three years after Billboard magazine anointed him “the future of country music,” Brown sure seems like the now of music music. In April, the 27-year-old singer became the first Black artist to win the Academy of Country Music’s Video of the Year award for “Worldwide Beautiful,” a work that also made him the rare country artist to be nominated for an MTV Video Music Award. This summer he’s had a No. 1 country single with crooner Chris Young (“Famous Friends”), but his most recent release is the percussive single “Memory,” a collaboration with Florida-bred rapper blackbear (“Hot Girl Bummer”). Brown’s Blessed & Free Tour includes openers Jordan Davis and Restless Road.