1. Walk the Moon at the Fox Theater — Feb. 10

Full of bubbly, infectious energy, Walk the Moon is always a memorable concert experience. Despite the relative panning of its most recent release, What If Nothing, the band will be bringing past dance-bangers such as “Shut Up and Dance” and “Anna Sun” to its Fox Theater performance.

2. AWOLNATION at the Fox Theater — March 13

AWOLNATION has a curious habit of propping up the meme industry with its audio, from the numerous videos leveraging “Sail” to the set of vines set to “Run.” Internet memery aside, though, the alternative band fronted by Aaron Bruno puts on a solid live show — and everyone goes wild during “Sail.”

3. Lorde at Oracle Arena — March 13

Fresh off the release of her critically acclaimed sophomore release Melodrama, Lorde is coming to town for what is sure to be a sold-out show at Oracle Arena. The New Zealand pop sensation, who broke onto the scene during her teenage years with the surprisingly mature release Pure Heroine, recently brought some of her new bombastic tracks to Outside Lands in San Francisco to the obvious delight of the massive, assembled crowd.

4. Miguel at Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley — April 12

As described by former The Daily Californian arts & entertainment editor Jason Chen,  “Any conversation about Miguel’s artistry is actually about his abs.” Notably, Miguel makes his “eruption of sexuality” a clear theme of all of his concerts — to the adoration of all his fans. Need we say any more?

5. Fleet Foxes at Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley — April 20

Fleet Foxes returned after a long hiatus last year with the critically acclaimed Crack-Up, which featured the nearly 9-minute long “Third of May / Ōdaigahara.” But the band is better known for tracks such as “Mykonos” from the EP Sun Giant, which trend more toward indie-pop/rock than the more heavily folk influences the band utilizes in its other pieces.

6. George Ezra at the Fox Theater — May 9

Though listening to George Ezra’s music evokes a grizzled, middle-aged, soulful singer, the real Ezra (now age 24) is a youthful, friendly character. He’s bringing his sing-a-long friendly tracks, including the smash hit “Budapest” and definitive bop “Cassy O’,” to the Fox Theater this May.

7. Franz Ferdinand at the Fox Theater — May 17

Nope, not the archduke of Austria whose assassination coincided with the start of World War I (though whether the war would have started without his death is debated), this is, in fact, a rock concert at the Fox Theater by Franz Ferdinand, the band. The guys in this Franz Ferdinand are from Scotland, not Austria, and they have notably less in the way of mustaches than their namesake. But they’ve risen to similar levels of popular cultural awareness on the strength of hits such as “Take Me Out” — which, as far as we can tell, is about both being taken out on a date, and, as you might have reasonably assumed, being taken out by a sniper.

8. “Weird Al” Yankovic at the Fox Theater — May 19  

This is, arguably, the best concert on this list. Whether you first discovered him in the ‘70s when he got his start, in the 1990s during the “The Saga Begins” era or the more-recent “White and Nerdy”-launched modern era, Weird Al has come to epitomize and in some ways define the modern musical parodic form. The fact that he has stayed relevant for more than 30 years by producing satiric tracks highlights his ability to tune into the cultural heartbeat surrounding pop music — despite pop changing drastically over the course of his career. So whichever of lyrics of his you have subconsciously memorized, go live them out May 19 at the Fox Theater.