Back Beat

Hip hop hits Eugene pretty hard this week, and it certainly runs the gamut. First up, of “Tell Me When to Go” fame, is California’s E-40 — who’s collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Tech N9ne — at 9 pm Thursday, Oct. 24, at Studio 44 (44 E. 7th Avenue). At Studio 44 the following night, 8 pm Oct. 25, OneEleven brings RiFF RaFF — the EDM-leaning rapper who sports a neon Lisa Frank color palette and an MTV logo tattoo on his neck (James Franco used him as inspiration for his character “Alien” in Spring Breakers) — to Eugene for the first time. Rapper Timothy Parker, better known as Gift of Gab from one of the West Coast’s best underground hip-hop duos, Blackalicious, hits Cozmic 8 pm Wednesday, Oct. 30, joined by Portland-based hip-hop artist Landon Wordswell.

From the land of PNW reggae — Southern Oregon — comes Indubious, halfway through a 30-city tour for the band’s latest album Wake the Lion. The self-proclaimed “reggae rootstronic revolutionaries” play with Brooklyn-based reggae trio New Kingston 9 pm Sunday, Oct. 27,
at WOW Hall.

Tony-awarding winning Broadway star, and upcoming Glinda the Good Witch in 2014’s animated musical Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, Bernadette Peters graces the Hult stage with a show-tune songbook including hits from Stephen Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstein 9 pm Monday, Oct. 28.

Don’t miss: The Freak Show at Luckey’s (Oct. 25) featuring local country-rockers The Lowmen, fortune tellers, rope walkers, crazed clowns and bearded ladies; sweet folk songbirds Misner & Smith at Axe & Fiddle (Oct. 27).