The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Fanfare Ciocarlia GRAND PERFORMANCES AT CALIFORNIA PLAZA Straight outta the village of Zece Prăjini in northeastern Romania comes a Roma (Gypsy) jazz brass band to the 40th power. More than just a happy-happy oompah-oompah crew, Fanfare Ciocarlia bring to life wild scenes of Gypsy parties in hair-raisingly athletic trumpet/tuba/baritone horn/drum assaults on traditional dance tunes from Romania (plus some rad takes on Hollywood and Bollywood), all fired up with devilishly dense polyrhythms from Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Fanfare Ciocarlia are legendary on their home turf, having been sampled, revered and copied by several DJs, bands and other Gypsy orchestras. The group's breakneck speed, deftly punky thump and distinctively tart and sweet brass blasts can be heard in their cover of "Born to Be Wild" for the film Borat.--John Payne