Concert

It's a scene any band rat knows and loves. An anteroom is jumbled with cases, straps, instruments assembled and strewn. Ah, that familiar oxidized-metal scent of the much-blown horn. And you duck through a door into a huge space, crowded with 80 people making a band. Brass players joke and compare parts. Percussionists run from snare/hi-hat to bowls to kettledrums. That girl who plays sax and always wears a knit cap, that same girl who's in every single band, concert and marching, in the United States . . . she's here, too. Welcome to band practice for the Temple University Night Owl Band, the university's very own community band, in the great tradition of town, block, and neighborhood bands here and abroad.

Sparks It makes perfect sense that for its Two Hands, One Mouth Tour, Sparks strip down to its essentials: brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals). Since 1968 (when they were named Halfnelson), it's been the Maels and whomever else they could get to share their quirky vision. From power-pop to glam to cosmopolitan art-rock to coldly repetitive electro disco, and back again, it's always Russell singing warmly caustic lyrics, with falsetto set to "stun," and Ron hammering and tickling the keys, scowling all the way. If its recently released, first-ever concert recording Two Hands One Mouth, Live In Europe is any indication, expect hyper-driven, high-pitched glitter-rock ("Propaganda," "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us")

In Concert 519 Hurffville-Cross Keys Rd., Sewell; 856-256-8660. www.tdbankarts.com . B.B. King. $36-$66. 4/20. 8 pm.   421 N. Seventh St.; 215-569-9400. www.livenation.com . Suicidal Tendencies. $25. 4/19. 8:30 pm. All Time Low. $24.50. 4/21.   2125 Chestnut St.; 267-765-5210. www.r5productions.com . Iceage. $13. 4/19. 7:30 pm.   818 N. Market St., Wilmington; 302-652-5577. www.TheGrandWilmington.org . Esperanza Spalding.

For hip-hop star Meek Mill, a 2008 police finding that Officer Andre Boyer repeatedly falsified official documents will bolster his case that Philadelphia does not properly train street cops, his lawyer said. The North Philadelphia rapper, whose real name is Robert Williams, is suing the city, Boyer, and Officer Michael Vargas, alleging that the policemen illegally detained him on Halloween and made him miss an Atlanta concert. He contends he lost the deposit on a private jet in addition to his lost earnings from the concert.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is to announce Thursday that it will return to China May 31 to June 9, marking the 40th anniversary of its groundbreaking 1973 debut there with an agenda that goes well beyond concerts. The orchestra's second China residency will feature master classes, workshops, pop-up performances in public places, hospitals and schools, as well as playing alongside local orchestras in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, and Macao. Venues to be visited vary from the Picun Migrant Worker's Village Elementary School in Beijing to the Venetian, Macao's huge recreational complex where the orchestra's two concerts under frequent guest Donald Runnicles will compete with 3,400 slot machines.