Dreamers’ Circus is a trio out of Copenhagen, Denmark that fuses classical music and Nordic folk (with jazz influences as well), a formula that has made them one of the most big-ticket acts in their home country. Using the basic ingredients of piano/accordion, violin and cistern (a string instrument similar to a lute), the three young men emerged a decade ago to perform around the world, occasionally in collaboration with symphony orchestras. They’ve also played alongside many of the most luminous names in contemporary Celtic folk. They come to Stanford’s Bing Studio unaccompanied, just the three of them, as a showcase for their hybrid style.

Dreamers’ Circus
Thu, 7pm & 9pm, $40+
Bing Studio, Stanford

Bridging the space between French Canada and the Caribbean, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque are a virtuosic powerhouse. While Bunnett’s smouldering soprano saxophone and flute take center stage, the group derives its gravitational heft from the roiling rhythms of Maqueque drummer Yissy Garcia and her supporting cast of all-female all-stars. Bunnett, a Juno Award–winning jazz musician from Toronto, has long been fascinated with Afro-Cuban sounds. She has two albums with Maqueque, a group she founded in part to showcase the power and range of women musicians from Cuba. On Thursday, Bunnett chats with Danae Olano and Ned Sublette before her ensemble performs on Friday and Saturday.

Sounds of Cuba
Thu-Sat, $35+
Bing Studio, Stanford

The Brooklyn-based performance group Half Straddle presents this hybrid show, which is part rock concert and part theatrical production, centered on a live band working through issues such as complicated family dynamics, sexuality and feminism with songs. It’s all based on playwright and Half Straddle artistic director Tina Satter’s real-life estrangement from her sister. The New York Times calls it “fantastical, odd and sometimes so tender, it’s raw.” The production runs three nights, Thursday through Saturday.

Ghost Rings
Thu-Sat, 8pm, $35+
Bing Studio, Stanford

The zany, uptempo style of Louisiana folk music known as Zydeco first emerged from the sweltering swamps of New Orleans—the result of French, German, Spanish, American Indian and Afro-Caribbean co-mingling. The genre has been centuries in the making, and Dwayne “Dopsie” Rubin aims to keep the tradition fluid with his zydeco-fusion band, Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers. Rubin, who has been called “America’s Hottest Accordion Player,” plays explosive mix of zydeco, blues, jazz and reggae, while also incorporating other far-reaching genres. The result speaks for itself; the Hellraisers have found fans all over the world with their distinct blend.

Zydeco Hellraisers
Fri, 7pm, $35+
Bing Studio, Stanford

Things are looking up for Hot Flash Heat Wave. With an Outside Lands performance on the horizon and a SXSW set safely in the books, guitarists Nathan Blum,  Adam Abildgaard and bassist Ted Davis have no complaints.

The guys got their start playing in a slew of different projects back in their hometown of Davis, California. The three became friends as they repeatedly crossed paths in the tight-knit community of small shows in parents’ garages.

By 2014, the trio had found themselves reunited in San Francisco. Wasting no time putting together their first album, they released 2015’s Neapolitan shortly after. Surf-rocky tracks like fuzzed out “Gutter Girl” gained the band a fair bit of buzz. It was with early tracks like this and “Tastes Good” that the band first employed their particular mix of jangly guitar leads and earworm hooks.

Last summer they released their most recent full-length Soaked on Oakland-based OIM Records. In the album’s forty-minute run time the band show off their improved songwriting chops and throw some new instruments into the mix. This time around the sun-bleached guitars are accompanied by synthesizers, a couple sitars and an omnicord.

Album highlight “Blue” is straightforward enough. The song doesn’t stray far from the band’s surf rock roots, but sports an undeniable vocal melody and some of the tightest songwriting in the band’s discography.

“One of my friends from high school had just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and they were having this episode,” Davis says of the song. “So I was thinking about them, and that day at work I listened to “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen like six times.The song came to me later that night when I was driving home singing the melody.”

Using their new familiarity with ambling synthesizers, their newest single “Glo Ride” is the catchiest the band has sounded yet. Though Blum is quick to point out that the song stands on its own for now.

“It’s kinda teasing something,” Blum says. “We’re recording a bunch of songs right now, but we haven’t really decided if it’s gonna end up as an EP or another album. We’re still just focused on writing the music before we decide what it’s gonna become.”

The band is set to play at Outside Lands this summer, but the festival-averse crowd can catch them sooner when they play at the Bing this Friday.

Hot Flash Heat Wave
Fri, 9:30pm, $20
Bing Studio, Stanford