- Xavier Rudd wants to give you a hug
Sustainability hero, surfer, and singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd wears a lot of labels these days. But don’t let things like a 2007 PETA award for “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity” throw you. Rudd’s blend of blues, roots, and world beat — not his love of leafy greens, animal rights, and straw-bale housing — have made this didgeridoo-carrying Aussie a sleeper sensation. Rudd has toured with Jack Johnson, Ani DiFranco, and G. Love & Special Sauce, made fast friends with fellow musician-activists like Ben Harper and Michael Franti, and owes much of his success to a pair of lauded sets at Bonnaroo a few years ago. Peppered with slide guitar, banjo, and Aboriginal vocals, Rudd’s latest roots-inspired album, Koonyum Sun, melds messages of love, social justice, and environmental consciousness with late-night surf-and-campfire moodiness. Rudd and his group Izintaba (bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo) are faithful to the songs onstage, but they often open them up with improvisation. Get there early for Philly indie-folk group Good Old War, who warm things up. They played a barn-burning set at the Kent Stage when they supported Brandi Carlile last month. They’ll probably do the same here. Xavier Rudd, with Good Old War and Izintaba, plays House of Blues at 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $21, $18 in advance. —Peter Chakerian
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