Weekly Agenda: Respect your elders

Some weeks, the event calendar is bursting with energetic spring chickens determined to take our cities by storm and put on a show the likes of which no one has ever seen. Other weeks, we sacrifice youthful exuberance for something just as valuable in the entertainment industry: experience. This is one of those weeks.

Thursday night alone features three artists who have more than 130 years’ worth of combined experience: There’s funky vibraphonist Roy Ayers (Thursday, Dakota Jazz Club), genre-melding singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading (Thursday, Cedar Cultural Center), and a dude who needs no introduction, Neil Young (Thursday, Northrop Auditorium). But you don’t need wrinkles to have that air of authority. How many current rappers grew up dreaming of one day being as smooth as Warren G. (Friday, Epic) on “Regulate”? Even the Vans Warped Tour (Sunday, Canterbury Park), that pinnacle of reckless teenage reverie, has its version of elder statesmen in Face To Face and Pennywise, two bands that were ripping shit up when Warped first began 16 years ago, back when some of us hadn’t yet decided that the mosh pit was getting too crazy.

On the non-music front, Bill Cosby (Saturday, Treasure Island Resort & Casino) is coming to town, and while we’re classifying that one as “comedy,” don’t be surprised if you end up getting lectured. (Note to Bill: The kids will never listen to advice about the importance of education and personal responsibility as long as it comes with a barked order to pull their damn pants up. That’s like if your mom told you to follow your heart, give 110 percent, and while you’re at it, take off that makeup; you look like a streetwalker.) For a better example of cross-generational communication, come back to the site tomorrow to learn more about Kings Go Forth (Saturday, Cedar Cultural Center), a 10-piece soul-funk band whose members’ ages span 25 years. Because there’s always something to learn from someone who’s been there before.