Nothing like a true rebirth of spring to mark the return of the Sonics, the seminal garage-rockers from Tacoma, Wash.  Long before Nirvana — or even Jimi Hendrix — broke out of the Northwest, the Sonics delivered hard, raw and highly influential rock. Now the band has released This is the Sonics, its vital-sounding first album since the ’60s – in fact, 50 years since its debut – and plays an early show at the Brighton Music Hall on Friday with Boston’s compatible, incendiary soul-rocker Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, plus Muck & the Mires. And with Gerry Roslie (lead vocals, keyboards), Larry Parypa (guitar) and Rob Lind (sax) still in place five decades later, the Sonics appear poised to shake up the place. Speaking of resurgence, ’70s-bred British folk-rocker Joan Armatrading  will perform solo with love and affection on guitar and piano for her last major tour at the Berklee Performance Center on Friday, while the hypnotic Tal National – the most popular live group in the African country of Niger – debut locally at Johnny D’s Uptown, with both shows presented by World Music/CRASHarts. The Soft Moon unleashes its psychedelic rush at Great Scott, and the hootenanny-happy Spirit Family Reunion – steeped in Hank Williams and Bob Dylan – holds court at the Sinclair to help round out a hopping Friday night.

Polymath jazz pianist/composer and Harvard professor Vijay Iyer brings his virtuoso trio with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore to the Regattabar both Friday and Saturday, likely to mix reconfigured standards with material from acclaimed recent album Break Stuff – boundaries likely included.  Also, when it comes to malleable jazz on Saturday, vocalist Cassandra Wilson dips into the Billie Holiday songbook at Berklee to celebrate Lady Day’s 100^th birthday. Back to another seminal group along more unusual lines, the French progressive rock group Magma gets choral with its own invented language in its 45^th anniversary tour stop at Brighton Music Hall. And Swedish indie-folk singer/songwriter Jose Gonzalez floats back into the spotlight, bringing his feathery acoustic touch to the Paradise Rock Club on Saturday.

Sunday explodes with the boisterous fun of married keyboards/drum duo Matt & Kim at House of Blues, promising a mix of piano pop, EDM dance moves and frisky crowd interaction.  On the more sophisticated side at Symphony Hall, jazz giants Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock go face-to-face on dual pianos in a Celebrity Series concert. Dweezil Zappa recreates his father Frank’s 1975 album One Size Fits All with his repertory group Zappa Plays Zappa at Berklee, and the Icelandic electronic band GusGus invades the Sinclair on Sunday. Not to mention that Sunday marks the opening night of the 2015 Rock ‘n’ Rumble preliminaries, which take place the entire week (except for Wednesday) at T.T. the Bear’s Place with 24 great area bands. Support local rock!