M. Ward

A young Leonard Cohen for the degree-holding, NPR-listening, Portland-romanticizing set, singer-songwriter M. Ward has spent much of this year promoting his recent album with actress Zooey Deschanel as the duo She & Him. Ward will kick off a short tour with that project later this month, but not before tonight’s solo gig at the Pabst Theater and a Sunday performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Where She & Him’s record pays homage to soft and sprightly, ’70s AM pop, Ward’s last solo album, Post-War, romanticized another era past, the 1940s and 1950s, a time of world-weary, acoustic blues and folk music. Ward does an 8 p.m. show at the Pabst Theater, with openers The Watson Twins.