The Nick Waterhouse concert on the Arts Plaza is free, and will also offer an array of good and meal selections from some of Orange County’s most popular food trucks.

Huntington Beach native Nick Waterhouse believes everybody wants to be somebody else. One of his heroes, Van Morrison, got his start covering Bobby Bland, whose own musical idol was Nat “King” Cole. In Waterhouse’s view, emulation is a journey; you never truly succeed, but as the singer, guitarist and songwriter puts it, “You become something on the way there.” Today’s, he’s his own man, a successful recording artist with a well-received LP and several high-profile tours and collaborations to his name. His latest work still embodies the struggle of his early forays. During “This is a Game,” Waterhouse sets up a snarly, post-surf guitar solo with a succinct statement of a cynical outlook: “This is a game / Please remember my words / And don’t get upset when you don’t get what you think you deserve.” And on the gothic-soul strut “Let It Come Down,” he meditates on the inevitability of pain. “If there’s gonna be rain tonight,” he sings in a stoic croon. “Let it come down.”