POP/ROCK A week after staking his place in First Avenue history at the club's 40th anniversary party, Grant Hart is making the goodwill gesture to perform there on Christmas for the dejected masses who don't have families to visit for the holiday, or for those who want an excuse to eject themselves from the family gathering. The former Hüsker Dü singer/drummer has endured his ups and downs over the decades but has been up of late, issuing a strong 2009 album, "Hot Wax," and recently finishing up a round of European gigs. (9 p.m. Sat., 7th Street Entry. 18 & older. $8.) (C.R.)

With a big New Year's Eve party lined up for Milwaukee -- and probably a holiday gathering at the local Finn and Drake households, too -- the Hold Steady is slipping into town one last time behind its ambitiously refined, anthemic 2010 album "Heaven Is Whenever." The band is giving back for the holidays with not one but two noteworthy openers: influential psychedelic-punk trio and "Backwater" hitmakers the Meat Puppets, who recently welcomed back given-up-for-dead bassist Cris Kirkwood and are going strong; and Retribution Gospel Choir, Alan Sparhawk's noisier, brawnier counterpart to Low, whose January release on Sub Pop rates among this year's best albums. (8 p.m. Wed., First Avenue. 18 & older. $25.) (C.R.)

At the end of a year that really was quiet for the band, Quietdrive is squeezing in the release of its third album in time to get the 2010 stamp. The fact that the CD is self-titled probably signifies the quintet's return to a self-run operation after its run to the Top 40 on Epic Records. Tracks available online suggest a heavier, manlier style but still the poppy, lovelorn songwriting mold that the girls seem to love. All the Right Moves, Jamestown Story and My Lady Four open. (7 p.m. Wed., Varsity Theater. All ages. $15.50-$17.50.) (C.R.)

Some people get blue after Christmas but no one gets "Bluer Than Blue" except Michael Johnson, who has been performing post-Christmas concerts in the Twin Cities for nearly three decades. The former Minnesota troubadour and onetime Nashville hitmaker, who is an underappreciated, classically trained acoustic guitarist, was wonderfully warm last year at the suitably intimate Dakota Jazz Club. He just reissued his first three (excellent) albums -- "There Is a Breeze," "For All You Mad Musicians" and "Ain't Dis Da Life," all made while he lived here -- as a two-CD set. (7 p.m. Wed., Dakota, $25.) (J.B.)

America's premier purveyors of rock instrumentals, Los Straitjackets are soldiering on without Twin Cities native Danny Amis -- better known internationally as Daddy-O Grande. Amis is battling bone marrow cancer, and there's some good news: He now has health insurance, outpatient chemotherapy seems to be working and the masked guitar man's attitude is quite good. Amis says on his website that he has many more records to make. For the moment, his slot opposite fellow guitar wizard Eddie Angel has been taken by his "cousin," Gregorio El Grande from Guadalajara (whom a little rockabilly bird told us is actually Greg Townson, leader of the very cool Rochester, N.Y., band the Hi-Risers). The 99ers open with a set of punky snowbound surf tunes. (8 p.m. Thu., Turf Club. $15.) (T.S.)

HIP-HOP Longtime cohorts since they stormed the local hip-hop scene in their teens from opposite sides of the river, Heiruspecs and Toki Wright now frequently work together in their day jobs at McNally Smith College of Music and other do-gooder occasions. But they don't perform together a whole lot anymore, probably because they can usually fill clubs by themselves. They're reuniting for a little holiday get-together that should be big fun, with separate sets plus plenty of onstage collaboration. DJ Booka B will be spinning before, after and in between. (9 p.m. Thu., Cause Spirits & Soundbar. 21 & older. $10.) (C.R.)

HOLIDAY Singer Connie Evingson gets the last word on Yuletide 2010, with a "Holiday Songbook" that revisits favorites from her 2003 release "The Secret of Christmas." It had impressive guest players (Doc Severinsen, Dave Karr, Ricky Peterson) and unusual arrangements. (Ready for a groovy Cuban-beat "O Come All Ye Faithful"?) Putting on her cabaret stocking cap, Evingson also will tell the stories behind such perennial hits as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" -- that one with the roasting chestnuts. (4 & 7:30 p.m. Sun., Jungle Theater. $25.) (T.S.)

Some people complain that Christmas is about excess: too many presents, too much commercialism, too much noise. They're probably not the ones who will be returning gifts on Sunday and then heading out to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Monday. A regular on the December calendar, TSO is making a rare post-Christmas appearance, but we assume the Winter Tour will be the same bombastic metal-meets-classical treatment of holiday favorites plus TSO yule originals, delivered with dazzling arena pyrotechnics. (3 & 7:30 p.m. Mon., Xcel Energy Center, $25-$56.) (J.B.)

JAZZ Jazz power trio guys the Bad Plus make their 11th annual holiday homecoming to the Dakota. It's a three-night affair with a high hipness quotient, and the boys have a new CD to showcase, "Never Stop." Known for their disarming cover tunes -- from Nirvana to Abba to Milton Babbitt -- pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King offer nothing but original tunes this time out. The most fun title on the CD? "Bill Hickman at Home," in honor of the famed 1970s movie stunt man. Most fun tune? Probably the two-beat hand-clappin' hoedown "Super America," though there's melancholy in its melody. (7 & 9:30 p.m. Sat.-Mon., Dakota Jazz Club. $30-$40. Free in-store concert 4 p.m. Mon., Electric Fetus, 2000 4th Av. S., Mpls.) (T.S.)

In 2010, some of the Twin Cities' best big bands found a new home in friendly Fridley, as Tuesday nights started to swing hard at the Shorewood Bar & Grill. The club is stylish and spacious, the sound system is good, the Greek food is tasty, and there's no cover -- how can you go wrong? Several excellent ensembles rotate on Tuesdays, including Steve Devich's happily back-in-circulation Cedar Avenue Big Band, and the two-year-old Acme Jazz Company, led by Doug Rasmussen. Next Tuesday's featured act, Nova Jazz Orchestra, has seven CDs. It's made a specialty of playing worthy homegrown charts by top Minnesota writers, some of whom are also band members, including trumpeter John Ahern and saxophonist Kari Musil. (7 p.m. Tue., 6161 Hwy. 65 NE., Fridley. 763-398-0088.) (T.S.)

Backed by the too-seldom-seen Phil Aaron Trio, Lucia Newell revives her "Tribute to Anita O'Day." O'Day had a long and wild life, changing the game for big-band "girl singers" in the 1940s, making a batch of timeless Verve LPs in the 1950s, surviving a near-death heroin experience in the 1960s, and coming back in triumph the next decade, sober and solvent but never less than controversial. She swung mightily, and scatted with uncommon grace -- both strengths of Newell, as well. (9 p.m. Thu., Artists' Quarter. $5.) (T.S.)

Contributors: Chris Riemenschneider, Jon Bream and Tom Surowicz.