The Big Gigs: Critic's music picks for the week ahead

R&B You may remember Raphael Saadiq from Tony! Toni! Toné! You may be aware of him as the talented producer of D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige, Joss Stone and the Roots. But you should get to know him for his strong solo discs, including "The Way I See It," 2008's most satisfying celebration of Motown- loving soul. (9 p.m. today, Fine Line, $25.) (J.B.)

POP/ROCK Boston-bred singer-songwriter Howie Day hasn't released a full-length studio CD since 2003's "Stop All the World Now." But that didn't deter fans from buying up all the tickets for tonight's show, where he will preview his album due later this year. (9 p.m. today, Varsity. Sold out.) (J.B.)

After a string of over-challenging discs, Tricky is back in top form on his latest bruiser of a collection, "Knowle West Boy," named for the London ghetto where he grew up. The album is loaded with the madcap "grime" sound the Gollum-voiced rapper pioneered (take note, M.I.A. fans), but also offers plenty of inventive trip-hop, electropunk and straight-up rock. A true character in concert, Tricky is working his way down to next week's South by Southwest music fest in Texas, where he shares a bill with Devo (!). The Floacist, aka Floetry's Natalie Stewart, opens for him here. (9 p.m. Sat., Fine Line. 18 & older. $26.50-$31.50.) (C.R.)

The wonderful Madeleine Peyroux, the former Paris busker who has seduced Americans with a lusciously lazy jazz/pop sound, just released her third album in five years. Not only is the productivity encouraging -- Peyroux let eight years pass between her first and second albums -- but "Bare Bones" is her first collection of all-original material, co-written with Walter Becker, Joe Henry, Julian Coryell, David Batteau and Larry Klein, her producer. The songs are new but sound old and timeless. Her touring band features superb keyboardist Larry Goldings, who plays on the CD. (7:30 p.m. Sun., Pantages Theatre, $34-$41.) (J.B.)

A huge star in her native Australia, Missy Higgins figured if she wanted to make it in the United States she'd better move here. The 25-year-old Los Angeles resident knows how to make the right moves -- appear in a movie ("Bran Nue Dae" with Geoffrey Rush), land songs on TV shows like "Grey's Anatomy," and tour aggressively to promote her fine CD "On a Clear Night." Higgins played here twice in 2008 and she'll do two gigs Sunday, including a free 1 p.m. show at Mall of America. Opening the evening show are Aussie popster Lenka and Canada's Justin Nozuka. Read an interview with Higgins in Sunday's Variety A+E section. (7:30 p.m. Sun., First Avenue, $22.) (J.B.)

Fresh from a tour of India, where they were literally chased out of the country (Youtube videos hint at why), the Black Lips are refocusing their havoc back on the States after the release of their fifth album, "200 Million Thousand." The disc offers more of the '60s garage-band haze of the Atlanta band's 2007 nuggets-filled disc "Good Bad Not Evil," and if anything it shows them growing more outlandish and less serious amid the buzz. Great! Atlanta's Gentleman Jesse & His Men and local sonic wizards Vampire Hands open. (9 p.m. Mon., Turf Club. 21 & older. $13.) (C.R.)

Named after a New Jersey festival, the Saints & Sinners tour is headed by Jersey's emo-ish hard-rock wonders Senses Fail and Hollywood Undead, a band of mask-wearing youths who actually grew up under the Hollywood sign. Senses Fail's third album, "Life Is Not a Waiting Room," recently debuted at No. 18 in Billboard and has the glossy production to go with it. HU's debut was produced by longtime NIN member Danny Lohner. Haste the Day and Brokencyde also perform. (7 p.m. Wed., Myth. All ages. $18-$20.) (C.R.)

Certainly an odd fit for our giant suburban mega-club, the Oddity Faire is a so-called "mutated mini-fest" put together by Primus frontman Les Claypool, who is headlining with his solo band. Denver's divine gypsy/mariachi/Americana band DeVotchKa will perform along with "Slam" poet/singer/actor Saul Williams and Mr. Bungle/Faith No More guitarist Trey Spruance's band the Secret Chiefs 3. Chances are, no one is a fan of more than two of those acts, which is presumably the point. You gotta love Les' sense of adventure, if not his bass solos. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Myth. All ages. $32-$35.) (C.R.)

IRISH Karan Casey, the Ballyduff-born former lead singer of Solas, recently released her fifth solo CD, "Ships in the Forest." Mostly traditional and often stark, the ballad-heavy disc includes gripping new versions of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," Joni Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum" and "I Once Loved a Lass" (aka "The False Bride"). So expect some delicious melancholy moments. (7:30 p.m. Sun., Cedar Cultural Center. $15-$18.) (T.S.)

Gaelic Storm, that Celtic combo from California, is coming to the playhouse that Joe Dowling built to get us in the mood for St. Paddy's Day. Here's hoping the band featured in the movie "Titanic" will play "The Night I Punched Russell Crowe" from last year's "What's the Rumpus?" (7:30 p.m. Mon., Guthrie Theater, $35.) (J.B.)

Every one of Boiled in Lead's rousing St. Patrick's Day extravaganzas marks another anniversary of the rockin' world-folkmeisters' collective existence. On birthday No. 26, BiL will show off its newest member: percussionist Marc Anderson, known worldwide for his recordings with Steve Tibbetts. BiL's recent CD, "Silver," is one of its best, and this year's special guests -- Roma di Luna, classic bluesers the Brass Kings and the Minnesota Police Pipe Band -- will reward your early arrival. (8 p.m. Tue., First Avenue. $10-$12.) (T.S.)

BLUES Magic Slim's song "Shake It" recently became a hip radio jingle for Rainbow Foods. With its driving refrain "shake that thing," the song is from Magic Slim's 2005 release "Anything Can Happen" -- a prophetic title, since who expected to hear Slim on the radio, underneath sale prices for chicken and steak? Where you expect to find him is tearing up a club with his dance-floor-filling quartet. (9 p.m. today, Famous Dave's, $5.) (T.S.)

JAZZ Guitarist Paul Renz and his old Berklee College of Music buddy Anders Bostrum made a fine pair on the Renz CD "ReBop." An excellent hard-jazz flautist, though he makes his living in Broadway-theater bands ("Shrek" most recently), Bostrum is flying in to record another CD with Renz and will gig with Renz's working quartet at the Clubhouse Bar upstairs at Brit's Pub, an ad hoc new venue for jazz. (7 p.m. Sun., 1110 Nicollet Mall. $10.) (T.S.)

Though in his mid-20s, drummer Reid Kennedy has compiled an impressive resume, including two CDs with the band Snowblind and live appearances with greats Gunther Schuller, Ernestine Anderson and Joe Lovano. Now comes his first trio CD, "Reflections." Tuneful and tasteful, often downright catchy for an all-original modern-jazz release, it features veteran Chris Lomheim on acoustic piano and groovy Fender Rhodes, and Graydon Peterson adding bass and several original compositions. (9 p.m. Wed., Artists' Quarter. $5.) (T.S.)

FOLK Sensitive singer-songwriter dude Richard Shindell returns from his current home in Buenos Aires to tour the Midwest in support of a CD of story songs. "Not Far Now" features one of his most powerful tunes, "State of the Union," about a junkie trying to kick his habit. A popular coffeehouse breaks new ground with this unusual "dinner show." (7:30 p.m. today, Ginkgo. $38.50-$47.50.) (T.S.)

CLASSICAL

The "unhurried" third movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony takes between 19 and 23 minutes to play, depending on the conductor's metabolism. I get goose bumps around 1:45 and am seldom without them thereafter. This is rapturous, haunting music, dangerous to think about while you're driving or chopping vegetables--and this week finds it in the care of the repatriated Minnesota Orchestra and soprano Harolyn Blackwell, under the baton of Mark Russell Smith. Works by Jacques Ibert (the Flute Concerto, with soloist Conor Nelson) and Wagner complete the package. (8 p.m. today-Sat., Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Av., Mpls. $25-$83. 612-371-5656.) (L.F.) What Joshua Bell is to the violin, what Yo-Yo Ma is to the cello, Eugene Rousseau is to the classical saxophone -- and he teaches at the University of Minnesota. A pupil of the legendary Marcel Mule, Rousseau, now in his mid-70s, solos in concertos by Alessandro Marcello and Alexander Glazunov with the Minnesota Sinfonia and conductor Jay Fishman, whose program also boasts music by Rossini, Albéniz and Martin Kutnowski. (7 p.m. today, Metropolitan State University, 700 E. 7th St., St. Paul. 2 p.m. Sat., Basilica of St. Mary, Hennepin Av. at N. 17th St., Mpls. Free. 612-871-1701.) (L.F.)