The Big Gigs: Shows and highlights of the upcoming entertainment week

Following her well-received local gigs last year at 7th Street Entry and the Fine Line, Texan music-bloggers darling St. Vincent (Annie Clark) makes an interesting change in venues to keep up the buzz on her 2007 debut album, "Marry Me." The Kate Bush-meets-Feist songstress went solo after stints in the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' band. Los Angeles psychedelic-pop band Foreign Born opens. (8 p.m. today, Cedar Cultural Center. All ages. $12.) (C.R.)

Still heard on KQRS with hits like "Little Suzi," "Modern Day Cowboy" and its cover of "Signs," 1980s rockers Tesla just finished a tour with Def Leppard and are getting ready to issue a box set. Original guitarist Tommy Skeoch is no longer in the band, but otherwise its heyday lineup remains intact. Cinder Road opens. (8:30 p.m. today, Myth. $33.) (C.R.)

Sounding like a cross between John Prine and Alex Chilton, San Diego folk troubadour Steve Poltz puts years of roaming to good use on a pair of new CDs "Traveling" and "Unraveling," each showcasing an imaginative, Loudon Wainwright-like sense of humor evident in such song titles as "What Would Ghandi Do?" The war-torn rocker "Street Fighter's Face" also shows his gritty side. The former Rugburns frontman co-wrote Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me," but, tellingly, he has also collaborated with Mojo Nixon. (9 p.m. Sat., Nomad Pub. $10.) (C.R.)

The annual Bands for Band benefit helped revive the music program at Anne Sullivan School in Minneapolis. Now in its third year and expanded to benefit nearby Seward and Sanford schools, it offers tasty potluck food, a silent auction and a hip lineup that includes Bill Geezy, the Rockin' Pinecones, the Liquor Pigs, the Rich Lewis Band and headliners Razz & Maria and Pull Tab Mountain, the seldom-seen family unit led by Mike (Razz) Russell. (3-9 p.m. Sat., Minneapolis Eagles club. $10 adults, $5 kids over 6, $25 families. www.iloveband.org) (T.S.).

Just about everyone who witnessed the New York Dolls' reunion 15 months ago at First Avenue thought it was the best glam-punk show in decades. Problem was that most clubgoers never saw the Dolls in their mid-1970s prime. They were drunk, decadent and dangerous -- well, in danger of messing up big-time. Touring behind the commendable comeback disc "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This," frontman David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) was his usual charismatic self, but the band -- with only one other original member, rhythm guitarist Sylvain Sylvain -- was more professional than dangerous. That's not necessarily bad; it just wasn't the Dolls of old. We Are the Fury opens. (9 p.m. Sun. Fine Line, $20 advance, $25 door.) (J.B.)

Shawn Phillips still holds the record for the longest concert run at the Guthrie Theater -- five nights in 1975. Back then, he was a superstar on KQRS (and pretty much nowhere else) thanks to frequent airplay of ethereal tunes from the albums "Contribution" and "Second Contribution." Now the world-traveling cult hero celebrates his recent 65th birthday with a return to the (new) Guthrie. Expect a mystical blend of folk, rock, jazz and classical with those magical guitar skills and three-minute-held vocal notes. (7:30 p.m. Mon., Guthrie Theater, $37.50.) (J.B.)

Last year, Rolling Stone picked Nicole Atkins as one of "10 artists to watch," but her debut CD "Neptune City," released in October, has sold slowly despite positive reviews. With her pop-noir grandeur, the 29-year-old New Yorker comes across like a female Roy Orbison. Opening are Mary Bue and Ryan Lindsey of Starlight Mints. (9 p.m. Mon., 7th Street Entry, $8.) (J.B.)

After growing from a one-man band to a quartet following the 1995 debut album, Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters recently expanded to an eight-piece on tour following the release of its Grammy-nominated album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace." At a gig in Dallas last month, the new lineup lived up its weight in energy and noise. The extra musicians include original guitarist Pat Smear, Wallflowers keyboardist Rami Jaffee and Minneapolis' own Jessy Greene on violin and cello. Opening are two can't-miss acts: Florida's idealist punks Against Me! and System of a Down singer Serj Tankian. Read a profile of Greene and an interview with Foo bassist Nate Mendel in Sunday's Arts section. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Target Center. $25-$45.) (C.R.)

Atlanta psychedelic garage-rock revivalists the Black Lips return after a strong showing on year-end lists with "Good Bad Not Evil," a disc full of grimy, seedy, drug-coated gems that could have been on the "Nuggets" box set. New Orleans' bizarro duo Quintron & Miss Pussycat and France Has the Bomb open. (9 p.m. Thu., 7th Street Entry. 21 and older. $13-$14.) (C.R.)

CAJUN/R&B Two very different bayou boogie stalwarts, Marcia Ball and BeauSoleil, perform before heading to Winona for Saturday's "A Prairie Home Companion." Both date to the '70s, when Ball took her Fats Domino-gone-sultry piano blues to Austin, Texas, and became a part of its fabled Armadillo World Headquarters scene. Lafayette, La.-based BeauSoleil, under the lead of master fiddler Michael Doucet, has made Cajun music hip around the world, even opening for the Dead way back when. These are two cultural icons who know how to put on a great party. (9 p.m. today, Trocaderos. 21 & older. $25-$40.) (C.R.)

Bringing their Grammy-nominated "deep swamp beat" from Pilette, La., the Lost Bayou Ramblers provide enough energy to rival 7th Street Entry rock combos while keeping two-steppers happy. Check out songs from their recent CD, "Live: A La Blue Moon" at LostBayouRamblers.com. (1 p.m. Sun., Cedar Cultural Center. $15-$18.) (T.S.)

WORLD Three dudes, three ouds. That's Le Trio Joubran, a Palestinian brothers act from Nazareth, now based in Paris, inspired by the hit grouping of guitar greats John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola -- except they play Arab lutes. Samir is the eldest, a solo star and the bandleader. Wissam is a great improviser and master instrument builder. Adnan is the prodigy whose music is by turns powerful, haunting, energized, austere and a bit flashy. They'll appear at a screening of "Ertijal," a documentary film about them (7:30 p.m.today, Oak Street Cinema, $10), then perform in concert (8 p.m. Sat., Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul. $17-$22. 612-677-1151.) (T.S.)

Connie Evingson scored a coup when she got St. Paul-bred songwriting legend Dave Frishberg to play piano throughout her new CD of his songs, "Little Did I Dream." Having Frishberg's lifelong buddy Dave Karr play sax and flute is soulful icing on the cake. Toss in a great rhythm section (bassist Gordy Johnson, drummer Phil Hey), intimate voice/piano duets on the lovely ballads "Heart's Desire" and "You Are There," and a vocal turn by Frishberg on his should-be-a-hit "Snowbound," and Evingson's eighth CD is the pick of her litter. We hear Frishberg will be in the audience for this release party. (7 p.m. Mon., Dakota Jazz Club. $20.) (T.S.)

Post-bop trumpet ace Terell Stafford returns to the scene of his latest CD, "Taking Chances: Live at the Dakota," with an excellent quintet featuring Bruce Barth on piano and saxophonist Tim Warfield. (7 & 9:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu., Dakota Jazz Club. $18-$20.) (T.S.)

COUNTRY A Nashville country act at the Fine Line is about as common as a country star in a plain white T. Chuck Wicks is a no-hat, plain-white-T kind of singer. He's pretty mainstream, as his self-titled CD and modest hit "Stealing Cinderella," with its isn't-that-sweet video, suggest. (9 p.m. Thu., Fine Line, $13.50-$16.50.) (J.B.)

FOLK Fiddler Alasdair Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas present Celtic music at its most intimate, yet still rousing. Fraser is a veteran of 11 CDs, including "Legacy of the Scottish Fiddle," while Haas has gone from being his pupil to membership in Mark O'Connor's popular Appalachian Waltz Trio. (8 p.m. Sat., Cedar Cultural Center. $18-$20.) (T.S.)

CLASSICAL Don Quixote has had the kind of career most literary personae dare not even dream of. He fathered an adjective. He sang on Broadway. And now he tilts at a string quartet, Gabriela Lena Frank's "Quijotadas," commissioned for the Brentano String Quartet. That exceptional foursome will give the piece its Midwest premiere at a Music in the Park concert that includes music by Carlo Gesualdo and Schubert's numinous Cello Quintet, with cellist Michael Kannen. (4 p.m. Sun., St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, 2129 Commonwealth Av., St. Paul. $12-$20. 651-645-5699.) (L.F.)