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Holiday music with a twist

Forget angelic children's choirs and sleigh bells. The sounds of the holiday season just got a makeover, courtesy of Everett Bradley's Holidelic. The Grammy-nominated singer/ songwriter/actor's group has been touring since 2002, celebrating the diversity and uniqueness of seasonal beliefs with its special brand of holiday music.

Forget angelic children's choirs and sleigh bells. The sounds of the holiday season just got a makeover, courtesy of Everett Bradley's Holidelic. The Grammy-nominated singer/ songwriter/actor's group has been touring since 2002, celebrating the diversity and uniqueness of seasonal beliefs with its special brand of holiday music.

In lyrics such as "Get your elves together,'cause funk is forever" and song titles like "Sugar Rump Fairies" - an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's famous "Sugar Plum Fairies" - Holidelic puts a funkadelic spin on the season. Colorful wigs, shiny costumes, platform boots and Bootsy Collins sunglasses transport audiences not to the North Pole, but back to the '70s.

Much like the funk and soul bands of that time, Holidelic brings people together to dance, and the music has an explicit message of inclusiveness.

Bradley, a/k/a Papadelic, describes his concert as "the most exclusive all inclusive holiday party in the universe." It's certainly one of the less traditional and, 23 days into December, that counts for a lot.

Everett Bradley's Holidelic, 8 tonight, $22-$34, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com or holidelic.com.

- Alissa Falcone

KLEZMER CONCERT

The Fabulous Shpielkehs know Klezmer music. Drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts and daughter Susan Watts, the vocalist and trumpet player, represent their family's third and fourth generations of Klezmer musicians, or klezmorim.

Their repertoire - on display in the Kimmel Center's Commonwealth Plaza tonight as part of the Free at the Kimmel 10th Anniversary Celebration - includes songs that have been passed down through their family and pieces written for family members.

A Jewish tradition originating in Eastern Europe, Klezmer is intended to accompany dancing (always encouraged in the Kimmel Plaza) and is primarily performed at weddings. In addition to Susan and Elaine - the first female percussionist to be accepted into and graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music - band members include Audrey Welber on clarinet, Paul Arbogast on tuba, Jarred Antonacci on trombone and Katt Flagg on accordion. Tonight's show will include Susan Watts' reading of a classic Hasidic Hanukkah tale with a musical accompaniment composed by Amy Zakar Banner.

The Fabulous Shpielkehs, 5:30 today, Kimmel Center, 260 S. Broad St., free, 215-790-5800, kimmelcenter.org

- Mary Sydnor