Concert Previews

Sondre Lerche tips his hat to one of his role models by covering Elvis Costello's "Human Hands" on his soundtrack to

Dan in Real Life.

Like Costello, Lerche is a classicist who enjoys shifting personas and genres. Over the course of five albums in as many years, the young Swede has offered sprightly singer-songwriter pop, comparatively brash rock, and jazzy swing in the mode of Chet Baker and Sinatra. The

Dan

soundtrack is an effective sampler of styles - eschewing the rock that has not yet proved his forte - and includes a duet with Regina Spektor and an appealing acoustic-guitar-and-strings version of Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open the Door." No matter which persona shows up at the World Cafe Live on Wednesday, Lerche is never less than charming.

- Steve Klinge

Ex-Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan talk-sings in a sonorous voice that makes him sound like the Johnny Cash of post-grunge. He doesn't like to sit still, collaborating with Queens of the Stone Age, and Isobel Campbell (on last year's excellent

Ballad of the Broken Seas

) and absolutely killing Bob Dylan's "Man With the Long Back Coat," on the

I'm Not There

soundtrack. But Lanegan's best hook-up yet may be with Soulsavers, the British down-tempo electronic duo of Rich Machin and Ian Glover, on whose superb new gospel-and-blues-flavored

It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land,

on which his gripping originals such as "Jesus of Nothing" and "Revival" stand tall with covers of Neil Young and the Rolling Stones.

- Dan DeLuca

Since Brian Setzer went from rockabilly revivalist with the Stray Cats to champion of big-band swing with albums such as

Boogie Woogie Christmas,

he has become something of a Yuletide institution. Now, the guitar-slinger and his orchestra are back for their sixth annual "Christmas Extravaganza." In addition to roasting the usual seasonal chestnuts, Setzer also is likely to present selections from his new album,

Wolfgang's Big Night Out,

in which he and the orchestra give swing treatments to popular classical and semi-classical pieces. The title track, for instance, is a take-off on Mozart's "Ein Kleine Nachtmusik," while other selections with similar

Guys and Dolls

-like titles include "Here Comes the Broad" and "Some River in Europe" ("The Blue Danube"). Corny, to be sure, but still a lot of fun - and as usual, there's some pretty hot playing.

- Nick Cristiano