Concert Previews

There's a highly recommended and extremely loud multi-act bill on Tuesday at The Ox, the all-ages warehouse venue in Kensington. The headliners are the Providence, R.I., masked noise-rock band Lightning Bolt, last heard from in 2009's genre-pummeling

Earthly Delights

. Equally intriguing are the Baltimore bass-heavy trio Double Dagger, whose elastic, dub-influenced sound on last year's

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harks back to 1980s post-punk bands such as Minor Threat and the Minutemen. Also on the bill: Social Junk and No Coffins.

- Dan DeLuca

Boston's Passion Pit started as one guy's idea of a Valentine's Day gift for his gal. But since its squiggly, Grizzly Bear-meet-Animal Collective start, Passion's subtly emotive singing songwriter, Michael Angelakos, has expanded his range and romanticism far beyond a substitute for roses. The goal is indie pop that's cheerful but with an emotional range. Angelakos and ensemble tell poignantly lyrical, even raw, tales of loss, love, and more loss on albums such as

Manners

. For all its doe-eyed sense of the forlorn, Passion Pit never forgets to keep the melodies spry and contagious. Speaking of catchy, quirky pop, the Pit's neighbors to the north, Toronto's Tokyo Police Club, are no slouches when it comes to smart, sharp tunesmithing. TPC, too, has grown from a prototypical indie start (you either grow beyond sounding like Death Cab for Cutie or you wither) to make its 2010 CD

Champ

swing with both moody, midtempo experiments and tried-and-true pop. Plus they have a song named "Bambi." Who wouldn't love a song named "Bambi"?

- A.D. Amorosi

He's assured audiences there's nothing offensive in his much-hyped Glam Nation shows, but Adam Lambert - whose homoerotic choreography made him the bad boy of last year's American Music Awards - still provides plenty of flash and drama onstage. The 28-year-old

American Idol

runner-up is headlining a nearly three-month tour said to have him changing costumes more frequently than Cher. Backed by a four-member band, Lambert's been charming his hard-core fans (dubbed "Glamberts") with songs from his gold-selling

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, along with covers that include a Middle-Eastern-influenced take on "Ring of Fire" and an angst-ridden rendition of Tears for Fears' "Mad World." Opening the show are fellow

Idol

alum Allison Iraheta and Aussie rocker Orianthi Panagaris, whose sizzling guitar work recently showed up on both Lambert and Iraheta's debut albums. Invited to jam with Carlos Santana as a teen, the now-25-year-old Orianthi - pegged as lead guitarist for Michael Jackson's never-launched This Is It concert series - is a genuine guitar goddess whose scorching riffs will undoubtedly provide some of the show's sonic highlights.

- Nicole Pensiero