Joey Arias Sings Billie Holiday

(Triple Door) The underground-drag-chanteuse-turned-international-drag-sensation Joey Arias has had a glorious run of late, wrapping up a five-year stint with Cirque du Soleil and cocreating the award-winning stage show Arias with a Twist with visionary puppeteer Basil Twist. But tonight at the Triple Door, Arias returns to what first made him famous: his uncanny channeling of Billie Holiday, whose music he'll perform along with original works, accompanied by Eliot Douglass. (Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333. 8 pm, $25, 17+.) DAVID SCHMADER

Blk Jks

(Nectar) In a time when so many American artists (and listeners) are investigating the rich world of African music, it's interesting to find a band like South Africa's Blk Jks, whose closest musical referents might be British prog rock or the American jam band. Which is not to say they don't incorporate elements of their native country's music; it's just that their brand of jazz/funk/rock/worldbeat fusion is so thoroughly slow-cooked that nothing too distinctly identifiable ever bubbles up out of the resulting stew. Additionally, while much of the current crop of African-music appreciation hinges on a certain mellow (even polite) mood, Blk Jks are unapologetically balls-out rockers. If you're the type who thrills to a rigorous workout of musicianship and long bouts of muscular noodling, Blk Jks's live show should leave you in a satisfied sweat. ERIC GRANDY

Kid Sister, Flosstradamus, Four Color Zack

(Neumos) I admit it: My initial attraction to Chicago vocalist Kid Sister stemmed from her looks. Ow. However, the younger sibling of Flosstradamus's J2K struck pay dirt early in her career with a 2007 Kanye collab called "Pro Nails," a glittering, repetitive rap cut that gained clubland ubiquity and of which I tired after a brief infatuation. Now she's got A-Trak, Spank Rock's XXXchange, Sinden, Yuksek, DJ Gant-Man, and other solid beatmakers on production for her debut album, Ultraviolet (formerly titled Dream Date, out November 17), and it's full of expensive-sounding, mechanistic, diva-rap funk—and "Daydreaming," a blatant rip of Yaz's "Don't Go." Throughout the disc, Kid Sister is an engagingly sassy presence, but not an especially distinctive lyricist. Think of her as a slightly classier, more polished Amanda Blank. DAVE SEGAL

And there's always more in our complete music calendar listings.