Friday

One of contemporary R B s craftiest craftsmen, John Legend makes work that respectfully honors soul music s past while confidently imagining its future. On 2004 s Get Lifted, the former church-choir director benefited greatly from his relationship with pal and benefactor Kanye West, but last year s superior Once Again proved that Legend is the architect of his own sound, a canny mixture of funky sample science and live-band warmth. Onstage, dude works his chops but not so hard that you fall asleep while he solos.

English opener Corinne Bailey Rae s considerably less crafty than Legend: The gentle folk-soul tunes on her hit debut come with a slight bit of hip-hop detailing, but Bailey Rae s more concerned with substance than style. Still, she s no roots-music scold; her polite goody-two-shoes act is unexpectedly sensual. (Mikael Wood)
100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, (818) 622-4440 Richard Swift the Sons of National Freedom, David Vandervelde the Moonstation House Band, Peter Walker Could David Vandervelde be the next Conor Oberst?

Like Mr. Bright Eyes, Vandervelde is a precocious Midwestern boy who started recording his tunes while a teen. On his recently released debut The Moonstation House Band, the autodidact multi-instrumentalist merrily hopscotches from glam rock to psychedelica to Americana to chamber pop.

.. oh, just say rock n roll since the 60s.

Can t See Your Face No More works up some shambling, hooky magic, while Wisdom From a Tree intertwines T-Rex with George Harrison. But the 22-year-old has a Rolling Stones jones too; he often covers Cocksucker Blues. Tourmate and Secretly Canadian comrade Richard Swift also is a music history buff.

Swift, whose vocals fall on the plaintive side of the Rufus Wainwright/Eric Carmen school of croon, crafts intricate yet catchy pop tunes inspired by Tin Pan Alley, the English music hall and Brian Wilson s symphonic sandbox music. (Michael Berick) GILGAMESH Based on the life of a king who lived circa 2700 B.C.

in what s now Iraq, this ancient Sumerian fable, written about a thousand years later on 11 stone tablets, was discovered by archeologists in 1853. The epic fantasia follows the eponymous tyrant (Deobia Oparei) on his quest for glory and immortality. The story concerns just about everything that has ever mattered ego and alter-ego (Will Watkins), aggression and civilization, grief and mortality, i.

e., what it means to be human. Adapter Stephen Sachs co-directs with Jessica Kubzansky a simple, elegant and robustly physical production of Stephen Mitchell s new translation, mostly staged in front of a looming city wall.

This production hangs on its vivid presentational style and grand gestures. The charged ensemble also includes Necar Zadegan, Fran Bennett, Shaheen Vaaz, Newton Kaneshiro, Cynthia Boorujy and Jack Kandel. THEATER @ BOSTON COURT, 70 N.

Mentor Ave., Pasadena; Thurs.-Sat.

, 8 p.m.; Sun.

, 2 p.m.; thru April 8.

(626) 683-6883. (Steven Leigh Morris)
Four guys from HB in the OC play power pop about Zombies! Aliens!

Vampires! Dinosaurs!