It'll be a very rock-roll Christmas at Casbah Friday night, when the El Vez revue takes the Middletown stage.

Bowie tribute Ziggy Shuffledust & the Spiders from mars will rock the Casbah Thursday night.

Thursday 22
Wouldn’t be Christmastime if hometown hit Gary Shuffler (Honey Glaze) didn’t don his “screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo” as Ziggy Shuffledust. If you’ve never seen a Shuffler tribute, which includes Bauhaus, Queen, and GNR, then here’s my white elephant gift for you: Ziggy Shuffledust & the Spiders From Mars will conjure David Bowie Thursday night at Casbah. Keeping it consistent, local pop purist and Bowie disciple Ariel Levine opens the show.... Greek grunge-punks Barb Wire Dolls take the stage at Soda Bar, conjuring a whole other time/kind of rock-roll history — first-wave West Coast punks such as Black Flag and Circle Jerks. Read Dave Good’s breakdown of how this came to be — from Crete! — in this week’s Of Note. Likeminded locals Pleasure Fix and Hocus set it up.... Ska-punk big band Fishbone bounces into Belly Up after Aggrolites Thursday night. According to the club’s site, Fishbone’s celebrating “25+ groundbreaking years of trailblazing their way through the history of American ska, funk, punk, and rock fusion” on this, their Crazy Glue XXX-Mas tour. Catch up with Fishbone bassist Norwood Fisher in this week’s “Sounds of freedom” Blurt.

Soda Bar sets up Greek grunge punks Barb Wire Dolls on Thursday.

Michelle Star

Friday 23
Robert Lopez’s (the Zeros) Mexican Elvis persona El Vez will take over Casbah Friday night for some Christmastime retro-rock-rollin’. “The best cultural reference points to help describe an El Vez show are the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, a Tom Jones Las Vegas gig, the LSD episode of Dragnet, and Elvis Presley’s ’68 comeback special,” so sayeth the Reader. South Bay mods the Bassics and comic-pop duo Pony Death Ride also perform.... Gucci Mane’s had a good year, getting out of jail and all and firing off a few top-sellers and a sold-out tour. The rapper rocks the mic at Observatory North Park Friday night...while Hideout and the Gloomies split a lo-fi bill at Soda Bar...Beatles v. Stones at Belly Up...the Merrow hosts a tribute night, featuring Strange Crew (Clapton), along with Nimrod (Green Day) and Nurvana (Loverboy)...and the San Diego Soul Club convenes at Til-Two with Shocks of Mighty and the Mochilero All-Stars for some soul con queso.

Santa from Atlanta: rapper Gucci Mane is set free and rolling up on the Observatory Friday night.

Saturday 24
DJay Allen Sanford did the legwork on Christmas Eve fare and found record-spinners galore! Check it: “DJ events on Christmas Eve are plentiful, including DJ Dida (Gossip Grill), DJ Knights (Harbor Town), DJ Ramsey (Thrusters Lounge), DJ Beefa (Analog), DJ Smooth (Sanctuary Lounge), DJ Hevrock (West Coast Tavern), DJ Robi (1st Street Bar), DJ Mike Czech (Air Conditioned Lounge), DJ Marc Thrasher (Whiskey Girl), DJ John Phillips (Humphrey’s Backstage), DJs Kanye Asada and Gabe Vega (the Office), and Sleeping Giant DJs at True North Tavern. Latin DJs will spin at Café Sevilla and the Brass Rail.” For the rest of Jay’s Christmas Eve picks, hit up the Reader’s “Jingle bell rock” Blurt.

Follow the Crawler into next week...