Music

The cast and crew of “American Idol” are visiting Las Vegas this week to shoot a key episode for the show’s 10th season on location in The Mirage’s Love Theatre.

Leonard Cohen has one of those voices that could make a pineapple emote, cavern-deep and choked with longing. He sings of loves lost and found with an almost off-handed grace, his words soothing and stinging in equal measure. Call it uneasy listening. See Leonard Cohen at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets are $49.50-$250; call 731-7333.

Avenged Sevenfold is a new-school metal band with an old-school swagger and a fondness for hooks every bit as outsized as a proper rock god’s ego. Their latest disc is called “Nightmare,” and that’s most assuredly what it must represent for those with refined sensibilities: This is leering, sneering hard rock where subtlety is but a dream. See Avenged Sevenfold at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Joint at the Hard Rock, 4455 Paradise Road. Tickets start at $39.50; call 693-5583.

Jon Anderson’s songs are often about peace and harmony. The ongoing politics of the band Yes? Not so much.

Todd Rundgren is a musical mimic, one who once helmed a Beatles sound-alike album called “Deface the Music.”

Remember those crappy school Christmas pageants you had to be in as a kid, you know, where you played, like, a tree or something? Well, now you can watch other kids do the same, sort of, but with guitars and dance beats and hopefully a bit less crappiness as the equally poppy and clubby Family Force 5 enlivens the season by headlining “The Christmas Pageant” tour, along with screamo favorites Forever The Sickest Kids in addition to the emotive Secondhand Serenade and Shorelines End. Make like a tree, once again, and leave for the festivities at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets are $25-$35; call 632-7600.