Music critics' picks

In the international arena of pop, the Beirut-born, London-based popster Mika reigned supreme last year with his five-million-selling debut album, "Life in Cartoon Motion." Mika's four-octave voice and playful, flamboyant songwriting got the guy early gigs in opera productions and begs for comparison to Robbie Williams and the late Freddie Mercury (the latter name- dropped in Mika's hit "Grace Kelly").

Having survived both a war-disrupted childhood and the snubs of Simon Cowell (who didn't "hear" his tunes), this 24-year-old is all about finding and celebrating yourself, be it in the flower-powered disco anthem "Love Today," the music-hall salute to a married man discovering his gayness ("Billy Brown"), the salty licks of "Lollipop" or his celebration of a plus-sized "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful"). In concert, Mika's been known to distribute cotton candy and flickering toys, but the guy's got gobs of sweetness and light unto himself.

Electric Factory, 7th and Willow streets, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, $25, 215-336-2000, www.livenation.com.

- Jonathan Takiff

Philadelphia's Barrymore-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company describes itself as "dance-clown-theatre ensemble" and certainly knows how to throw a party. "The Swining," (rhymes with "The Shining") is a fund-raiser, cabaret and auction, featuring just about every discipline known to man: Airplay Trapeze, Ballet X, James Sugg's sea-shantey opera "The Sea," Girls Rock Philly camper band Sakura, the Friends Central Jazz Band, a mind-reader, a puppet show and, of course, drag cabaret hostess Miss Martha Graham Cracker.

Trocadero, 10th and Arch streets, 8 tonight, $25-50, 215-922-LIVE, www.pigiron.org.

- Sara Sherr

He may lack a certified hit record, but Fat Joe is one of the most consistent hip-hop artists out. For proof, check his upcoming eighth studio release, "The Elephant in the Room." Fat Joe put Latino rappers on the map with his simplistic yet forceful flow and lured the spotlight back to his native Bronx, the birthplace of hip-hop. But Fat Joe garnered the most attention through high-profile spats with G-Unit and the fracturing of his once-solid group, Terror Squad.

Crocodile Rock Cafe, 420 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, 8 p.m. tomorrow, $30, 21+, 610-434-4600, www.crocodilerockcafe.com.

- Damon C. Williams

Guitarist Bill Frisell will always be known as the guy who inflected modern jazz with that Americana twang, but while he has maintained an interest in exploring and warping that roots/folk repertoire, Frisell has a musical imagination as expansive and wide-open as those Southwestern plains his keening, plangent tone so often seems to occupy.

Frisell has been especially busy lately, with a flurry of releases including a trio set with legends Ron Carter and Paul Motian, and "Floratone" (Blue Note), a set that co-billed producers with musicians to engineer a purely in-studio concoction of collage and manipulation.

But the guitarist's long-running trio with bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wolleson, which last released the stellar two-disc "East/West" (Nonesuch) in 2005, provides him with a group whose interests and playfulness are a match for his own. A set can range from jazz standards to traditional folk tunes to Dylan and Motown, with the sole constant being a moment-to-moment sense of invention that infuses even the most familiar of these tunes with surprise and freshness.

Gordon Theater, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, 3rd and Pearl streets, Camden, 8 p.m. tomorrow, $20, 856-225-2700, www.rutgerscamdenarts.org.

- Shaun Brady

The Baroque ensemble Tempesta di Mare, marvelous musicians devoted to presenting unfamiliar gems from the enormous trove of that period, are presenting a concert by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch.

Who? Well, back in 1740, Janitsch was the famous court musician to Frederick the Great of Prussia, writing string quartets and chamber works that brought him immense renown. Many of his manuscripts were taken by the Red Army during World War II and were thought lost. But their recent discovery in the Ukraine, and subsequent publication in Berlin, allows Tempesta di Mare to present these modern world premieres to discover what Frederick considered great.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Route 320 and College Avenue, Swarthmore, 8 p.m. tonight; and Old St. Joseph's Church, 321 Willings Alley, 8 p.m. tomorrow, $25-$35, 215-755-8776, www.tempestadimare.org.

- Tom Di Nardo