This is a tough weekend for the churchgoing fan of live music who favors an early Sunday service.

While there are several pretty good concerts taking place during the rest of the week – Al Jarreau tonight at H’Town’s Arena Theatre and Owl City on Monday at House of Blues – the marquee entertainment will all be in town Saturday night.

To those with the discipline, I say go enjoy the shows, dress warm, have fun and don’t blame the bands (or me) when your alarm goes off on Sunday morning.

Saturday

Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck (second show on Wednesday, December 16)

New York, Los Angeles and other coastal metropolises horde all the national holiday publicity, but Houstonians have a few yuletide traditions that should not be overlooked. In addition to old favorites (Lights in the Heights) and new additions (Is anybody else diggin’ The Ice at Discovery Green as much as me?), we have live holiday music standards like this two-night stand by Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck.

Ever since Bandera native Bruce Robison (the brother of Texas troubadour Charlie Robison) met and married singer-songwriter Kelly Willis in 1996, they have combined forces on four children and a large catalog of alt-Texas and Americana favorites.

Each year, after touring apart for much of the year, they come together for a series of December holiday shows that feature favorites like Robison’s “Travelin’ Soldier” (a song the Dixie Chicks made into a No. 1 country song) and Willis’ “Baby Take A Piece of My Heart,” along with their homespun guitar takes on holiday favorites.

It doesn’t get more Texas than this at Christmastime until Robert Earl Keen rolls into town shouting, “Merry Christmas from the family, y'all.” (I’ll be talking more about that in a couple weeks.)

Tickets $27.50-$32.50.

George Jones at H’Town’s Arena Theatre

I don’t know how to say this without sounding macabre, but country music legends like 78-year-old George Jones cannot tour forever. Don’t take it for granted that he’ll be coming back next year just because he’s a Houston concert regular

I learned this lesson the hard way back in the mid-90s. I had the opportunity to see Johnny Cash in concert and passed on it to go see the Grateful Dead instead. It turned to be the last time I would ever see Jerry Garcia on stage. It also turned out to be the last opportunity I would ever have to see "The Man in Black" before he passed in 2003. To this day, I think about that missed opportunity every time I hear “Folsom Prison Blues” or “Ring of Fire,” and wonder if I made the right concert decision that day.

So go see George Jones now and forget the second-guessing later. And don’t do it because he helped turn drinking to forget problems into an art form or because he made messy break-ups with women the stuff of legend in songs like “She Thinks I Still Care,” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

Do it because George Jones is one of the last truly legendary touring treasures from the original Grand Ole Opry era of traditional country music and is still, arguably, the greatest living country singer still taking the stage each night.

Tickets $45-$55.

Nitzer Ebb at The Meridian

I’m not going to weigh you down with song titles when describing Nitzer Ebb. To the uninitiated the names will mean nothing and die-hard fans (Nitzer Ebb seems to have very few casual fans) know them like scripture. Just be aware that these are the Brits who, unwittingly, were the '80s and '90s drum-and-synth whiz kids whose work became the spine for a techno revolution to come.

Even if the song titles mean nothing, there is a high probability that you are familiar with Nitzer Ebb and just don’t know it. The last time you were in a dance club with a live DJ spinning music featuring propulsive, thumping bass beats and space-age melody arcs… yup, chances are some of that was Nitzer Ebb.

This is the chance to see the DJ turntables come to life. Synthesizer maestro Bon Harris and singer Douglas McCarthy started touring again three years ago after over a decade apart. Even more exciting for the Nitzer Ebb fanatic: They may be previewing material from “Industrial Complex,” the duo’s first album of new work in 15 years.

Viva la techno revolucíon!!!

Tickets $20-$23.