Considering that the weather outside isn’t exactly frightful during the winter months in SoCal, our concert calendar manages to keep our social lives plenty warm in between all the extra meals and family gatherings scheduled to descend upon us in the coming days.

It’s in that spirit of giving that we offer a brisk yet bountiful list of ways to spend your time in the company of fellow fans, all basking in the gift of live music this holiday season. Cobbling together a slate that bears a gift of a little something for everyone — from the metalhead, to the pop princess to the avant-jazzer. Here’s our guide to 10 must-see concerts to enjoy from post-Thanksgiving through the top of 2025.

Each year, starting around Thanksgiving, culture vultures get to unwrap an early present: a raft of films, TV shows, concerts and more that fill the calendar through the end of the season. And this week, The Times is happy to be your guide to some of the most noteworthy offerings, from Oscar contenders and crowd-pleasers to holiday specials you and the family can curl up with. Read on!

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Dawn Richard + Spencer Zahn / Zebulon / Dec. 2
Richard deserves a clean break from any Diddy news in her life. She’s a hell of a modernist R&B singer in any setting, but even better with adventurous pianist and composer Zahn in tow. “Quiet in a World Full of Noise,” their latest collaboration in a fruitful string of them, is a tender, vulnerable meditation on grief and deserves its own flowers. — August Brown

TV on the Radio / El Rey Theatre / Dec. 4, 5 & 7
Twenty years after the release of its acclaimed “Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes,” this adventurous New York art-rock crew has reunited to play its first gigs since 2019. TV on the Radio’s 2004 debut mapped the bewildering psychic landscape of a post-9/11 America, so it’s fitting that the band chose this moment of exuberance and fear to make its return. At the El Rey, you’ll see singer Tunde Adebimpe, guitarist Kyp Malone and drummer Jaleel Bunton onstage; Dave Sitek, the band’s guitarist and studio mastermind, opted to sit these shows out. — Mikael Wood

KIIS-FM Jingle Ball / Intuit Dome / Dec. 6
For the acts on the bill — all of them eager to hear their songs on the radio into the new year — this annual all-star holiday concert is a way to kiss the powerful programming rings at KIIS (and its corporate parent, iHeartMedia). For fans in the audience, it’s efficient one-stop shopping for what’s happening on today’s Top 40, including SZA’s wonderfully digressive R&B, Benson Boone’s earnest nice-guy balladry, Tate McRae’s neo-Britney dance-pop and Shaboozey’s post-hip-hop country music. Also due to perform are Meghan Trainor, Kane Brown, Madison Beer, T-Pain, NCT Dream … and Paris Hilton. Some things never change. — M.W.

Metallica / YouTube Theater / Dec. 13
Between two SoFi Stadium dates and a headlining appearance at Indio’s Power Trip festival, Metallica hasn’t exactly been hard to see in Southern California over the last year and a half. But here’s a rare opportunity to catch the veteran metal band in the kind of small(-ish) room it hasn’t played regularly in decades. The occasion for Metallica’s visit to Inglewood’s 6,000-capacity YouTube Theater is the group’s biannual Helping Hands benefit concert, which aims to raise money to fight hunger and to support technical education. Jimmy Kimmel will host the evening, and expect additional acts to be announced. — M.W.

Billie Eilish / Kia Forum / Dec. 15, 16, 17, 20 & 21
On the road for the first time without her brother and producer, Finneas, as a permanent part of her live band, the 22-year-old pop superstar stops at the Forum for five shows in support of “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” which just became the siblings’ third straight album to be nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards. (Nobody else has done that with their first three LPs.) Before the tour, Finneas said he’d join his sister onstage occasionally when his schedule permits; here he’ll serve as Eilish’s opening act on Dec. 21. — M.W.

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet / Zebulon / Dec. 16-17
The guitar genius was the beating heart of the late, great Highland Park jazz club ETA, whose residencies spun off a number of compelling combos like the experimental group SML. Fans of his IVtet — a small cadre of jazz and session heroes who are among the city’s best improvisers — will be thrilled to see the combo back in action in person and on record with “The Way Out of Easy,” a refined slate of free-flowing jams. — A.B.

Besame Mucho festival / Dodger Stadium / Dec. 21
Shakira recently postponed a 2024 arena tour to 2025 so she could meet fan demand by upgrading some dates to stadiums. But the Colombian pop icon — whose latest album, “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” chronicles her messy breakup with Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué — is still on the books to headline the third Besame Mucho festival at Dodger Stadium, where she’ll be joined by Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, Los Tigres del Norte and Banda MS for an expansive overview of Latin music spread across multiple stages. Among the dozens of other acts on the bill: Ivy Queen, Juanes, Café Tacuba, Caifanes, Los Tucanes de Tijuana and Carlos Vives, the last of whom was just named person of the year at the Latin Grammys. — M.W.

X / The Observatory / Dec. 27
What on earth is Los Angeles going to do without X? The standard bearers of SoCal’s punk scene for more than five decades promised they’d hang it up with “Smoke & Fiction,” a compelling valediction of an LP released this year. Who knows how many gigs they have left in the tank? While you should see them any chance you get, this Christmas show should be an especially meaningful one. — A.B.

Latin Mafia / Hollywood Palladium / Jan. 22
The Mexico-based De La Rosa brothers won a new artist nod at the Latin Grammys for their debut album, “Todos Los Días Todo El Día,” which deftly straddles urbano, trap, R&B, EDM and indie. They’ve already played Coachella and Camp Flog Gnaw. What’s next? A recent listening party in Mexico City that drew the 18,000 fans suggests they’re about to get much bigger stateside. — A.B.

Jamie xx / The Shrine / Jan. 23
You’re not going to have a better night on a dance floor than whenever Jamie xx is on deck. The producer and erstwhile member of the xx beat his own high standards with this year’s “In Waves,” a joyful and heartfelt insistence on the redemptive power of the club. Whatever other dark stuff is happening in late January in the United States, know that you can still go hear “Baddy on the Floor” with a roomful of jubilant friends. — A.B.

This article contains spoilers for the movie “Wicked.”

“To be continued.”

“Wicked” ends with these three words, leaving audiences to wait a year for resolution. And with a projected opening weekend domestic box office haul of $120 million, that adds up to quite a bit of patience.

Until then, there’s much to discuss about Universal’s ambitious adaptation of the blockbuster stage show, especially its more narratively daring moments — likely affecting both devout fan and casual “Wizard of Oz” aficionados. So whether you left the theater crying or confused, The Times is here to share some clarity on “Wicked.”

Why is ‘Wicked’ split into two movies?

While not uncommon for fantasy flicks and sci-fi entries, it’s never been done before with the film adaptation of a stage musical. And this one in particular — based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” which draws from Frank L. Baum’s 1900 fantasy novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and the 1939 film adaptation — “comes heaped high with a century’s worth of heritage, in the traditions of literature, screen and stage, plus the massive expectations that come with that,” wrote Katie Walsh in her review.

After months of detailed discussions between director Jon M. Chu, composer Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman about potentially sacrificing songs or subplots, “it became very clear that you cannot tell this story in one movie, and if you did, you’d have to literally transform it into something very different, and that’s not something I was interested in doing,” Chu told The Times.

While split at the stage show’s intermission point, “these are two movies with integrity, and they can stand on their own,” said Holzman. And according to producer Marc Platt, each act — and therefore, each film — has a point of view that’s distinct to the witches played by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

“‘Wicked’ is very much about the human experience — having preconceived notions, seeing the world a different way and changing your point of view,” he said. “Yes, this is the story of two girls, but the motor of the first film is really Elphaba’s journey of how she finds her voice to speak truth to power. And the second film is very much Glinda coming to see the world differently and changing in her way. Once we laid it out emotionally and narratively, and committed to it, things really fell in place.”

Ariana Grande is Glinda in “Wicked.”

(Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures)

The movie’s running time is as long as the stage show but only tells half the story. What changes were made from stage to screen?

Recent musical adaptations have included rethought subplots or freshly written songs (sometimes resulting in misguided trims). But longtime “Wicked” fans will notice that the movie doesn’t drastically shoehorn any part of the narrative. Instead, it thoughtfully elaborates on the stage show, which opened on Broadway in 2003.

New scenes better cement some character dynamics, like when Elphaba and Glinda first meet in their shared dorm room. “When we were first writing the show, we wrote 30 versions of that scene before ‘What Is This Feeling?’” said Schwartz. “Ultimately, we just didn’t have the time.”

The same is true when the two best friends first come face-to-face with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum). “There’s so much more time that he can take to delicately win them over and bring them into his world, and you get to see the girls get really won over by him,” said Holzman.

The introduction to Elphaba as a child, shunned by other kids and scorned by her father, was also abandoned in the making of the stage show, said Holzman: “To do that onstage is a whole thing, she’d be painted green for a one-minute-long part! But film is the perfect medium to finally do it.”

The movie also features a few slightly sharpened characters — a more independent Nessarose (Marissa Bode), a seemingly more maternal Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) as “the mother Elphaba always wanted and never had,” said Platt — and a lot of new jokes, many of which were improvised by the cast. Plus, an extended “One Short Day” section explains the Wizard’s magical abilities, complete with cameos from original stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, as well as creators Schwartz and Holzman.

“It felt like we let the story and the characters breathe,” said Schwartz, who wrote a new song that didn’t make the cut. That discernment is thanks to Chu, said Platt: “Very frequently, Jon stopped us from changing things or turning them into something else. Because of his love for the material and his great sense of purpose and legacy, he protected us against ourselves.”

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande with director Jon M. Chu on the set of “Wicked.”

(Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures)

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What did that silent ‘Dancing Through Life’ section mean?

One expanded sequence is “Dancing Through Life” — specifically, the section at the Ozdust Ballroom. Elphaba arrives alone, outfitted in the pointy black hat that Glinda has tricked her into wearing, and gets teased by all her classmates as she has been since arriving at Shiz University. Nevertheless, Elphaba begins to dance, executing every move as a woman boldly and unashamedly herself, even if it means remaining as lonely as ever.

Onstage, these dance moves are played for laughs, but “Cynthia came in and said, ‘I’m not a joke,’” Chu recalled of his early discussions with Erivo. “In the stage show, the audience has the same perspective as all the Ozians, but because of all the tools of cinema, we can flip it so the movie is from Elphaba’s perspective. Finding that really locked it in for me.”

Onscreen, the moment is deeply moving, with the sound of laughter muffled and the camera zooming in on Elphaba’s tears. Glinda, already feeling bad about the hat prank and ready to repay Elphaba for putting in a good word about her with the powerful Madame Morrible, joins her on the dance floor, echoing her movements with tears in her eyes as well. With this unspoken apology, the scene marks the beginning of their friendship.

“We’re in a massive musical, and Jon has the bravery to take sound out completely,” said cinematographer Alice Brooks of the scene. “The heart of the movie is in these very static, still and silent moments, where these two women have nonverbal communication with each other.”

It’s a moment that means a lot to Chu, who watched the stage show during its pre-Broadway run in San Francisco in 2003, and it’s safe to say it left a handprint on his heart. “I remember sitting in that theater and feeling like it was made for me,” he said. “Every word speaks to something so much deeper than just a song you hear and know the words to. Making this movie, I wanted people to feel what I felt in that seat.”

Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba in “Wicked.”

(Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures)

What happened during that ‘Defying Gravity’ scene?

The entire film builds up to Elphaba’s signature song, which gloriously closes the first act onstage with the newly named “Wicked Witch” flying for the first time. “It doesn’t actually plug all the holes that you need, but we’re rooting for the whole movie for her to do it,” said Chu of the beloved number. “But when we storyboarded it, what we found was, she didn’t earn this flight.”

Therefore, “Defying Gravity” is presented in sections onscreen. After a fiery, action-packed sequence in which flying monkeys chase after Glinda and Elphaba, the two find themselves at a crossroads: Glinda wants to please Madame Morrible and the renowned Wizard — even if they do want to cast powerful spells to ostracize the talking animals of Oz — while Elphaba would rather flee the scene than align with these lying leaders.

Elphaba asks her best friend to come with her, but Glinda silently decides not to, instead handing her a black cape to stay warm. Though they’re splitting up, there’s no bitterness between them: “I hope it brings you bliss, I really hope you get it and you don’t live to regret it,” they sing to each other. “I hope you’re happy in the end, I hope you’re happy, my friend.”

Bewitched broom in hand, Elphaba then tries to fly, but instead starts falling straight toward the ground. “When she jumps out that window, she thinks she’s ready, but she’s not,” explained Chu. “She doesn’t know why she’s doing it. Is this just because she’s angry? Or is it just for vengeance?”

Elphaba then sees the younger version of herself (Karis Musongole) in the Emerald City castle’s reflection. “I’ve known Jon for 25 years, and thematically, there’s always a connection with your younger self that he’s so passionate about,” said Brooks. “He desperately wants to know what your younger self would say to you.”

As they’re both in freefall, young Elphaba reaches out to the adult witch, who reaches back. “It’s that arc of connecting to this person you’ve always been, and discovering that the power and strength you’ve been looking for has always been inside of you,” said Brooks of the dialogue-free moment.

“She grabs that broomstick, flies up and sings, ‘It’s me’ because she’s realized she’s doing it to heal herself and save herself,” added Chu. Elphaba then delivers the final declaration of the song, not just to Glinda and all the Ozians who are now hunting her down, as done onstage, but also to Madame Morrible and the Wizard, who colluded to deceive her.

L to R: Jeff Goldblum is The Wizard of Oz and Michelle Yeoh is Madam Morrible in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu

(Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures)

So what does the ending mean for the second ‘Wicked’ movie?

“Part 2” is scheduled for release Nov. 21, 2025, and a yearlong intermission between films is fitting — the second movie, like the second act of the stage show, will probably begin with a time jump. Consider how “Part 1’s” last scene checks on the other characters: Fiyero appearing concerned by Elphaba’s categorization as “evil” by authorities and leaping into action, or Madame Morrible finally embracing Glinda, who’s tried to be in the professor’s good graces but was constantly eclipsed by Elphaba’s potential.

One thing you can count on is for “Wicked” to confront the Dorothy of it all. (And her little dog too.)

For his part, Chu, who filmed both parts of “Wicked” concurrently, is deep in the process of finalizing the edit on “Part 2.” “Last year, I cut both so that I could finish movie one to understand it,” he said. “I let it go and, just recently, opened it up again.”

By this time next year, fans will likely be able to refresh their memories with back-to-back screenings of both parts in theaters. “I have done it,” said Chu of his own “Wicked” marathon. “It is so fun, it is great. I’m excited for everyone to do it.”