.Weekender: Top Events in the East Bay Over the Next Three Days

Here’s what you’re doing this weekend:

Grief is Good: The Daily Existentialism of Peanuts
Don’t be fooled by the crude drawing style and pre-teen protagonists — Peanuts was always a mature, complex, and deeply felt coming-of-age tale slyly disguised as a newspaper comic strip, fraught as it was with themes of inertia, unrequited love, anxiety, and the profound injustice of having an opportunity yanked from under you just as you’re ready to kick the football. On Friday, Dec. 9, the always-awesome literary series First Person Singular intends to celebrate all things Peanuts at Pegasus on Solano (1855 Solano Ave., Berkeley) with a slate of seven local actors performing the “dialogues, monologues, and doghouse meditations” of Lucy, Linus, Charlie, and the gang, with accompaniment by Richard Leiter, the pianist for CBS’ Charlie Brown specials. 7:30 p.m., free. PegasusBookstore.com or 510-525-6888. — Ellen Cushing

Live 105’s Not-So-Silent Night

Leggy, red-haired, and tattooed, English diva Florence Welch could probably get plenty of mileage from her looks alone, even if she weren’t a terrific singer. Yet Welch has both things going for her. The fierce 25-year-old balladeer launched her career singing at art collectives and “squat parties,” where she competed with drunk carousers and rinky-dink sound systems. Despite having a light and feathery speaking voice, she often characterizes her singing persona as “baroque” or “primal” — and it shows. For someone who can seem so diminutive in person, Welch is capable of near-operatic heights in performance. She performs with her rather large backing band, The Machine, at Live 105’s 2011 edition of Not So Silent Night, which also stars fabulous Nineties alt-rock group Jane’s Addiction, as well as Mumford & Sons, Bush, and Young the Giant. At Oracle Arena (7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland) on Friday, Dec. 9. 6 p.m., $39.50-$59.50. Coliseum.com. — Rachel Swan

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