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Have a hair-metal or indie-music holiday at two indoor festivals

For many concertgoers, Christmas comes early every year in a multi-act package known as the radio-sponsored holiday show.

For the uninitiated, radio holiday concerts are indoor music festivals featuring a half-dozen bands, short sets, reasonable ticket prices, and absolutely none of the mud, sweat and tears you often find at summer rock festivals.

This year's radio holiday concert season kicks off Dec. 4 at the Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum with Hair Metal Holiday from "The Eagle" KEGL-FM, followed on Dec. 9 by the annual How the Edge Stole Christmas show from KDGE-FM at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie. Here's a look at both:

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Hair Metal Holiday

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The headliner: Great White, the L.A. blues-metal band with an obvious debt to Led Zeppelin and a less-obvious debt to classic R&B and soul. Several well-known members are still in the band, including guitarist Mark Kendall. But don't expect to see singer Jack Russell, who leads a rival group billed as Jack Russell's Great White. Singer Terry Ilous of XYZ will be in his place belting out "Rock Me" and GW's hit version of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."

Also don't miss: The Las Vegas band Slaughter. Led by still-hirsute lead wailer Mark Slaughter, the group was one of the biggest acts of 1990, racking up Top 40 hits with "Up All Night," "Fly to the Angels" and "Spend My Life."

The rest: L.A. Guns' claim to fame was being one of two bands that merged into Guns N' Roses. The Austin-based Dangerous Toys, led by singer Jason McMaster, were one of Texas' best-known entries in the glam-metal sweepstakes. Dallas-Fort Worth bands Generator and Supernova Remnant open the show.

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Dec. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St., Dallas. Doors open at 5. $20-$50. ticketfly.com.

How the Edge Stole Christmas

The headliner: Iceland isn't just a hotbed of volcanic activity -- it's a thriving musical capitol, thanks to Björk, Sigur Rós, and now, Of Monsters and Men, the folk-pop band best-known for its "hey!"-along hit "Little Talks." Led by singer-guitarists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar "Raggi" Thorhallsson, Of Monsters and Men will play "Crystals" and other tunes from their latest disc, Beneath the Skin. If you ask nicely, they may even whip out their dramatic cover of the Cure's "Close to Me."

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Don't miss: The Neighbourhood, the SoCal band known for moody, hip-hop-flavored rock hits like "Sweater Weather."

The rest: Sublime With Rome features former Sublime bassist Eric Wilson and singer Rome Ramirez playing songs by -- you guessed it -- Sublime. Super-drummer Josh Freese is behind the kit for this project. The Las Vegas group Panic at the Disco is essentially singer-instrumentalist Brendon Urie and whomever he's hired this month. Also on the bill are the Struts, from England, and Australia's Atlas Genius, known for peppy pop singles like "Trojans" and the recent "Molecules."

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Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at Verizon Theatre, 1001 Performance Place, Grand Prairie. Doors open at 4:30. $29.50-$99.50. axs.com.

Thor Christensen is a Dallas writer and critic.