PETER GABRIEL
. Dec. 2, 8 p.m., $46 to $131, Air Canada Centre, 40 Bay St., 416-870-8000.

Peter Gabriel is big on the What If. As in, "What if nobody buys my new album, Up?" Or, "What if I performed in the round, on a stage that spins, and rode a silver bicycle, rowed a boat or rolled around in a big plastic hamster ball?" Monday we get answers.

THE HENRYS
. Dec. 4, 8:30 p.m., $8, Hugh's Room, 2261 Dundas St. W., 416-531-6604.

If Big Top pop isn't your thing, try instead the flea circus of the Henrys. The Toronto-based, mostly instrumental quartet use old pump organs, antique slide-guitars and vintage synthesizers with such delicate restraint that you just know they mean these instruments to last. Leader Don Rooke plays slide in the cool, quirky manner of Kevin Breit or Ry Cooder, but the band itself performs rarely these days. The release of Joyous Porous, though, calls for a CD-release party, complete with special guests, which we hope includes the incomparable Mary Margaret O'Hara.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND
. Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m., $69.50 to $115, Air Canada Centre, 40 Bay St., 416-870-8000.

Bruce Springsteen knows, like the Henrys know, that small can be big. The brilliant understatement of Springsteen's Nebraska told us that. But for this show, he's got the big band, and the album he's selling these days, The Rising, holds the huge emotion of the day that was 9/11. So, sometimes, big is big -- and you don't get more large than the Boss.