BEST BETS Thursday 1/4

LAGUNA BEACH

6pm

Art

The cigar-box paintings by Ed Musante are recent works on display at the Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery. The mixed-media works take as their support either the lid or the bottom exterior of a wooden or cardboard cigar box. The artist then paints a single image of an animal, most often a bird, on each box or lid.

* Cigar-box paintings by Ed Musante, Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, Laguna Beach. Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. One-time artist reception, 6-8 p.m. today. Through Feb. 25.

SANTA ANA

8pm

Pop Music

A sterling country rocker who won’t be confused with any of Nashville’s scuff-free male hat acts is Wayne “The Train” Hancock, who gives O.C. fans three chances to catch him this week: tonight at the Galaxy in Santa Ana and Saturday and Sunday at Abilene Rose. His music prizes unvarnished emotion and rollicking spirit.

* Wayne Hancock, Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3053 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. With Hellbound Hayride, the Irish Brothers. 8 p.m. $8 (714) 957-0600. Also Saturday and Sunday at Abilene Rose, 10830 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. 9 p.m. $10. (714) 963-1700.

IRVINE

8:30pm

Comedy

On stage, New Yorker Dave Attell has an aggressive personality that perfectly suits his off-color humor, in which he skewers the losers he knew in high school or graphically discusses being drunk in a sex shop. The Long Island-born Attell, who’s appeared on “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” is a fave of New York City comedy critics. Raved one a few years ago: “Attell achieves the near-impossible: being tasteless with charm.”

* Dave Attell, Irvine Improv, 71 Fortune Drive. 8:30 p.m. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7, 9 and 11 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. $12 to $15. (949) 854-5455.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY

7:30pm

Pop Music

It’s hard to think of a better way to begin a new year of live music than by catching the tireless Chris Gaffney & the Cold Hard Facts. Orange County’s premier roots country-rock-soul-blues band gives fans a couple of opportunities to drop in this week, at stops tonight at the intimate Abilene Rose in Fountain Valley, and Saturday in a return to the band’s South County home at the Swallow’s Inn in San Juan Capistrano.

* Chris Gaffney & the Cold Hard Facts, Abilene Rose, 10830 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. 7:30 p.m. $5. (714) 963-1700. Also Saturday at the Swallow’s Inn, 31786 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8:30 p.m. Free. (949) 493-3188.

IRVINE

8pm

Music

Founded in 1987, the Diaz Trio now consists of violinist Andres Cardenes and Chilean-born brothers Roberto Diaz (viola) and Andres Diaz (cello). They will play works by Bach and Hindemith. Joining them for Smetana’s Quartet in E minor (“From My Life”) will be guest violinist James Buswell. The program is sponsored by the Laguna Chamber Music Society and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

* Diaz Trio, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. 8 p.m. $17 to $28. (949) 854-4646.

COSTA MSA

8pm

Theater

Composer Frank Wildhorn and lyricist-librettist Nan Knighton teamed for “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” the musical version of the adventure tale that originated as a novel in 1905 and has been made and remade as a film. The show takes a light, funny tack in retelling the story of Sir Percy, the English aristocrat who leads his band of intrepid men in rescuing French nobles from the guillotine during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. They pose as effete fops, the better to throw off pursuers who wouldn’t suspect heroism of a gang of flighty, fashion-drunk upper-crust twits.

* “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Today through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Matinees Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. Through Sunday. $20 to $55. (714) 556-2787.