For being rock legends, the members of X are highly accessible to Sacramento fans.

The Los Angeles band that helped redefine American punk rock in the 1980s will perform Thursday at Harlow's – its third holiday-season show at the venue in four years. The band's "XMas" show will include a few holiday classics arranged to suit John Doe and Exene Cervenka's off-kilter harmonies.

X's folkier offshoot, the Knitters, in which Dave Alvin replaces Billy Zoom on guitar, performed in May at the Palms Playhouse in Winters. X now can appear in fans' homes as well, via special "silver anniversary" DVD and Blu-ray editions of the critically acclaimed 1986 documentary "X: The Unheard Music."

In one scene, Doe, Zoom, drummer DJ Bonebrake and Cervenka – the vintage-clad, groundbreakingly cerebral rock frontwoman married to Doe for five years in the '80s – record "White Girl" from X's beloved 1981 album "Wild Gift." The album's producer, a still-young Ray Manzarek, watches from the mixing board.

Doe, 57, has been X's most visible member, acting in films such as "Boogie Nights" and "The Good Girl" and the television show "Roswell." In September, he released his first solo album in four years, the graceful "Keeper."

A genre-spanning musician who made a 2009 country album called "Country Club" with Canadian band the Sadies, Doe lived for a while in Oildale, a rough-hewn, Bakersfield- adjacent town and Merle Haggard's birthplace. Before that, Doe spent years in the Kern County mountain community Frazier Park.

Doe recently moved to Marin County, to be closer, he said, to where his children (with his second wife, Gigi) go to school. Reached by phone at home, the highly personable Doe discussed X and life in various parts of the state.

X always seems to come around during the holidays. Any special significance to touring during the holidays?

People seem to like seeing us during the holiday season. We tried it, and people liked it. Maybe because it's the X in "Xmas"? … Or, you can say the little baby Jesus told us to come to Harlow's in Sacramento. That's Jesus spelled with a "b" – Jeebus.

What was living in Oildale like?

Oildale is very real. It's a place you want to write a book about. You see the unvarnished America. … But it's nice to be in Northern California, where the people are more like-minded.

Did you go to the old honky- tonks there?

Sure. My favorite was the Tejon Club (immortalized in historian-writer Gerald Haslam's story collection "The Great Tejon Club Jubilee"). Gerald Haslam is a great writer.

Do you absorb music wherever you are, and settle into a local music community?

If you're aware, every musician or artist taps into (local influences). I couldn't have made the Sadies record without having lived in Bakersfield. Bakersfield really added to that.

But I am not going to start playing jam-band music just because I live in Northern California.

Is it harder to get together with X and your other collaborators now that you live in Northern California?

It has been a little bit of transition, but it is close enough that I can still drive (to L.A.). X doesn't rehearse all that much. … Exene and I have talked about getting together in February or March to write (new songs). (X's last studio album was released in 1993.)

X toured South and Central America this year with Pearl Jam. How did that come about?

We toured with them in 1998. We did a show in that enormo-dome in Sacramento (then called Arco Arena), and two shows at the Forum. They were fans, and we liked them.

We are both pretty straightforward rock bands. Eddie (Vedder) and I became friends and we kept in touch. Ed did a version of (Doe's song) "Golden State." They asked us (on the South American tour), and it made sense.

There are a lot of similarities. Mike McCready is a guitar hero, so is Billy Zoom. Ed has a lot of political interests and causes, and puts his money where his mouth is. So does Exene. And they don't tour with a lot of flash pots and stages that morph into stupidity.

Did a lot of people know you in South America?

Not really. It was the same as it is in the United States. Some people say we changed their lives and others say, "Who?" It's an interesting place to be. I would rather be there than "Aren't you that band that had that one hit?" I think it adds credibility to a band, to still be out there scrapping.

There seems to be a more searching, open quality to your voice on "Keeper." Is that a reflection of what's happening in your life?

Yeah, I think (anything) worthwhile is a true reflection of where you are at the moment. … I am trying to act my age.

In your 40s, you start looking for a small amount of satisfaction … and not to be angry and dour. If you don't do that by the time you are 60 or 70, no one will want to be around you anymore.

A lot of things are in your head. Janis Joplin (who died at 27) didn't realize that she had the world on a string, and she could have turned it around. … Maybe at 40, you realize you have accomplished a certain amount, and can be happy with it.

I am getting into a little bit of hippy-dippy Zen thing. But hippies don't own being in the moment and being satisfied.

X

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Harlow's, 2708 J St., Sacramento

Cost: $32.50. Tickets available at The Beat and through www.harlows.com

Information: (916) 441-4693, www.harlows.com

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Call The Bee's Carla Meyer, (916) 321-1118.

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