A darling of the crtics this year, Jersey-born Italian girl Nicole Atkins is being hailed as a “next big thing” in the manner of Amy Winehouse or Corinne Bailey Rae. Looking and sounding the part of a sultry torch singer, Atkins’ February/March tour will hop from east to west coast, culminating in the four day SXSW Festival to be held in Austin, Texas, in mid-March. Atkins is one of the most highly anticipated acts at this year’s Festival, and she’s not hitting a whole lot of cities on her way so we should count ourselves lucky that her third gig of the tour will be played in Buffalo. Let’s count ourselves even more lucky that it’s booked at an atmospheric venue like Soundlab. Atkins’ husky voice and compelling looks seem like they’d be best heard and viewed through those veiled layers of smoke particular to jazz clubs of old; if you close your eyes you’ll feel transported—imagine Isabella Rosselini in Blue Velvet, if she’d had the voice that Atkins does. Her song “The Way It Is,” off her latest release Neptune City (Red Ink) captures this transportive quality perfectly, with its eerie and slightly sinister undertones hidden in a simple love song. With the upcoming slate of performances at SXSW, Atkins may be poised on the verge of becoming a star, and should that occur, shows such as this one just won’t be happening anymore.

Saturday, February 16 at 9pm (doors). Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab). $10