When Tom Waits did the song “Yesterday is Here,” he delivered the chorus in a highball glass full of grim tidings with a sidecar of tragic carny angst. In comparison, Southside Johnny sounds utterly jazzed. From the sound of it, yesterday is the place where the New Jersey rocker and Stone Pony mainstay wants most to be—at least that’s the case on Grapefruit Moon, an album of Waits tunes performed with LaBamba’s Big Band. On the surface the concept—aging rocker takes a swinging stab at Swordfishtrombones—sounds positively agonizing, but there’s actually a lot of charm here. No, really, there is. The band’s vibrant brass section blasts a little sunshine into some of Waits’ gloomiest material and Southside’s voice—evocative of hair grease, Miller Lite, and Pall Malls—gives the whole thing a freewheeling vigor that’s hard to find outside of, well, yesteryear. SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY AND THE ASBURY JUKES PERFORM WITH THE BILLY WALTON BAND ON TUESDAY AT 7:30 P.M. AT THE BIRCHMERE, 3701 Mt. VERNON AVE., ALEXANDRIA. $39.50. (703) 549-7500.