Melissa Moore

If you were fortunate enough to have caught one (or both!) nights of The New Pornographers, on tour with The Dodos and Imaad Wasif, you were treated to an eclectic evening of beautiful music that had fans singing along to every song. We're hoping more headlining bands pick their accompanying acts as carefully as The New Pornographers did, allowing music-goers to arrive early and stay late. The Dodos performance alone was worth the price of...

For those of you living under a rock, Silver Lake's Spaceland has been doing a Band-in-Residence program for some time now. The idea is pretty straightforward: A headliner plays each Monday of the month, with rotating supporting acts, all put on by a local promoter. Oh, and did we mention it was FREE?...

Oh, Canada! In honor of Canada Day, Canadians Abroad put on a party at House of Blues Sunset Strip for those well-mannered folks from the Great White North. Canadian comedians warmed up the red-and-white clad crowd early on, but from the "SLOOOOOO-OOOOAAAAN!" chants that filled the venue it was clear that the Sloan boys were the real draw. (If you're not familiar with the band, think Pavement and early Spoon; underrated but killing it since...

Part gypsy punk, part Cirque du Soleil, part strip tease, all entertainment, Gogol Bordello is the live show you want to see again and again. On tour to celebrate their new album Trans Continental Hustle, the troupe hit Downtown LA's Mayan this past Tuesday to a sold out crowd. Fans threw shirts and water bottles with the hopes that front man Eugene Hütz would bring out his bottle of red wine (he did) and get...

As a child, I tried to avoid any activity whose goal was to bean your opponent as hard as humanly possible with a completely unforgiving red rubber ball. Never in my wildest imagination did it seem possible that the merciless game that is dodgeball would made its way off the elementary school blacktop and into the hearts and sweatbands of the twenty-something set. Thankfully, the sport has become more fun than frightening, with leagues...

Oh, Har Mar, our little Superstar. After a long day of photographing bands at the Silver Lake Jubilee and Synchronicity, there are very few people that could get us to brave the traffic and parking nightmare in Hollywood at midnight. But as soon as we said the secret word at the door (thanks Facebook!), we were whisked into Bardot's tiny stage area for the strip-tease soul train that was Sean Tillman and Jacob Cooper....

Minneapolis bands Vampire Hands and Daughters of the Sun rolled into town last night to play a quick set at Synchronicity before heading off to another leg of their early summer tour. Vampire Hands kicked things off with melodic rock to an enthusiastic crowd before Daughters of the Sun, fresh off their stint at Austin Psych Fest, blew the doors off the tiny gallery with their reverb-laden wall of sound. Adorable kids worth checking out.

Our lovely friends at FYF have done it again. In the tradition of Kidrockers, Sean and Phil and associated mates understand that us aging indie rockers want our kids to like and experience (until the teen years at least) the same bands that we do. Their kick-off event in their free kids + bands + ice cream social series was this past Wednesday, with headliners Roky Erickson (backed by Okkervil River) bringing songs old and...

I realize there are a million choices on a given weekend night, but I think it's worth your while to play a little "LAist's Tonight In Rock Roulette" once in a while. Close your eyes and jab your finger at the screen - whatever you land on is what you attempt to attend....

All you really need to know is that Fol Chen's Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made was one of my favorite albums of 2009 and the Liars know a thing or two about what it means to perform live. The El Rey was packed for both bands on Saturday night (I can't remember the last time it was that crowded for the opener) and I'm 100% sure that the rumblings of a dance rock...