The Arcade Fire came through Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre last Friday. We have the pictures to prove this. A suddenly-rather-popular independent rock band, it's surprising that this little-group-that-could is suddenly playing arena-size venues. And what does The Arcade Fire sound like? Figure that the group's music is like some sort of 10-person raucously ad-hoc mix-up of Neutral Milk Hotel, Slipknot, Springsteen's E Street Band, and The Coen Bros' Hudsucker Proxy shrieking songs of broken/renewed faith......

-- "Hold Yr Horses": Vowel dismissive DJ Rchrd Oh?! spins electro, no wave, '80s, '90s, hip hop, disco punk, synth pop, and more tonight at this TL dive bar's gipster club night. Music goes from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Aunt Charlie's Lounge, 133 Turk; $3. -- Mahjong: Drop In and Play: Amos 'n' Andy, mahjong and platinum hair, but...oh, pardon us. We got carried away into song thinking about playing this fun......

We're giving thanks today for all the great venues in San Francisco, which attract bands of all shapes, sizes and levels of fame to our fair city. Our show pick of the week is tomorrow night in Hotel Utah's tiny two-floor room with Phosphorescent and Castanets. Phosphorescent's Aw Come Aw Wry is a strong contender for our year end Top 10, and fans of Okkervil River and Neutral Milk Hotel should listen up. Sufjan Stevens'......