Here's your chance to win a spot on Grand Ole Party's guest list for their upcoming concert with Rogue Wave on Saturday night at the Fillmore. We promised and we never break our promises. (Well, at least we try not to.) This isn't the first time that you've been able to check this band out for free. Back in February, we gave away free tickets plus a prize pack when they were on their headlining......

Saturday night we had the pleasure to watch one of Noise Pop's most intriguing local acts: Wallpaper. We interviewed Eric Frederic - the man behind it all - earlier in the week and had even listened to his new EP, T REX on his MySpace page but we had no idea it was going to be that much fun. We were on such a high from Wallpaper's set that we didn't want to ruin it......

Those goddamn, dirty, lovable hippies known as the Grateful Dead -- i.e., Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh -- reunite tonight in honor of (our future president) Barack Obama. Looking to snare to what Joe Garofoli refers to as, "California's gray-haired ponytail vote," the Dead is backing Obama. Minus, Jerry Garcia, of course, since he is now most literally a dead head. Billed as a one-time-only event, although they got back together briefly......

Tickets, tickets, anyone want some tickets? We have two tickets to Friday's concert at Slim's featuring: Until June, Matt White and Melee. We've already told you that you don't want to be late to this show, because all three bands are equally as good. Until June, from sunny Phoenix, traveled to Los Angeles in hopes of a record deal. Obviously, at first, they got lost in the mix, but promised themselves that if they didn't......

ON SALE SATURDAY, JANUARY 12TH AT 10:00AM! THE HIVES with The Donnas Wednesday, February 20, Doors 7:00PM/ Show 8:00PM The Fillmore Tickets are $20.00 general admission plus applicable service charges...all ages HOT CHIP with Free Blood Thursday, April 24, Doors 7:00PM/ Show 8:00PM The Fillmore Tickets are $25.00 general admission plus applicable service charges...all ages Take the jump for more information about more ticket sales and the upcoming Social Distortion show.........

SFist interviews Crispin Hellion Glover, who is screening his films at the Castro Theater this weekend. ...

As the winners of Live 105's Local Band competition, Maldroid will be opening for Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World, Angels & Airwaves, Spoon, and Paramore tomorrow night at the "Not So Silent Night" bash at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Maldroid's sound is a mix between The Beatles and The Hives. They first became popular when their video, "He Said, She Said," won "The Youtube Underground" competition - Youtube's first ever music video competition. They......

First off, we are not gamers. Our Mom decided, at a very young age, that gaming was evil and for the lazy. (Wtf! Right?) We've tried several times to get into it but it seems now that everyone can kick our ass. We hate losing, so we refrain to play but really it's all our Mom's fault. Damn you, parents. Now that we have that out of the way, gaming has become a huge......

UNKLE's James Lavelle sure would like to show you his elbow. Maybe you'll get the chance to see it live? Downtempo, trip hop duo from England, UNKLE, has been a popular outfit on the dance floor for years. Now, for the first time ever, UNKLE will make its appearance as a live band. Using guitars, bass, drums and synths set against a backdrop of lights and LED screens for a unique audiovisual experience -- do......

ODC Theater welcomes Guggenheim Fellow Donna Uchizono and her New York-based dance company with its west coast debut,Thin Air. Hailed by the almighty New York Times as "brilliantly imaginative," Uchizono draws inspiration for Thin Air from the Buddhist concept of "emptiness," which "stresses the interrelatedness of all things and quantum physics, which among other things made it possible to understand the atom. And, as the basis for our understanding of electrical currents and how......

Being paralyzed by choice is pretty much the peril of music lovers in this town. If you didn’t see Beirut’s amazing show last night at the Herbst, you’re probably considering how to check them out tonight. On the other hand approximately half the population of Swedish rockers are performing at The Independent tonight. And well, Swedish bands are just so very hot. Headliners are the Shout Out Louds, whose new album we can’t say......

Want to go see Rogue Wave this Friday, 10/12, at Bimbo's? Yes? You do? Well then, four of you can win a pair of tickets (because going out by oneself is sick and depraved.) The first four of you to contact info(at)bimbos365club.com with the subject line "Gimme Rogue Wave Tickets" will win a pair of tickets for Friday night's show, so...hop to it. Image: Rogue Wave's flickr account......

We love it when events combine movies and music! So check out The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio, a documentary about the creation of a multi-ethnic world music orchestra from Italy. Diverse residents of the Piazza Vittorio neighborhood in Rome banded together and created the multi-ethnic world music orchestra in an attempt to save a historic movie theater from destruction. The movie then follows the orchestra's unlikely rise to success and the various musicians' stories.......

We love the Eurotrash!!! Wanna win tickets to see Gunther, the Swedo-pop source of the delightful "Ding Dong Song (You Touch My Tralala)"? (YouTube clip from his show in LA above.) The mulleted, fake-mustachioed, heavily-accented synth star's on fire (even Aidan Vaziri couldn't help but admire the guy), and people are (no joke) flying in from all over the country to check out his show this Saturday. Gunther's motto is: "Always remember: sex, love,......

Look out, San Jose! Here comes the 9th Annual Bay Area UFO Expo. E.T. lovers and Area 51 fanatics are going to be out in full force this weekend celebrating everything extraterrestrial. Apparently, those who know every line to Close Encounters of the Third Kind are early risers. The Expo starts at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Doubletree, San Jose. It runs through Sunday at 10 p.m. Tickets start at $20 and run all......

Van Halen held a press conference today to unveil specifics of the band's upcoming national tour. This is the first time in 22 years that "Diamond" David Lee Roth will be performing on such a tour with the band. The tour starts in September, but won't won't be anywhere close to San Francisco until November, so crossing our fingers that, um, Roth will still be with the band at that point. ...

If you like learning about and consuming chi-chi/artisan/premium/hand-made chocolate in all its forms, there's lots to love at the Chocolate Salon, taking place today and tomorrow in Building A at Fort Mason. Tickets are $10 for kids and $20 for bigger kids (adults) but samples are plentiful. We appreciated the one hour of free parking, outgoing and friendly nature of the chocolate makers, and guaranteed exposure to exotic flavor combinations, wine and beverage tastings.......

Based on a Brothers Grimm tale,The Robber Bridegroom is a musical fable is full of puppetry, murder and curses. Put on by the Stars and Garters Theatre Co., the show runs through the 15th at the Voice Factory. 1519 Mission St. Tickets are available on a sliding scale, from $12-$20. Show starts at 8pm. Considered to be the largest underground hip-hop event in America, Scribble Jam kicks off at 9pm at Slim's. Come check......

Avoiding the masses storming the theaters for Transformers? Here are a few things to keep you busy until the 4th... If you haven't been yet, stop by Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight to check out Back for Seconds, a diverse group show with 37 different artists. 1173 Sutter St, SF. Kick back with Castle Quiz at the Edinburgh Castle with seven rounds of questions about music, history and pop culture. Drink specials and cash prizes......

Brian Eno's visual imagescape 77 million paintings premiers tonight at Yerba Buena with a 45-foot wall of projections of changing images set to an evolving soundscape. Tickets are $25 unless you're a student or senior. No word on whether Eno will be there...but it seems worth it all the same. 701 Mission St., SF. Other haps: Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry plus host Margaret Cho at the Greek Theater in Berkeley at 7pm. Feel......

We always hate it when we see a new Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker, because we know it's going to be something really upsetting that the Bush Administration's done. Last week's article detailed just how badly Donald Rumsfeld treated Gen. Antonio Taguba, who did the investigation on the abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib. Give Gen. Taguba a hero's welcome and hear his story in person at the Commonwealth Club tonight at 6......

Tickets tickets tickets! We're having so much fun giving these Frameline film fest passes away! Today's giveaway? A movie whose title is too risque for the Gothamist vulgarity standards! Motherf***** is about the polysexual rock club of the same name in Manhattan, and how much fun it is to go out dancing in New York. It's screening tonight! There's concert footage of everyone that's anyone in the current New York music scene (we can't......

Geek out! At Ask a Scientist SF, a monthly lecture slash happy hour with a guest speaker on some sciencey topic. This month's meet-up touches on everything you ever wanted to know about terra incognita, Antarctica, with Kurt Cuffey, a UC Berkeley professor of geography. Get there by 7pm to snag a beer and a seat. Axis Cafe, 1208 Eighth St., SF. If Le Tigre and The Shangri-Las had a British love child, it......

Week Around The -Ists...

Ever misplaced a grocery or to-do list? Your lost note could appear in Lost and Found in the Mission, a play based on true stories salvaged from scraps of papers found around the Mission District. The production, by Boathouse & Co., includes songs, dancing, beat-boxing and mass hallucinations. Tickets are available on a sliding scale ($15-$25), here, show starts at 8pm. Mama Calizo's Voice Factory in the Jon Sims Center for Performing Arts, 1519......

We've got a really cool giveaway this week. Everyone knows who Rufus Wainwright is, right? Please, tell us that you do. He's still crooning luxuriously behind the piano, wearing fabulously tailored suits and hasn't aged a day since his auspicious self-titled debut nearly ten years ago. His brand new record, Release the Stars, is hot off the presses and he's coming to play a special show at Nob Hill Masonic Center with Sean Lennon......

Drinking and shopping? Sounds harmless! Or does it....? Find out for yourself at GenArt's first SF spring shopping event. Over 40 local vendors are offering discounted wares for the ladies and the fellows, with a fashion show, bevvys and music. 6-10pm, $10 for non-members. ShopSF at the Galleria, San Francisco Design Center, 101 Henry Adams St., SF. Fe in the Desert, a new play by Jessica Hagedorn about a woman struggling to make sense......

The only thing we love more than shopping and cocktails is shopping while sipping cocktails. (Of course, we've made many poor shopping decisions while under the influence, but that's besides the point.) ...

Don't let the grind get you down after the holiday weekend! Here are a few ways to keep the party going around the Bay: Thunderdome + amateur hour = guerilla theater at its finest! A survival-of-the-fittest style open mic night, Spass Guerilla! showcases all kinds of local performance art for a night that's guaranteed to be...interesting. 12 Galaxies, 2565 Mission, SF. Part of a monthly series, Tell it on Tuesday, promotes the art of......

Here's what on tonight around the city - assuming you survive the Zombie Mob Invasion... Carnaval weekend in SF jumps off at the Great American Music Hall, with Sila and the Afro Funk Experience. Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Funk, Afro-Latin beats get the party going right, starting at 10 pm. Tickets are $18, 859 O'Farrell Street, SF. Emerging San Francisco fashion designs show off their wares at the De Young tonight.Designers Jasmin Zorlu, Gregory Sovik, Antonio Luna,......