Halfway through Vampire Weekend's Friday night set at Vancouver's Malkin Bowl, singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig made a surprising confession: The group had a mild case of the jitters.

"Good evening," said Philip Selway. "And welcome to our quiet night in."

Saturday night, the Scissor Sisters kicked off their world tour in front of a sold out Atlanta, GA, crowd. Their third album, Night Work, has been called "gayer" than their previous two albums. And though the show catered to a homosexual crowd, everyone, gay or straight, had an amazing time.

Love her or hate her, Ke$ha knows how to throw a party.

He often sang with a hand over his heart, in a "Pledge of Allegiance" pose, looking as earnest and hopeful as a man asking for his sweetheart's hand in marriage.

Brandon Flowers is not one to camouflage his emotions—when the Killers frontman hits the stage, he holds little back, smiling wide, pistoning himself up and down, gesticulating as he sings.

Metal heads, stoners, and hard rock aficionados turned out in droves for the intimate show at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday night, a benefit for cancer-stricken Eagles of Death Metal bassist Brian O'Connor, which boasted the first Queens of the Stone Age gig in the U.S. since 2008.

The most striking thing about Free Energy -- besides their pitch-perfect power pop -- is that they do it all without a hint of irony. It might be tempting to rough up all those Day-Glo riffs, harmonized guitar solos and sing-along choruses with a wink and a nod -- just to let the hipsters know that there's a Pavement record under all those hooks.

MGMT's biggest hit took on an added dimension on Friday at Chicago's House of Blues. Before the psych-pop quintet's piquant headlining set at the Dare 2 Dream benefit concert -- co-sponsored by SPIN -- eight children from the night's beneficiary, the People's Music School, came onstage for a quick acoustic appearance.

For a moment there, it looked like Win Butler was just reciting from the Cheesy Arena Stage Banter Handbook (foreword by Paul Stanley). "This is my favorite part of the Garden, right here," he said, grinning devilishly as he towered over and genuflected towards the fans clamoring at his feet. Why's that, Win?