March 18-24, 2004

music

Sound Advice

Get Out

rock/pop

The Alarm

Most musicheads know these Brit invaders for their '80s hit "68 Guns." With their current U.K. chart-topper -- the punk-influenced "45 RPM" under the pseudonym The Poppyfields (with teenagers posing as them in their video) -- The Alarm has given the Vs-up to those who thought they were irrelevant dinosaurs.--Helen i-lin Hwang

Wed., March 24, 9 p.m., $15, with Shovelhook, Hard Rock Cafe, 1113-1131 Market St., 215-336-2000.

rock/pop

The Decemberists

To scuff up baroque chamber pop -- the fussiest of all music genres -- seems improbable and impossible. All those theremins, fey vocals and wispy lyrics, you know. Yet, that's the skill of the squirrelly quintet from Portland, Ore., The Decemberists. Ably backed by clipped guitars and accordions arranged for maximum spookiness, the often gruff, always grand singer Colin Meloy manages to be fussy yet ferocious. Request "I Was Meant for the Stage," and "Odalisque" and feel the difference.--A.D. Amorosi

Wed., March 24, 9 p.m., $10, with Tom Heinl, Clear Lake and Dios, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-569-9700.

rock/pop

Boyskout

How can you not love a band that cherry-picks from the best parts of '80s synth-doom and '90s K-punk? Boyskout -- recently relocated from San Francisco to Brooklyn -- twists their queercore in a spooky, sexy, dancy way that hasn't been heard since CWA dropped "Only Straight Girls Wear Dresses" 11 years ago.--Maura Johnston

Fri., March 19, 10 p.m., $7, with Kandywhales and The Needles, Doc Watson’s, 216 S. 11th St. www.plainparade.org.