I had some serious decision making to do last night as I encountered a severe overlap of two of my life's great passions: Ridiculously sultry electropop, courtesy of JUNIOR BOYS, and NBA basketball, courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. Vastly different ends of my entertainment intake spectrum, but in the back of my head I can picture Dirk Nowitzki getting amped to the pulsing undertow of "Double Shadow" in front of his locker prior to a game, or even grooving to Carl Craig's remix of "Like A Child" on the sands of Ibiza during his summer vacation.

At last night’s CONVERGE show at the Middle East in Cambridge, it was evident the single clenched fist has replaced the double “devil horns” as the new symbol of metal solidarity.

The CQ Presents gig sold out a week in advance, it was obvious that no one decided to stay home, with each attending patron sporting either a dirty Sox hat, a neck tattoo, a neatly trimmed beard, or a combination of the three.

Last Wednesday marked the 14th anniversary of the passing of Christopher Wallace. You may have come to this realization through the litany of Biggie quotables and youtube vids filling your news feed, or maybe a token memoriam post from your go-to music blog, even if they don't touch hip-hop on the other 364 days of the year.

It’s November 17 of last year, and the Billy Ruane memorial party is slowly creeping towards midnight. Nearly five hours deep into a marathon of performers and presenters, the Middle East downstairs suddenly jolts with energy. BUFFALO TOM has taken the stage (with Ed Valauskas filling in for bassist Chris Colbourn), and by the first few jangly alt-rock chords of set opener “Guilty Girls,” it’s evident the beloved Boston trio is back.

(words by Addison Post)

I have seen Bear in Heaven play in the morning, afternoon and middle of the night. I’ve seen them play under a hot Texas sun, in a suburb at a pizza joint, and accompanied by a fog machine. No show is the same, yet there are two consistencies: they always kill it, and I always hear someone ask:

The lineup for next Wednesday's Billy Ruane Memorial Birthday Bash has been finalized, and it's incredible -- more than 30 performers and presenters will come together on Nov. 17 across two venues in Central Square. Seeing how the Middle East's live music chapter was launched by Ruane after his party at T.

Get dreamy and check out astral dance-poppers School of Seven Balls performing "Heart Is Strange," the synth-soaked single off their new album Disconnect from Desire, at the Middle East Downstairs on September 11, 2010.

And while you're at it, dig the beautifully hazy electronics and slightly off-putting falsetto of openers Active Child (that voice simply does not match that dude).

^{Active Child play a new song}

Canadian pop singer Lights invited a few of her fans into her world Saturday night at the Middle East Upstairs. In a venue too small for all the sweaty guys (of which there were a surprising number) and gals, Lights lit up the stage, drank wine, and chatted directly with her listeners.

If you’re familiar with BODEGA GIRLS’ balls-out booty attack, the details of “We Are Losers” won’t surprise — chunky electro-kickdrums, squiggle-vision synths, and gang vocals figure heavily in this track’s game plan. But the secret weapon is the alchemy they exhibit on the chorus, which is lifted from either the Violent Femmes or, better yet, Ready for the World’s ’85 jheri-curl jam “Oh Sheila.

It takes balls to open a debut album with the words "we're breaking out," but that's what the band Free Energy recently did on their homonymous debut from DFA Records. It's also how the Philadelphia quintet began last night's show at the Middle East downstairs, plowing through the fuzz-rock song in question ("Free Energy," of course) with abandon and sending the crowd into a minor frenzy.

^{Click here for more Caribou photos from last week's show}

All signs surrounding Caribou's sold-out Middle East gig hinted that summer may finally be upon us: a humidity-free week that gave way to a comfortable Thursday evening, a blissful opening set from Toro Y Moi, and a back catalogue that exudes imagery of pleasant days ahead.

Ok, let's get it out of the way first: the merch was lacking. Lacking! When I go to see High On Fire, I expect to see, I dunno, hoodies with blue dragon-demons perched on snowy ledges and shit -- but even the stepped-up attention the band is getting due to their absolutely smoking new platter Snakes for the Divine (E1) isn't translating into an uptick in stoner fantasy merch.

FRIDAY 02.12 | SINDEN WITH SHUTTLE | Middle East downstairs | One of Together’s hottest showcases brings together London hipbone threat Sinden (Mad Decent, Atlantic Jaxx), the skittering spacescapes of Shuttle (whom you may recognize from behind Passion Pit’s drum kit), and the return of electro duo Staccato from LA-la land.

When Cave In signed off at the tail end of 2006, we feared one of Boston’s greatest post-metal bands had perished before its prime. So when a couple of years later they snuck back into the studio and then unveiled a blistering new EP with a one-off show at Great Scott, we grabbed our cameras — just in case it turned out to be a last hurrah.

Those of us with an abiding love for Crypt-era Back from the Grave garage-punk, Something Weird's VHS collection, and Halloween pop-up stores are seriously looking forward to seeing Dead Man's Bones play a gig tomorrow night at Middle East, which, as you can see from the cue cards in the video above, is the first stop on their nationwide jaunt. Below: just a taste of what to expect . . .