Timothy Norris

See also our Lana Del Rey slide show.

Better Than... peering through the windows of a candy store.

Perhaps as a sign of her growing musical and magical powers, Lana Del Rey brought her own weather with her to Amoeba Music. L.A.'s currently going through one of its driest and mildest winters in recent memory, but the sky clouded up all afternoon, and a light rain fell outside during the melancholy diva's five-song set at the hangar-size Hollywood record emporium.

Storm clouds of a different nature have been stubbornly pursuing the artist formerly known as Lizzy Grant, even as her three national and international labels (Interscope, Polydor and Stranger) stoke the publicity machine and her new Born to Die album sprints up the charts. Like Obama fending off the accusations of birthers, Del Rey is dogged by questions of authenticity from a newly ravenous pack of critics who claim to be shocked that a pop singer would change her name and reinvent herself.

Rebecca Haithcoat

Iggy Azalea
Dim Mak Studios
2/7/12

The rumbling began in September when Perez Hilton posted the video for Iggy Azalea's "Pu$$y." In a rainbow-striped tube top and lemon sorbet-colored leggings, the Australian glamazon rapper spoke on tasting her "Skittles." Within a few months, she was seemingly everywhere; she released a mixtape, signed with Interscope, and announced that T.I. is executive producing her debut album.

She even invented a new nationality ("Azaleans") for her fans and confirmed rumors of dating another music-blog darling, A$AP Rocky. No wonder her show last night came close to spinning out of control. There were arrests. There were purses stolen. Two girls got in a fight.

Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging

Gustavo Dudamel concludes The Mahler Project at Shrine Auditorium. Not visible here: 1000 more musicians and singers

Did you have a WTF moment Saturday night, a tug towards the ocean followed by a sensation of heaviness pulling downward for a second?

What you felt was the Mahlerian center of gravity in North America, shifting from Manhattan to snap into place beneath Los Angeles, minutes after Gustavo Dudamel and over 1000 musicians onstage at Shrine Auditorium finished Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony.

That performance was the last piece of the LA Philharmonic's ambitious Mahler Project: all nine of Mahler's ginormous symphonies performed in a little over three weeks. By one conductor. From memory. 101 years after Mahler's death, nobody to our knowledge has done that before. When it comes to Mahler, that makes The Dude, well--The Dude!

Timothy Norris

Gotye

Better than ... watching the music video for "Somebody That I Used To Know" over and over.

"Somebody That I Used To Know" is the kind of song you can never get out of your head. It might have something to do with the fact that if you sign on to Facebook or turn on your radio, there is a good chance you will hear it playing or see it posted (multiple times). After seeing Gotye perform live however, it is clear what he brings to the table is something special -- and that's really why it sticks.

Wouter "Wally" De Backer -- the true identity of Gotye -- started the sold-out show with a bang. Literally. When the curtain was finally drawn, he emerged from backstage and began to play the array of drums displayed across the front of the stage. Three mics were set up around the drums giving him ample ability to belt his soulful songs while he played percussion.

Timothy Norris

Better than... listening to Fujiya & Miyagi through headphones.

There were moments where it felt incredibly awkward to stare at Fujiya & Miyagi, the British four-piece, as they played at The Echo last night. Frontman David Best would back away from the mic and continue to play guitar. Sometimes he would jerk his upper body back and forth in moves that were so natural that it seemed as though he was completely unaware of the crowd in front of him.

This wasn't limited to Best, though; the others in the band looked to be equally entranced. When those moments hit -- and they did repeatedly -- watching the band felt like spying on some incredible moment where four people were lost in music. I shouldn't be watching this, I thought, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the stage.

Sean J. O'Connell

Better than...getting stomped at Altamont.

Merry Clayton is a soul legend. With over 40 years since her appearance on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" Clayton has solidified herself as a top-notch belter, tackling anything and everything in between. Last night before a sizable crowd at the Mint, Clayton and her eight-piece band turned on the charm and recruited a few more members to her fanclub.

Laura Ferreiro

Ringo Starr greets the crowd at the Troubadour with Russell Brand

It's always surreal entering a dark rock club in the middle of the day, but it's even more bizarre when you find yourself standing next to a Beatle and Katy Perry's ex while most people are sitting at their desks fighting off the Monday blues. This was the happy fate of a few lucky Sirius XM competition winners (and a wayward journalist) who saw Ringo Starr perform, get heckled by comedian Russell Brand and answer questions about his fabled career while most of L.A. toiled away.

Falling James

Exene Cervenka of X

(Much) Better Than ... hearing many of these same songs butchered on punk rock karaoke night at the local sports bar.

Of course there's something oddly oxymoronic about a museum inviting punk rock bands over to play (albeit safely outside on the patio). In the very early days of punk, X and the Avengers were blacklisted from most rock nightclubs, much less museums, and their fans were often beaten up by cops just for walking down the street. Not to mention that back then a lineup like this might've cost $3 at the Starwood, as opposed to the $50 and up ticket price tonight at MOCA.

By definition, punk was anti-nostalgic and wasn't meant to last long enough to be examined in a clinical setting, if only as a defiant and/or hopeless reaction to the literal and long-winded monopoly classic-rock groups like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac had (and still have) over the radio airwaves. There's a reason why X's first concert movie was called The Unheard Music, and why so many of their brilliant early L.A. peers (the Screamers, Black Randy & the Metro Squad, Rhino 39, Ella & the Blacks) were rarely or barely documented at all.

Liz Ohanesian

They Might Be Giants at Royce Hall

Better than ... watching a Clarissa Explains It All marathon.

Royce Hall isn't the sort of venue where you dance and stand on your toes to see during a concert. Your ticket comes with an assigned seat and, typically, you stay there for the duration of the show, offering polite applause throughout the performance. Things are different, though, when They Might Be Giants play. For Saturday night's 30th anniversary show, the Johns (Flansburgh and Linnell, respectively) weren't going to let us stay in our seats.

Early on in the concert, Flansburgh, the John with the guitar, asked for someone to turn on the house lights. Then he invited everyone to move forward and crowd the aisles. The band then burst into "Clap Your Hands," a vintage soul-styled jam from their children's album, No! This wasn't a kids' show -- that happened earlier in the day -- but adults are just as good at clapping their hands and stomping their feet as the little ones.

OSA Images

A dance scene from Immortal, with Bubbles gettin' hyphy in the middle.

Better than ...This Is It in 3-D

Of course there was a flash mob, superfans in zombie getup busting their best "Thriller" moves outside the Staples Center box office while the crowd filed in. This was a Michael Jackson show, after all. Last night, MJ was present, if in spirit only: like it says in the Bible, where two or three come together in the King's name, there is he with them.

The show kicked off in a subtle fashion, with just three dancers (one was the main "ghost of MJ" character, who later proved to be incredible) performing a video game-like dance sequence in front of an LED screen. Latecomers took their seats, and with that segment over we were ready to turn the place out.