Dashboard Confessional

The lowdown -- Ellicott City-based group The Dangerous Summer has worked with producer Paul Levitt, who has collaborated with Dashboard Confessional and All Time Low, and released If You Could Only Keep Me Alive, last summer. The band joins fellow indie quartet the Apathy Eulogy, of Baltimore, for a show at Rams Head Live tomorrow. The Great Escape, Oh, The Story! and Stupid Hero also perform. If you go -- Showtime is 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place. Tickets are $9. Call 410-244-1131 or go to ramshead live.

Something I wish I could write more, but will happily do so now: It's a great weekend for Baltimore concerts. Rather than picking one concert to showcase, I'd rather highlight some of the strong options the area is offering, which includes local talent and national headliners. •••• Erykah Badu and the Cannabinoids play Rams Head Live Friday night. Badu's appeal - a keen writer's eye, hippie-wise from a full life with enough edge to keep things interesting - comes alive on stage.

Amos Lee -- 9:30 Club and Recher / Head to the Recher Theatre tomorrow and the 9:30 Club on Saturday for performances by soul-folk musician Amos Lee. Experience both sides of Lee: the soul side, which is inspired by artists such as Stevie Wonder, and his folk side in the intimacy of his acoustic guitar. The Recher Theatre is at 512 York Road, Towson. Tickets are $20 and the show starts 8 p.m. Call 410-337-7210 or 410-547-SEAT or visit tick etmaster.com. The 9:30 Club is at 815 V St. N.W., Washington Doors open at 10 p.m. Tickets are $21. For more information, call 800-955-5566 or go to tickets.

This past weekend was packed with shows: J. Roddy Walston, the Get 'Em Mamis, Dashboard Confessional. Did anyone go see Erykah Badu at Rams Head? Our reviewer did not enjoy the show. That kind of weekend is gonna be a rarity this month. During the holidays, concerts and nightlife events, like everyone else, mostly take a break. That's especially true this week, with the biggest show a Tori Amos performance in Washington D.C. Elsewhere: Yelle, a college night at Baltimore Soundstage, Prince Rama, Yelle, Jane Birkin, Ultra Nate, and the Mid-Atlantic Holiday Beer Festival.

Here are some of the bands who have performed at the annual HFSTival through the years. 1993 INXS, Iggy Pop, Ned's Automic Dustbin, Stereo MCs, Matthew Sweet, Velocity Girl 1994 Cracker, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Meat Puppets, Counting Crows, James, Pavement, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, Afghan Whigs, Greenberry Woods 1995 Courtney Love, Tony Bennett, Primus, Ramones, Juliana Hatfield, Better Than Ezra, Mike Watt, Bush, PJ Harvey, Soul Asylum, Archers...

On their 2005 debut, All We Know Is Falling, the musician friends of Paramore just wanted to have fun. "We wanted to tour and hope people would latch on to the music," says lead guitarist Josh Farro, the available spokesman for the teen emo-pop band. The Tennessee quartet -- fronted by charismatic lead vocalist-songwriter Hayley Williams and featuring Farro's brother Zac on drums and Jeremy Davis on bass -- generated a fair amount of buzz on the Vans Warped Tour in the past two years.

On the surface, the band seemed unlikely to catch on. First of all, the quartet of drummer Andy Hurley, singer Patrick Stump, guitarist Joe Trohman and bassist Pete Wentz calls itself Fall Out Boy, the name of a dorky, obscure character from The Simpsons. Second, Wentz, the group's chief lyricist and figurehead, has a penchant for song titles that stretch a mile. But the music -- fun, pop-savvy, emo-laced punk-rock -- is immediate, the musicianship impressive. Although the titles may be long, you don't easily forget a Fall Out Boy song.