Tonight Dum Dum Girls plays with Kign Khan & BBQ at the fuzzed-out, rockiest gig in town. Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8:30, $15

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The Phillies have always been that team you hate to love. Ever the dark horse contestants even in a winning season, fans can't help but admire the scrappy attitude and work ethic they put forth. And so, while most of the city was watching the Yanks beat the Phils last night, it was easy to draw the parallel with another group of underdogs playing for a crowd as the packed Hammerstein Ballroom hosted Converge. The bill included a flight of metal bands; stonerish Oaklanders High on Fire, the proggy Mastodon and the only cartoon death metal band in existence, Dethklok

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Tonight, Cymbals Eat Guitars, on the heels of some killer CMJ shows, will play Williamsburg at Sound Fix Records, 44 Berry St. (at N. 11th St.), Brooklyn, 718-388-3843; 7, Free.

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It took a while for Florence Welch, lead singer, songwriter and founder of Florence and the Machine, to make her way to the States from the U.K. And if you are a fan who has reveled in her soulful vocal, melancholy lyrics and full band, with harp, accompaniment for the past couple of years, you’ve noticed the delay. But all of those hard feelings were forgotten as of Tuesday night, when Welch and her band made their official New York debut with a thunderous show at Bowery Ballroom that left people cheering, yelling and generally freaking out.

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Everyone has a different take on, and different approach to CMJ. The NYC-based music festival can be a smorgasbord for passionate and adventurous music fans with enough energy and curiosity to stay up to all hours of the night seeing band after band, many of which they’ve never seen before. It can be an incredible game of Russian roulette. For every great band to be discovered, there’s five mediocre ones there to drain the showgoing life out of you. Six chambers, 5 bullets—is that a chance you’re willing to take? That’s a testament to the power of music.

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There are few bands spookier or more melancholy than San Diego’s The Black Heart Procession. So we’re considering it luck that the band, touring for its new album Six, will be in town this Halloween weekend, playing Maxwell’s on Saturday and Bowery Ballroom on Sunday.

Adam Rathe caught up with Black Heart’s Pall Jenkins during a break in his touring to talk about the new record, Halloween costumes and smoking pot in the van.

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Deep down, I'm still repenting for the moment I realized just how much I hated Bob Dylan's live show—when the part of me that wasn't choking back tears during "Masters of War" wondered when the geezer would wheeze his way through "All Along the Watchtower" and let us all just go the fuck home. Now, I don't love Talk Normal quite as much as I love Dylan (sorry ladies), so I doubt my disappointment with their set last night will rack me with the same, deep-seeded guilt.

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Hoodless mixes sad songs with powerpop in a way that makes us like it; singer Kevvy Kevs occasional raps don’t hurt either. They perform tonight with Joshua Lutz, And The Days Between, Jon Sandler and Vanessa Leonardo at Crash Mansion, 199 Bowery (at Spring St.), 212-982-0740; 7, $10

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If Halloween’s goblins and zombies aren’t brutal enough to fuel your bloodlust, consider this your lucky week. Converge, the legendary hardcore-metal band, is coming to town for two nights—Oct. 29 and 30 at Hammerstein Ballroom—in support of its new record Axe To Fall. Rebecca Huval checked in with singer Jacob Bannon, who schools her on mathcore, side projects and the charm of aggressive music.

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I decided at some point on CMJ's concluding day that I'd hit upon an ultra-relevant plan of attack. The idea: the microconcert. Collectively diminished powers of concentration and a glut of live music choices already draw some parallels to our ever-encompassing e-culture: all things rendered as short 'lil bursts of transient amusement. Industry music fests already somewhat follow this model (Gather. Listen. Disperse. Repeat.), so setting out to get 140 characters of music at a time only felt like only a slight tweak of the formula. It doesn't turn out to be that much fun, though, or a very practical premise at 2  songs per serving. More like: if the band sucks then bolting is a no brainer, but if an artist is actually enjoyable you'll have trouble pulling yourself away.

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