San Francisco LoveWeek, 10/1-5
Sure, the LoveFest parade and festival are going down Saturday, but LoveWeek spans some two dozen events at various clubs Wednesday through Sunday. Take your pick of everything from electro house and trance to drum and bass and dubstep. To name a few, electronic outfit MSTRKRFT will appear at the Mezzanine Wednesday night, and Devlin and Darko of innovative hip hop group Spank Rock offer a tempting alternative to the official afterparty. One event, at the SF LGBT Center, even doubles as a fundraiser for marriage equality.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival @ Golden Gate Park, 10/3-5
The appropriately titled annual fest boasts a lineup encompassing folk, country, Americana and beyond: most notably this time around, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Hazel Dickens, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello’s High Whines & Spirits, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Iron and Wine, Gogol Bordello and, naturally, MC Hammer. Best of all, admission is free.

Dengue Fever @ Bimbo’s 365 Club, 10/17
Singer Chhom Nimol, transplanted from Phnom Penh, lends an ethereal Cambodian pop sensibility to the Los Angeles band’s psychedelic rock. Co-announced by UC Berkeley’s very own KALX Radio.

Girl Talk @ The Fillmore, 10/27-28
Mashup artist Greg Gillis’ new album Feed The Animals, due out Oct. 21 and currently available as a pick-your-price digital download, is every bit as entertaining as you’d expect (admire the seamless meshing of Jay-Z with Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”; listen for a perfectly placed snatch of OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson”). If his studio albums brim with energy, Gillis’ live shows — expect a continual, continually surprising stream of laptop noodling — are unbearably wonderful.

Other picks:

Deerhoof @ Great American Music Hall, 10/4
The Black Kids, The Virgins @ Great American Music Hall, 10/13
Ghostland Observatory @ The Fillmore, 10/17
The Roots, Gym Class Heroes @ San Jose State Event Center, 10/18
Pinback @ Bimbo’s, 10/19
Patti Smith @ The Warfield, 10/20
The Original Wailers @ Slim’s, 10/21
Stereolab @ The Fillmore, 10/21-22
The Mountain Goats @ The Independent, 10/23
Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band @ The Warfield, 10/24
Crystal Castles @ The Independent, 10/29-30
The Black Keys @ The Fillmore, 10/30
Yelle @ Mezzanine, 10/31
Aphrodesia @ Café du Nord, 10/31

Image Sources: Flickr, Streethound, SF Weekly, Culture Bully