If this pop star thing doesn’t work out, Julian Casablancas has a great future as a production designer.

So much for taking the easy road.

Recently, the five members of Switchfoot decided to start every night of their new U.S. tour by playing their Nov. 10 release, Hello Hurricane, in its entirety. But backstage before Sunday night's sold-out tour opener at San Diego's East County Performing Arts Center, the decision was becoming an anxiety-producing reality.

The scene was electric outside of Los Angeles' Hollywood & Highland open-air mall on Friday evening. A huge line snaked out into the streets, and much of the crowd looked strikingly similar: gaggles of teenage girls (plus guys, moms, dads, and little ones) in black T-shirts emblazoned with five key words: The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Thursday, MTV's European Music Awards took place in Berlin, Germany, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. U2, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Shakira, and others performed -- and Beyonce walked away with three trophies, the night's biggest winner. Check out our take on the event's best & worst moments:

At the Pixies' Hollywood Palladium show on Wednesday night, the sold-out crowd of 4,000 seemed caught between genuflecting respectfully and just going nuts. Kicking off a 21-date U.S.

If you found yourself driven to New York's Bowery Ballroom on Friday night solely by the vaguely Messianic reaction to San Francisco duo Girls' debut, Album, then you could be forgiven if, for much of the evening, you wondered whether you were even in the right building.

Tuesday night at Michigan State University, angsty rock fans with angular haircuts and all-black wardrobes stood alongside preppy Greek Row members to watch Taking Back Sunday and the All-American Rejects -- reps from the introspective and fun-lovin' poles of the emo genre, respectively -- kick off their joint U.S. tour.

Some things get better with age: wine, violins, Devo. Unlike other vintage rock acts, the Akron, Ohio New Wave satirists deserve their place on that particular short list. That much was made clear to the packed house at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater, who were there to witness the opening salvo of Devo's new tour.

Maynard James Keenan -- the freak-show ringmaster of Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer -- perpetually promises to design spectacles that go well beyond what people expect from a rock show.

Friday night at New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience, even chilly temps and torrents of rain couldn't keep the soggy pre-Halloween crowd – sexy nurses caked in mud, shivering bunnies and cops – from sticking around for Eminem's 9:30 PM closing set.