I saw Annie (born Anne Lilia Berge-Strand in Bergen, Norway) a few months ago on her first swing through the United States, and the woman literally sparkled on stage. Her nearly-white blonde hair shone brightly in the stage lights like an ethereal pixie and her mouth wound itself enticingly around the glittering pop nuggets offered up on her debut album, Anniemal.

A.C. Newman of New Pornographers and Torquil Campbell of Stars are both leaders of (mostly) Canadian indie pop groups. Both are known for fusing retro sounds with a modern sensibility, creating lushly orchestrated songs with a refreshingly straightforward appeal. And both have seen the impact of their creative vision upstaged by the same thing: the raw sex appeal of their female vocalists.

Concert-goers aching for full exposure to dangerous pop music needed look no further than New York's Knitting Factory on June 12 for sets by Architecture in Helsinki and the coyly-named Head of Femur.

Following the Stripes' June 10 headlining appearance at the 12th Annual Music Midtown in Atlanta -- the band's lone performance in the U.S. before kicking off a tour in late July -- it remains clear the group's minimalist preoccupations are both a boon and burden live. As a consequence, the Stripes' set was a bit of an uneven tear through songs spanning the duo's five-album catalog.

Forsaking the standard detached rock star pose, Sound of Urchin instead opted for balls-out rock'n'roll energy at a recent CBGB gig celebrating the release of their latest album, The Diamond, produced by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger.

U2 at Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ
5/18/05