The Flaming Lips have always been about big ideas: In 1997, it was Zaireeka, an experimental release comprising four CD's designed to be played simultaneously; in 2002, it was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, a concept album so theatrical the band decided to adapt it into a Broadway musical with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin; and come Oct.

It was right after a rousing version of "The Sound of Settling" from 2003's Transatlanticism, 12 songs into Death Cab For Cutie's sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl, that frontman Ben Gibbard made the big announcement:

"We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back with 50 of our new friends!"

"So this is the first show of our tour," Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland told the sold-out crowd at Los Angeles' House of Blues during the inaugural St. Jude Rock'n'Roll Hope Show, a new event to raise funds for children's cancer research. "Ready or not," he continued. "Ready or not."

Music fans are wise to be leery when they see phrases like "all-original lineup" and "long-anticipated reunion tour" followed by that cracked-out whore of the punctuation world -- the exclamation point. We all know what she's hiding: The fact that the band members are broke and temporarily putting aside mutual hatred for quick cash.

"Hello!" yelled Mark Hoppus from a stage at Los Angeles' Paramount Pictures lot Thursday night. "We are Blink-182 and this is our first show together after four years of hating each other's guts!" (See a photo gallery of the show here.)

Unlike many celebrity spawn, 24-year-old Liam Finn is actually quite comfortable discussing his famous father, former Split Enz and current Crowded House tunesmith Neil Finn. "I'm proud of him," says the scraggly-bearded New Zealander, relaxing after a packed show at the Los Angeles club Spaceland.