Confectionary Danish pop vs. making a Mark Bolan entrance

I first heard Danish band Mew at the Spot Festival in Ã…rhus, Denmark, when it headlined over a sea of Scandinavian talent (including fellow countrymen the Figurines, who have since become a breakout act in the United States). Live and on disc, Mew's music is as precious as its name — stunning, airy electronic pop, with male vocals so effeminate they float in the same confectionary ether as Sigur Rós. Yet the songs spring into their choruses like Vegas casino geysers, the layers of cooing humans and synthesized instruments putting on grand displays. It's a pity that the first of two upcoming Mew shows is with Kasabian — a band even Rolling Stonerecently admitted has become an "artless pastiche" of photocopied influences — but luckily the second gig has Mew as the solo act. No word on whether J. Mascis (who does the strangest vocal cameo of the year on Mew's most recent record) will bring his yowl on the road for this one. Mew performs on Friday, Oct. 13, at the Independent at 9 p.m. That show is sold out, but you can also see the band on Thursday, Oct. 19, at Popscene at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $8; visit www.popscene-sf.com for more info. — Jennifer Maerz

São Paulo sextet CSS touring with Liverpool-founded Ladytron — on paper it's an odd pairing, and in person even more so. It's retro (indie pop pastiche peddlers CSS) vs. retro-futuristic (bittersweet synth-glam Ladytron); it's also the difference between a lead singer who cheekily dances the Robot (CSS' Lovefoxxx) and one with the poise of a robot (Ladytron's Helen Marnie). CSS is a sassy gaggle of lo-fi scenery chewing, while Ladytron stages high-concept set pieces. Sure, CSS has only one true punk-funk anthem — "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" — to Ladytron's three-album-deep development of diffused guitar and spooked electronics. But damned if the endearingly amateurish, effusive Lovefoxxx can't lead a rousing half-hour calisthenics session. Drop in to the Fillmore on Monday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m. for an erratically aerobic-meets-mecho, methodical pairing. Admission is $25; call 346-6000 or visit www.thefillmore.com for more info. — Tony Ware

Entrance (aka Guy Blakeslee) fancies himself an electric-guitar hippie bluesman: Marc Bolan as a tall, dangerous sex criminal. He looks like he might at any moment stride off stage as quick as his crotch-confining velvet pants will permit, shake a squall of glitter out of his Mitch Mitchell afro, grab a willing hippie chick, and do her, warbling "yeah, girl" in that reedy tenor while she clutches his talcum-white ass. So he's absurd, but that's where electrifying performances come from: someone willing to get up on stage all alone and put on the kind of rock-god show the rest of us save for our bedroom mirrors. Entrance performs on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Rickshaw Stop at 8 p.m. Admission is $8; call 861-2011 or visit www.rickshawstop.com for more info. — Frances Reade