The heavy hitters of hip hop jingle your bells

No prejudice seems more socially acceptable than the bile aimed at the overweight. From TV (such as Friends' pockmark that is Fat Monica) to your buddy's tacky and too-loud comments on large passersby, we tend to tolerate this type of finger-pointing — especially in healthy and/or drug-fueled-thin San Francisco. But some clubs have created safe spaces for those who sport curves and the ones who love/lust after them. " Heavy Rotation," one such place, throws down pop, '80s, indie rock, hip hop, garage, and electro sounds for stout queer/straight, male/female partiers of all kinds. Get Heavy this Friday, Dec. 15, at El Rio at 10 p.m. Call 282-332 or visit www.elriosf.com for more info. — Brock Keeling

For seven years, Brooklyn's Metro Area (Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani) has created house music for the grown and sexy. It channels the most passionate and soul-stirring elements of post-disco groove while filtering out cliches and predictable elements for a sophisticated sound that has few peers in America. A funky reminder of the group before Metro Area (hopefully) drops a new album in '07, Jesrani plays a DJ set on Saturday, Dec. 16, at Rx Gallery at 9 p.m. Admission is $10-12; call 474-7973 or visit www.blasthaus.com for more info. — Tamara Palmer

The recurring party "Rock the Bells" is turbo-charged on this go-round, with appearances by Redman, who is the still-underrated Cheech (to Method Man's Chong) of hip hop, and Wu-Tang Clan stars Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. This show has a full lineup that's all worth seeing, especially Pharoahe Monch (who's lately been known as Diddy's ghostwriter) and Los Angeles' Supernatural, who possesses a twisted tongue worthy of a name with such unearthly force. KMEL personality Big Von spins the tunes on Saturday, Dec. 16, Mezzanine at 9 p.m. Admission is $30; call 625-8880 or visit www.mezzaninesf.com for more info. — T.P.