“At 2 a.m. you can’t come home after a night out and act… but you can write a song.”  – Tim Robbins.

We tend to return to the roost after a night out and eat microwaved pizza and fall asleep on the couch, but we may take a page from Tim Robbins’ songbook after hearing his first album, Tim Robbins & the Rogues Gallery, released at the tender age of 51 (what else is a guy to do after breaking up with Susan Sarandon?). In fairness, Robbins has been fiddling around with a guitar for a long time, with a musical family, experience co-producing the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking, and under-the-radar shows in small venues. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the folksy, storytelling songs by Tim Robbins & the Rogues Gallery are actually really good. We won’t miss his Montreal debut tonight at Club Soda.

But we’re probably just going to pack it in with a poutine and leave the song writing to Tim.

Tickets ($32.50) available online and by phone 514-286-1010. Wednesday July 13, 8 p.m. at Club Soda, 1225 St. Laurent Blvd., Montreal, www.timrobbins.net

If you missed Robyn’s re-invention from ‘90s teen-pop star (remember “Show me Love”?) to independent record-label owning electro-diva, you’ve got some catching up to do.

Luckily you can catch the Swedish songstress at Metropolis tomorrow night, performing the bittersweet “Be Mine,” the fist-pounding “Dancing on my Own” and the sexy-sweet “Hang with Me” in what we’re betting will be one of the last of her small venue tours.

Catch her if you can.

Tickets $32.05 at www.admission.com

We used to love Christmas music, until Mariah Carey and Jessica Simpson jingled their bells all over the genre.

We’re getting far from the fa-la-las at the Holiday Interlude presented by the Arte Musica Foundation. From 2 p.m.-3 p.m. on December 28, 29 and 30, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal will sing choral music by Bach, Mendelssohn and Brahms in the Hall of Bronzes at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Let heaven and nature sing!

Tickets ($25) available online at online at www.mmfa.qc.ca/concerts and by phone at 514‐285‐2000.

We liked, tweeted, and shared that great music video with the rock band dancing alongside tiny trained dogs, and then we wondered…who are those guys?

The band, OK Go, may be most widely known for their viral videos, like Grammy-award winning treadmill dancing in “Here it goes Again” and the fabulously furry back-up dancers in their latest, "White Knuckles," but it’s the music that really makes us want to get up and dance.

No treadmill or toy dog required.

October 16, 8:30 p.m., tickets ($18), Le National, 1220 St. Catherine St. E., Montreal, 514-845-2014 and www.admission.com

When a kids group plays Coachella and is the inspiration behind Brad Pitt's Halloween costume, you know it's captured the zeitgeist.

DJ Lance Rock and the Gabba Gang are taking their hip show on the road to select Canadian cities. High-energy and interactive, the magical boom box will be pumping, and the Dancey Dance section will include a top secret guest at every show (past participants include Sarah Silverman and Snoop Dog).  

Just try not to push the kids out of the way when you rush the stage.

Tour dates and tickets at www.yogabbagabbalive.com/tickets

Catch one last outdoor concert before summer flies the way of the Canada Goose.

The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is launching its 2010-2011 season with a free open-air event featuring music by Strauss, Stravinski and Gershwin. An homage to Haiti, the show takes place in front of the MSO’s future l’Adresse Symphonique home with narration by Quebec writer Dany Laferrière and performances by Luck Mervil and Cirque Eloize. 

That all sounds fab but we’ll be focused on the sexy flip of Kent Nagano’s hair as he waves the baton.

7 p.m. September 2, on the Parterre of the Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal, 514-842-9951, www.osm.ca

Rufus might be staging operas and playing Carnegie Hall, but our favorite Wainwright sibling has always been Martha.

We adore her even more with the release of Sans Fusils, ni souliers, à Paris, a live interpretation of Edith Piaf’s lesser-known songs. The tunes are both romantic and tortured (just like Piaf) with Martha’s folksy voice wobbling in all the right places.

Is it unfair to play favourites in families? Je ne regrette rien.

$9.99 on iTunes

Martha Wainwright in concert, 7:30 p.m., June 24, Salle Andre-Mathieu, 475 Boulevard de l'Avenir, Laval, 450-667-2327, tickets here ($28.25), www.admission.com

We may have been born far from Brooklyn, but we still love to get down to the old funk / soul sound.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are committed to the revival of R&B, using only instruments and recording tools available until the mid-'70s. They’re bringing their Motown-esque gritty grinds to Le National tonight ($28), and we’re bringing our dancing shoes.

Now that’s what we call old school.

Tickets at Le National at 514-529-5000, www.admission.com

Meg and Jack ooze cool, so when they toured our every province and territory, we felt hip by association.

Shot on 16mm in the summer of 2007, White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights follows the non-siblings from coast to coast on a series of planned and impromptu concerts. They jam with elders in Iqaluit, sing with commuters on a Winnipeg city bus and perform at a bowling alley in Saskatoon.

We’re red, white and cool.

Tickets from $8, 9 p.m. on March 11 at Cinéma du Parc, 3575 Parc Avenue, Montreal, 514-281-1900, www.cinemaduparc.com
Limited Edition Box Set ($259.99) available March 16 at www.whitestripes.com

When little Saxon unearths his Dad’s old turntables (and Metallica collection) and Vivienne becomes a backstage baby, make sure they don’t become the next It’s All Gone Pete Tong by protecting their hearing with these cool muffs.

Called Peltor Hearing Protectors (let’s keep that between us), the adjustable hot pink and bright blue earphones shield little ears from harmful noises while letting in ambient sound at hockey games, concerts, and parades.

Rock on, mom.

Age 1 and up. $39.95 at www.dandelionkids.ca