I am looking forward to the George W. Bush tax rebate check that I still have not received. $600 to inject back into the economy. Being a good American, I have decided to take that chunk of change and spend it. I live within walking distance of the Hollywood Bowl, and I really wanted that money to go back into my community. Tonight I was rewarded for the first donation I made with a chance to enjoy Modest Mouse and R.E.M. sharing the stage at the historic outdoor venue.

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Forget the “guilty” part — going to Thursday’s Hall & Oates show at West Hollywood’s Troubadour was just a pleasure.

OK, that was super-cheesy, but listening to an hour and 45 minutes of H&O can take someone to an unapologetically geeky place. The duo cranked out the radio hits in the ’70s and ’80s, getting their start more than 35 years ago at the vaunted club. And when Daryl Hall hit the stage, he summed up the first date of the two-night Troubadour stand in two words: “Full circle.”

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Hey all you “American Idol” fans out there — as tonight’s Nielsen numbers will no doubt prove tomorrow morning, you just spent two hours on the edge of your seat, wondering which David would reign supreme. Well, now that you know, what do you think? We wanna hear from you! But … we also wanna see you!

So if you’ve got a webcam, a video camera, a digital camera with video capability, or even a cell phone that shoots video, we want you to point it toward yourself and let the world know exactly what you thought of tonight’s big “American Idol” finale. Did America pick the right singer? Did the show keep you entertained? What kind of future do you see for David and David? It’s time to speak your mind!

So head on over to yourhere.mtv.com and sign up for an account if you don’t already have one. Then upload your (profanity free) reaction video for the world to see. Plus, be sure and check out what everyone else is saying as well!

It doesn’t get any more intimate than the Kibitz Room at Canter’s Deli. The tiny performance space and adjacent bar inside the legendary delicatessen was host to the Kooks’ beautiful acoustic performance last night.

The stage was nothing more than an inch or so of raised plywood in the corner of the room. The band was a stripped-down version, with just vocalist Luke Pritchard and guitarist Hugh Harris onstage with nothing more than their guitars. There were no amps for this one, which was incredible because Luke’s vocals seemed to have much more immediacy and his lyrics felt much more meaningful.

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When you picture rock and roll, the last thing you’d probably associate it with is a restaurant that bakes 4,000 knishes every week. But last night, Canter’s Delicatessen — the definitive Hollywood spot for late-night grub since the 1940s — turned its side room into a tiny concert hall for U.K. indie-rock sensations the Kooks.

Hugh Harris and Luke Pritchard represented half of the four-piece, each armed with only an acoustic guitar — no amps, no speakers, not even a microphone, as about a hundred onlookers squeezed into a fire marshal’s nightmare. This truly was an acoustic set. Keep in mind, only 24 hours earlier, the Kooks sold out the 1,200-seat Wiltern Theater.

The motivation behind our intimate little gathering was apparently for a tour video project, intended for viewing on the Kooks’ Web site. And the few people lucky enough to pack themselves into that room were the benefactors of this innovative digital project. Around 10 p.m., Hugh and Luke took the stage (or more like the stoop) and opened with the song “Ooh La,” off their debut album, Inside In/ Inside Out.

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	You R Here contributor jnorris shot these photos of Sum 41 (along with pics of OK Go and Forever the Sickest Kids) over the weekend at the Indianapolis 500 qualifications.

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Just a few short days after joining his ex-band, the Receiving End of Sirens, for one of their last shows in Providence, Rhode Island, Casey Crescenzo was back where he belonged — onstage fronting his now full-time project, the Dear Hunter (TDH). The group recently opened for the trendy Fall of Troy in front of a sold-out crowd at Miami’s hipster rock club Studio A.

As the stage lights dimmed, looped ambiance began to take over the soundscape glam-punk band Foxy Shazam had dominated a good 20 minutes prior. Once the band walked onstage, guitarist Erick Serna slowly contributed to the atmosphere with an assortment of ethereal tones, sweeps and rhythms. Before long, the whole band had joined in a Mars-Volta-style post-rock jam session — an atmosphere that would last through their set.

As the ambiance died down, the Dear Hunter started their set with a hymnal intro track that transitioned from influence seemingly found in composer Brian Eno to that of Crescenzo’s former band, the Receiving End of Sirens (TREOS). As the set continued, a TREOS influence was felt in the backbone of almost every song as Crescenzo sang as if he were reliving the very moment each song was written in. It’s this passion that helped win over a small fraction of the Fall of Troy’s rough crowd.

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On Wednesday, frequent You R Here contributors Club Kingsnake used their pit passes to score these (and more) photos of Panic at the Disco performing at the Sound Academy in Toronto.

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It was a hot Miami day and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of a band named Foxy Shazam. Something in the vein of that ’70s one-hit-wonder funk group Foxy, or maybe Foxy Cleopatra from the third Austin Powers film … who knows? Already disillusioned from the 98° weather outside, the last thing I needed was to witness what I can only imagine to be the visual representation of Prince on an acid trip mixed with the unpredictably appealing mix of glam-punk and neo-soul.

Between a keyboardist whose occupation must be confused for a rabbi’s, rather than a touring musician’s, on account of his long and nappy beard, to the seemingly endless amount of stage dives singer Eric Nally insisted on, regardless to the not-so-impressed audience pushing him back onstage, Foxy Shazam’s set was nothing short of a spectacle. “There’s no more good songs left write,” recited Nally in a drunken ramble, all while playing a human piano over keyboardist Schuyler White’s hunched back. “You want to know why?” he yelled. “Because the Beatles took ‘em all!”

Apparently there were a few Beatles fans in the room, because the crowd ate it up. About three songs into Foxy’s opening slot for experimental prog-rockers the Fall of Troy, the crowd at Miami’s Studio A weren’t the only ones eating things up. Nally had started collecting cigarettes from fans during the previous song and proceeded to stick half a dozen of them into his mouth. Light, puff and swallow seems to be Nally’s routine with cigarettes.

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