Bruce who? What to do if you're just not into that guy

So you couldn't afford tickets to Brews Springstream? (That's the rock star playing the the Key on Saturday, right?)

Were you looking forward to hearing "The Manager" (isn't that his nickname?) play all his hits with the Easy Street Band?

Don't worry if the scalper-priced tickets broke your hungry heart — you can still enjoy plenty of the fine, low-budget music flowing around Seattle this weekend and next week.

• The explosive Seattle garage-punk band Das Llamas — gritty songs like "Wood on Bone" mark this as one of the top young bands going around here — plays Fremont club High Dive (9:30 tonight, $7). Das Llamas singer Kerry Zettel sounds like Adam Ant on steroids.• If you're needing a hip-hop fix, the Rendezvous is the place to be, as national players Grayskul — they caught national play with the video to the killer cut "Scarecrow" — and party-crew Cancer Rising lead a wild bill (10:30 tonight, $5).

• Sera Cahoone, a former drummer — with Carissa's Wierd and, briefly, its offshoot, Band of Horses — continues her impressive career as an alt-country singer-songwriter. She has a new Sub Pop CD, "Only As the Day Is Long," displaying a relaxed yet honest sound. Cahoone celebrates the release with a show at the Tractor Tavern (9 p.m. Saturday, $10).

Sharing the bill with Cahoone is Panda & Angel, a local band that produced a stunning demo two years ago — so good they were signed by the respected label Jade Tree after just a handful of shows.

The five-piece, anchored by potent singer Carrie Murphy and producer-guitarist Josh Wackerly, will be playing previously released songs like "Dangerous," as well new material from a coming album.

• Don't you hate it when electro-pop bands fall in love with how cute they are?

Fortunately, Velella Velella resists the call of the cute. There are plenty of synthesized sounds in their songs, but they play it straightforward — even cutting some serious funk grooves. ("Brass Ass" is a good example.)

The Seattle band — Andrew Means, Michael Burton, Jeremy Hadley and Sylvia Chen — gets ready for a national tour with a show at the Sunset (10 p.m. Saturday, $8).

• The San Diego indie-pop band Louis XIV plays from its new album "Slick Dogs and Ponies" at Chop Suey (9 p.m. Saturday, $13). After a buzz-getting debut album, the Louis crew is taking a critical pounding on its second, with Rolling Stone complaining "it sometimes feels like these guys have confused expanding their range with finding new sources to rip off" and Pitchfork jumping on the pile with "testosterone-fueled rock at its least appealing extremes: heedless lust or, arguably even more repulsive, cheesy balladry."

Austin's What Made Milwaukee Famous — from the Barsuk Records stable — are touring with Louis XIV. This is the band to catch on the Chop Suey bill, as the Los Angeles Times called Milwaukee singer Michael Kingcaid "one of rock's overlooked vocal commandos."

• The new Capitol Hill venue King Cobra has another rowdy weekend of rock. The Cute Lepers, a side project from Steve E. Nix of the Briefs, headlines (9 tonight, $7).

Punk-garage band the Whore Moans and neoclassic rockers Iceage Cobra are on King Cobra's bill (9 p.m. Saturday, $8).

• Remember X? The influential punk band is back together with all original members, including John Doe and Exene Cervenka. X visits the Showbox (9 p.m. Sunday, $25). Local alt-country band Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands open the show.

• Does the noise level of audiences at clubs bother you? Then listen to the e-mailed whisperings of local singer-songwriter Levi Fuller:"Sometimes I want to play (or attend) shows of quiet, acoustic artists at a place where people will sit and listen to them, and it can be very challenging. House shows are great, but you can't really promote them the way you'd like, and some people feel weird going to them. Most of the other venues are bars that generally host loud music, so quieter acts tend to either get drowned out by drunken conversation or cranked up in order to compete with said conversation."

So he is launching a "listening room" series at McLeod Residence, a gallery/bar in Belltown (2209 Second Ave.). What he envisions as "a monthly series of quiet shows" begins with performances by Fuller, Moe Provencher and TroubleShooting (8 p.m. Wednesday, no cover).

A free show — not a bad idea, if you're broke in the USA.

Tom Scanlon: 206-464-3891 or tscanlon@seattletimes.com