The best-est Christmas pageant doesn’t always have to be the most traditional. This weekend, skip the traditional and come see The Most Gnarliest Christmas Pageant Ever! Nothing like a lil’ rock 'n’ roll, to jump start your holiday!

If the White Stripes and Rage Against The Machine spent a drunken night together and created a love child (maybe Coheed and Cambria was hiding in the closet while it was happening), I'm pretty sure its name would be Vega.

Music: You can dance to it, drink beer to it, make love to it. Like most weekends here in West Michigan, there is plenty of on-stage action going down.

If you're strolling through The Wallace Collective's most recent EP, be prepared to get hit with a cornucopia of sounds. The Grand Rapids-based folk rock outfit features full versatility on their latest release, put out in May of this year.

This week's Local Track of the Week comes from indie rock outfit The Cardboard Swords out of Grand Rapids. Wielding a Mike Mains & The Branches-esque sound, the band recently released a single from their brand new EP.

Electronic dance music is a hot commodity, with twenty-something audiences selling out venues coast to coast and hitting the dance floor at Monte’s, Tavern on the Square, Billy’s and Grand Woods Lounge, to name a few.

Pop punk is far from dead, especially in the Grand Rapids area. With pop punk purists like Midwest Skies, West and Run and The Better Fight grinding it away, the genre ain't going away. Sorry hipsters! When you talk pop rock, you would be remiss (yea, I said remiss) if you didn't mention Maybe Next Time, a six-piece group from right here in furniture city.

If there's one band that you simply have to see live, it's Foxy Shazam. Period. The Ohio-based group has spent the last decade building a reputation for themselves, being well-known for their signature live performances that are often a somewhat delicate balance between wildly theatrical and just plain insane. And they do so while wielding a unique and infectious brand of rock in a style that's all glam.

Diego Garcia's music could be called easy listening if not for the infusion of flavors his heritage and experiences have brought to his writing. The songwriter's latest album, Paradise, encompasses themes of love, reconciliation and self-discovery to the beat of Garcia's acoustic guitar. But Garcia's influences are wide ranging, including punk pioneer Iggy Pop.

If you don't know the Grand Rapids-based folk rock band Bennett yet, you should learn their name. This trio of fresh-faced college kids carry an incredibly mature and polished sound that bring a variety of instruments into the mix. This is all an addition to rich vocal harmonies.