While they’ve both passed through town (and graced these pages) already this year, the pairing of Edmonton emcee Cadence Weapon and Toronto electro-pop duo Woodhands is impossible to resist. Cadence is known for furious live sets that result in chipped teeth for the rapper and sweat-soaked clothing for his audiences; Woodhands don’t necessarily go in for the tooth-chipping, but they also refuse to settle for anything less than 100 per cent commitment from the crowd. Don’t half-ass this one — if you check them out on Thursday, October 2 at The Marquee Room, you’ve got to commit.

If you can’t handle that kind of responsibility, Broken City might be a safer bet on Friday night. Not that Vancouver’s The Awkward Stage don’t deserve your undivided attention, but their infectious pop-rock doesn’t require the same sort of relentless body movin’. They’ll be joined by Indiensoci, one of Calgary’s finest purveyors of atmospheric pop.

Because this week simply refuses to make things easy for music fans, Friday presents another difficult choice. First, there’s the double bill of Vancouver’s Mellencamp-worshipping Carpenter and Calgary’s oh-so-beloved Chixdiggit, a punk-rock one-two punch that’ll have crowds pogoing like mad. Then there’s the early-’90s nostalgia of a reunited Blind Melon (sans late singer Shannon Hoon, naturally). New singer Travis Warren will handle vocal duties when the band hits the Stampede Casino. And if you prefer something a little more modern, there’s always Calgary’s Gutterawl, featuring Lucid 44’s Markus Overland. Overland just wrapped up production on Gutterawl’s latest release, Red Sauce, a sprawling mix of rockers, field recordings and ambient audio clips, and he’s looking forward to unleashing it at The Palomino.

Things get a bit easier on Saturday, when multi-Juno Award-winning songwriter Alex Cuba heads to the Theatre Junction Grand. Cuba is one of those artists who is just about impossible to dislike — come for the Latin grooves and soothing melodies, stay for the impeccable afro and glorious sideburns.

Still, it wouldn’t feel right to leave this column with such an easy option. Instead, another impossible dilemma — do you take in acoustic songwriter Sam Beam, a.k.a. Iron and Wine, on Wednesday, October 8 at MacEwan Hall, or do you head to The Warehouse for the pairing of Plants and Animals and Born Ruffians? Like Cadence and Woodhands, Plants and Ruffians are no strangers to Calgary, but their live shows are full of such inventiveness and energy that they’re always a mighty tempting offer. Choose carefully.