Tuesday Happenings

Tongues, Cheeks

Wasted Talent, the brainchild of Nabo Rawk and DJ Paul Foley, updates hip house for the white boy set. We're partial to the geography dropping banger "Khed," but any rapper who can rhyme "Dukakis" with "Moms want to jock us," deserves a few of your dollars. With tongue-in-cheek teenage rock band The Sprained Ankles. O'Brien's Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston, 8 p.m. $7.

Showdowns

It's the return of the String Quartet Showdown, an event that we really dug this summer. Two string quartets vie for supremacy as they work their way through the Western canon and you drink beer, judging their every mistake. (Or paying attention only a quarter of the time, as the case may be.) Last time we dropped in, it was heavy on the Schubert and the Mozart; maybe this week will be all Elliott Carter. Alchemist Lounge, 435 S. Huntington Ave., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.

Drone

Semata Productions brings the weird to Boston, and tonight's showcase, featuring Ten Thousand Things, Stillbirth, Ricardo Donoso, and Ouest, fits the bill. Lots of drone, tape manipulation, and feedback, for those who are into that sort of thing. Piano Craft Guild, 791 Tremont St., 8 p.m. $5-$10.

Dancing Hipsters

E-Marce's weekly Throwed! dance party features the indie electro jams that keep the people in the tapered jeans moving. Today's edition features DJ Texas Mike and NYC electro throwback band Infernal Devices. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 10 p.m. $10.