Flower Power

Akron/Family are a six-year-old band that in their various incarnations embrace hushed laptop folk, ecstatic chanting, wild improvisation, Beatles harmonies, West African grooves and fourth-wall detonating live performances.

Tonight, the Luminaire is their's for the taking, and with top support from The Acorn and Hush Arbors, this should be a cracker.

Fresh from the worldwide success of Black Watch, the National Theatre of Scotland return to London, this time at the Lyric with another play about damaged youth.

365 is set in a halfway home or 'practice flat' for kids about to be released from state care into the wider world and follows a number of guests as they gear up for the trials of life on the outside.

Curious Generation present one of their biggest gigs yet as Wouter DeBacker, aka Gotye, headlines at the Scala tonight, playing tracks from his three albums to date.

The latest, 'Mixed Blood', was a remix and covers album, offering an insight into the experimental musical mind of this minor genius. In the intimate surroundings of this live music paradise, his tracks will truly be brought to life.

It takes quite a lot to get Spoonfed Editors excited: we're such a dreary jaded miserable lot. But this looks brilliant!

It's basically just lots of art about light, right. Paintings, sculpture and installation looking at and employing the dazzling possibilities that light offers. But instead of the usual Private View with a glass of fizz and a scone or whatever, these guys are going that extra mile.

So head to the opening night on Thursday where there's fire performers, stilt walkers, jugglers and performance arty types all strutting their stuff and generally putting on a fun show. Like Cirque du Soleil probably but free and better.

And it's in association with Mathmos - the lava lamp dudes - so that's probably good too.

Tonight's gig features a one hour fringe show - Sarah Millican's Not Nice. This is the show that won Sarah Millican her 'Best Newcomer' award at the Edinburgh Fringe and deservedly so - she has plenty of cracking jokes and one-liners up her sleeve that will keep the audience laughing right the way through not to mention some filthy material on sex which belies her soft North Yorkshire accent but explains the show title.

Inspired by an Oliver Sacks case study (he's the towering genius who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and Awakenings) this is a multi-media journey into the mind.

Through dance, music and visuals, Theatre DeCapo tell the story of Mrs O'Connor, who suffers a stroke which transports her from her bland old folks home back into a world spun entirely from her own most exciting memories. Does she even need a cure? And what will she find out about herself?

A great premise for a dance show, and fans can expect the usual fireworks and inventiveness from the DeCapo team.

The brilliant Nebraska-based record label, home of the likes of The Faint, Bright Eyes and Two Gallants, present an evening at Brixton Windmill, showcasing a couple of acts their UK roster alongside Omaha's Neva Dinova.

The headliners were last here to support the legend that is Daniel Johnston, and you may have heard guitarist Jake Bellows' contributions to the last Bright Eyes album 'Cassadega'.

Almost certainly the exhibition of the year. Francis Bacon is universally recognised as one of the most important artists of the Twentieth Century and probably also one of the greatest British painters of all time.

His darkly brooding figurative works are richly laden with references to classical texts, biblical scenes and the artist's personal friendships. And his life was as tortured as his art.

This promises to be a thorough and fascinating exploration of Bacon's power and influence: some of his finest works are on show, including three Studies for a Crucifixion and his Pope Innocent X series. Missing this would be a terrible mistake.

Two of the finest duos in breaks rock up to the Westbury tonight.

Breakbeat aficionados the Stanton Warriors (named after the manhole covers - yep it's true) are specialists in dishing up relentless, funked-up breaks. Their productions are hailed as classics and they are usually to be found headlining huge venues. To see them in a pub really is a rare teat.

It's time to get physical.

Twee As Fuck return for another session of lovely live music, with just the right amount of saccharine, to ensure that things don't get intolerably sweet.

The bands they get on board are usually excellent, and DJs are on hand with some smile-inducing tunes to ensure the endorphins flow thick and fast.

Boris is hosting this year's annual Mayor's Thames Festival with the streets of London filled to the brim with hundreds of free activities especially for you (and the rest of London).

There's that many wonderful free events scattered around London, we cannot possibly add each one unless we had a cracking team of Spoonfed monkeys working on it for a month.

Therefore, we humbly direct you to the Thames Festival site.

Wow. Not only Hexstatic – unarguably the finest audio/visual artists around – but DJ Food, DK, Bad Science and The Shadow Orchestra to boot.

Any of those alone would command a crowd; together - well get your tickets before it's too late.

This week at the Bearcat there is a really outstanding line-up with musical wizard Mitch Benn, masters of observational comedy Simon Evans and Mark Maier not to mention gifted storyteller John Gordillo, who has just returned from Edinburgh victorious with a smattering of five star reviews.

The bar is open to midnight and there is a friendly vibe when the comedy is on so if you're in the area, its a good bet for the weekend.

Ball-busting hardcore kids Shotgun Riot throw down at The Fly tonight in celebration of the release of their début EP 'The Real Rock and Roll'.

A mix of Guns'n'Roses and Strike Anywhere, they make music that is the sonic equivalent of a blow-torch to the face.

The D-Late mothership is a party juggernaut loaded with techno bullets, careering round London, aiming them at unsuspecting clubbers and making them go insane.

Commandeered by international party machines, the guys behind D-Late have become very very good at what they do.

Recent Goldsmiths curator graduate Makiki Nagaya shows an exhibition at t1+2 this month produced and presented in collaboration with Joe Banks, James Early and Johnny Vivash.

One of the big things in contemporary art right now is the role of the curator (see the work of Turner Prize-shortlisted Goshka Macuga or read The Residence owner Ingrid Z's thoughts on the matter) and this exhibition - exploring the apparatus of psychoanalysis - is a valuable contribution to the dialogue.

Steve Wold, aka Seasick Steve, plays his biggest Uk show to date tonight at the Albert Hall, as he celebrates his rapid rise on the back of 2006's slow-burning hit album 'Dog House Music'.

He's been a busking tramp, produced Modest Mouse and blown away the crowds at Glasto and on Later... With Jools Holland. A true blues rock journeyman.

Now, we don't enthuse wildly about the ballet here at Spoonfed, or not very often, and this is mainly because we are pig ignorant about it. However we have seen this troupe (in Russia, lucky old us!) and for ten quid you've got a great chance to enjoy ballet at it's very, very best. Then if you still don't understand or enjoy it at least no one can accuse you of not trying.

The London electro pop heroes celebrate a successful 2008 with a couple of headlining shows at Brixton Academy.

Their third album 'Made In The Dark' is their best yet, and if you're lucky they'll perform their cover of Wiley's 'Wearing My Rolex'.

2008 is the 10th anniversary of Richie Hawtin's label Minus, revered by a certain type of techno fan for helping to pioneer the minimalist sound so popular today.

To celebrate, all the most important members of the gang are trotting the globe as part of the new Contakt tour.

Everyone knows Richie likes a good gadget, so its not surprising that a mysterious device called the Cube is part of the concept. All we know is that it's a glowing box referred to as an 'advanced communications device'. You can also expect mind-bending lighting and visuals courtesy of collaborator Ali Demirel.

The whole thing went down a storm at Sonar earlier in the year, so minimal fans should know what to do by now – aim your 'advanced pointing device' at the TicketWeb link and make like a Plastikman record. (By that we mean click lots.)

Anybody heard of that new cereal? It's called Credit Crunch - pretty popular right now and makes a delightful breakfast served in a trough with a splash of ice-cold liquidity. Hmm...liquidity.

Capitalism eh? And economics. We at Spoonfed don't really have a clue about either, but we plan to learn. Not by asking our banker friends - oh no - or by going on Wikipedia (although it's tempting). No, we're going to learn through art.

This month The Drawing Room is holding an exhibition of work by a host of international contemporary artists. It's conceived by Olivia Pender and explores the economics of the Thatcher era up until the present day. Why TINA? It's an abbreviation for dear Maggie's assertion that 'there is no alternative' (to global free market capitalism, that is). Looks kind of cool.