VOLTAGE: FASHION AMPLIFIED 2009 Friday: An unlikely cross between "Project Runway" and First Avenue's annual Best New Bands showcase, this fifth annual soirée pairs five Twin Cities designers with local bands that don't mind playing dress-up. As the rockers perform, designers send models down a runway in similarly envisioned attire. Hey, it beats watching the sound guy. This year, there will be almost as many women onstage with guitars as there are women without hips, including City Pages' Picked to Click winners Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles, Latina hip-hop starlet Maria Isa, swirling fuzz-rock trio Gospel Gossip and psychedelic garage-rock sextet First Communion Afterparty. New Wave revivalists Mercurial Rage also perform. The steep ticket prices will go toward creating a sewing co-op to foster local designers. (8:30 p.m. Fri. $25-$30. First Avenue, 7th St. and 1st Av. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388 or www.voltagefashionamplified.com.)

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER