Heavy Dates
WORCESTER
The Artie Sneiderman Weekend -- well, if you're a charismatic frontman who's
delivered the goods for more than two decades, why not declare your own
weekend? -- features shows on Friday with the Crybabies and Saturday
with the Belmondos at Ralph's. On Friday, smart-ass rockers
Seventeen appear at the Alley, Dr. Bewk, C60, Bent, and
Wunderlick rip up the Lucky Dog Music Hall, Troy Gonyea joins the
Duke Robillard Band at Gilrein's, and Pretty Cool Chair, whose
Staring is one of the best of the recent crop of pop-song filled CDs,
open for Percy Hill offspring Earth Shoots Off at the Tammany Club. Also
on Friday, Jah Spirit throws a reggae party at Partner's Pub in
Framingham, Little Red and the Riders swing at the Danforth Museum of
Art, and Ball in the House play two shows of perfect harmony at the
Center for Arts in Natick. On Saturday, Michelle "Evil Gal" Willson, who
teamed up with Sugar Ray Norcia to record Dinah Washington and Brook Benton's
"You've Got What It Takes" for Deep Blues: 25 Years of Blues on Rounder
Records, brings her Evil Gal Orchestra to Gilrein's; get to the
Tammany Club early to see the Wormtown debut of teen blues woman Lydia
Warren; and Rory Block, who's still touring in support of 1998's
Confessions of a Blues Singer (Rounder), shares center stage with North
Worcester County's Jen Spingla at the Bull Run Restaurant.
BOSTON/PROVIDENCE
With the holiday season comes
radio-station festival heaven. And in case you hadn't noticed, radio's all
about the metal these days. Insane Clown Posse just released two discs;
the rasslin' white-rap minstrels join P.O.D. -- the Christian-metal band
whose new breakthrough single, "School of Hard Knocks," appears on the
soundtrack to Adam Sandler's movie about the son of Satan, Little Nicky
-- and Crazy Town at Avalon, (617) 423-6398, in Boston, on Wednesday.
Next door that night, Axis, (617) 423-6398, hosts a grade-z nü-metal
moronothon: Disturbed, the Union Underground (who have resorted
to late-night infomercials to spread the word), and Linkin Park. Also on
Wednesday, Boston's Paradise, (617) 423-6398, hosts Orgy -- famous for
their "Blue Monday" cover, now with a new, New Order-less album out -- along
with VAST and Portland emo-metal dudes 6gig. You can also catch
various permutations of these bills elsewhere in New England this week: on
Tuesday, Orgy join 6gig and Disturbed at the Cumberland Civic Center, (207)
775-3458, in Portland; and next Thursday (November 30), Lupo's Heartbreak
Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence hosts Orgy, VAST, Disturbed, and Linkin
Park. For their part, 6gig head up a New England metal convival at the Skybox,
(413) 577-4759, in Amherst, a week from Saturday (December 2) with 7th Rail
Crew, C60, Diecast, Eastcide, Gangsta Bitch
Barbie, and others. Meanwhile, grunge holdovers turned pop-metal
revivalists Collective Soul -- who could've been Creed if they'd come
later and aped Pearl Jam even more -- are at the Orpheum, (617)
931-2000, in Boston, on Wednesday and at Lupo's next Friday (December 1), both
dates are with BMG Godsmack clones Dust for Life. The Mighty Mighty
Bosstones -- who have sold out their upcoming "Hometown Throwdown" at
Boston's Axis, December 6 through 10 -- warm up with yet another small-club gig
at Lilli's, (617) 591-1661, in Somerville, on Wednesday, with Seventeen
opening. Rancid, who just blew through on their proper tour a few
weeks back, stop into the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge, for a
one-off radio date on Wednesday with the local girl-punk band Heidi (who
have been displaying some keen, un-Limp hip-hop tendencies of late). And the
Dandy Warhols are at T.T. the Bear's Place, (617) 492-2327, in
Cambridge, that same evening with SR-71 and Blink-182 clones Good
Charlotte ("The Little Things").
Roughneck Jamaican dancehall superstar Beenie Man -- who finally cracked
the American hip-hop/R&B market a couple years back thanks to a duet with
Mya and a couple of staggering cameos -- pulls into Avalon for a two-night
stand on Friday and Saturday, a testament to his burgeoning popularity. Also
catch Beenie on Tuesday at the Higher Ground, (802) 654-8888, in Winooski,
Vermont; and next Thursday (November 30) at the Ocean Mist, (401) 782-3740, in
Mantunuck, Rhode Island. Funk/jazz heroes Medeski Martin & Wood are
at the Calvin Theatre, (413) 586-8686, in Northampton, on Wednesday and at the
Orpheum next Thursday (November 30). And the Go-Betweens finish up their
leg of the Yo La Tengo tour at the Roxy, (617) 931-2000, in Boston on
Tuesday. Thereafter, Superchunk's Mac McCaughan takes over the opening slot in
the guise of his solo side project Portastatic. McCaughan's latest
Portastatic EP, De Mel De Melao (Merge), has him forsaking indie pop for
tropicália and covers of Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes. Which should
make for interesting evenings at Lupo's on Wednesday and at Pearl Street, (413)
584-0610, in Northampton, next Thursday (November 30).
-- Carly Carioli
|