Heavy Dates

WORCESTER

Heavy dates

On Thursday, Tomo Fujita and Blue Funk and Simon reopen the Lucky Dog Music Hall. On Friday, party rail fans Entrain and Washington DC/Baltimore based groovesters Fat Apple introduce Appleland to the Tammany Club, Troy Gonyea returns home to Gilrein's, and the Raw reunite for a show with Guillotine and Psycho at Mulligan's. Also on Friday, Patty Keough is at the Java Hut, and Captain P.J. helps raise funds for WCUW with help from the Time Beings, SBGB, Huck, Crybabies, and the Pathetics at Ralph's, where on Saturday, the Gizmos, Kenne Highland Clan, Rick Blaze's Ballbusters, the Downbeat 5, and ex-Furies the Cheetahs do the honors. Also on Saturday, the Fleshtones celebrate a quarter-century of greatness with kindred souls Thinner and the Pathetics at the Lucky Dog, Machinery Hall, whose latest CD, Tear It Down (Rockbox) was produced by Bill Klatt (Days of the New), share the stage with Pure Fiction and Space'n at the Alley, the Deal bring their pop rock classics to the Firehouse Cafe, and Little Red and the Riders swing through the Above Club.

-- Brian Goslow

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

The former leader of the Pixies is back with a new album by Frank Black and the Catholics called Dog in the Sand (on What Are Records?). Prior to making the album, writes Frank, "every morning in the van we listened to Exile on Main Street and Blonde on Blonde in the afternoon." You can hear it -- the disc has a country-ish feel thanks to the addition of a pedal-steel player and some deft work on the ivories by PJ Harvey/Captain Beefheart keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman. And the band's one-take, no-overdubs policy leaves the sound raw and vital. Mr. Black and company hit the Met Café, (401) 861-2142, in Providence on Friday and the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton on Saturday, then jiggle around New England and upstate New York before coming to rest at Lilli's, (617) 591-1661, in Somerville on January 24.

Rocker-turned-country-singin' single mom Amy Rigby is joined by Mary Lou Lord -- another mom who's been known to pen insightful country-ish songs -- at the Iron Horse on Friday; Mary Lou also headlines at Club Passim, (617) 492-7679, in Cambridge on January 20. Stryder hit Bill's Bar, (617) 421-9678, in Boston for an afternoon all-ages show on Sunday with Junction 18. Van Morrison makes his only New England stop at the (sold-out) Orpheum Theatre, (617) 931-2000, in Boston on Friday, with a band including the Killer's sister, Linda Gail Lewis, who appeared on Van's latest disc, an album of standards called You Win Again. Finally, former Montrose/Van Halen lead singer - and tequila mogul - Sammy Hagar ("I Can't Drive 55") hits the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, (617) 931-2000, on Friday and then the State Theatre, (207) 775-3331, in Portland on Sunday.

-- Carly Carioli