Heavy Dates

It's been a while since the Time Beings rang Wormtown's bell, what with the semi-retirement that just kinda happens when extras like kids, mortgages, and moving out of state get in the mix. So instead of being an expected pleasure, they now become a rare treat. When last we checked in, they were opening for Dick Dale and still kicking ass the old-fashioned way -- through their patented blend of imported beer, blistering punk rawk, and killer psychedelic buzzbombs. Friday is your chance to check out a local institution more sacred to us than Coney Island hot dogs when the Time Beings blast the Above Club. The Pathetics open the show. Over at the Blue Plate, it's a little slice of Rockabilly Heaven with sets from Jason James and the Bay State Houserockers, and Das Fearless Leaders -- two bands that go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or maybe more like Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. Over at Commercial Street it's hard and heavy as usual with 25 ta Life, NE Hostility, and Sleestack, while Cave-In, Botch, and Drowningman do the honors up in the Palladium's L'il Pal Room. Saturday brings Skate-Fest '99 to Commercial Street (both the club and the strip of tar that bear the name). You can grab your board and shred around outside the Centrum or head indoors for a little music from Amen (formerly mostly-Snot), Soulshed, Concrete God, Phenol, and a slew of others too. The Java Hut's answer to all that testosterone is the Estrogen Festival. Brenda Evens, Kristine St. Germain, Patty Keough, Liz Stahler, Sam Shaber, April Ardito, and Tara Greenblatt perform in a fundraiser for the Children's Fund. Meanwhile the Lucky Dog features Clutch Grabwell, and the Tammany Club offers Another Planet. In a sure sign that summer has come to an end it's once again time for time for Locobazooka! This year the Worm's largest day of music is anchored by Primus. There's also a gaggle of 'AAF-friendly national acts like Coal Chamber, Slipknot (again, the metal dudes, not the hippie dudes), System of a Down, Puya, Machine Head, and Static X. Clutch Grabwell, Eastcide and Drained lead the list of locals. It all goes down at Green Hill Park this Sunday. After the festivities end, a nice change of pace might be a little disco for your soul. The Lucky Dog has Disco Hell, but get there early to catch Atlanta's mod mavens the Forty-Fives. Great name, great band.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

The huge Western Mass state-fair thingee the Big E (413-787-0271) kicks off this week in West Springfield, and alongside all the 4-H exhibits and the circus and the auto-stunt shows and the architectural replicas and the recipe contests and the ox-haul challenges and the Shriners, they also got the pop. Friend-of-Garth Chris LeDoux opens things up on September 17; enemy-of-Brandy Monica shows up on September 18; locally bred Nashville gal Jo Dee Messina stops by on September 19; and the Nelson Brothers -- the duo formerly known as Nelson -- are in September 20 through 24. The fair runs through October 3.

Cheap Trick and Guided by Voices headline Avalon (423-NEXT) in Boston tonight, September 16; that same night in Cambridge, Those Bastard Souls -- featuring one Grifter and two Dambuilders -- open for solo Buffalo Tom dude Bill Janovitz at the Brattle Theatre (876-6837). After going head to head, on September 19 GBV and TBS tag-team for a gig at Lupo's.And finally, Tom Waits is in Boston for a couple of days (September 21 through 23) at the Orpheum Theatre, (617) 931-2000.

-- Carly Carioli