Heavy Dates
BOSTON/PROVIDENCE
Nineteen ninety-nine was given
over to a bit of reflection -- most notably in the number of musical artists
who sought to define themselves by making albums out of other people's songs,
whether it was punk-generation kids like Mike Ness and Mark Lanegan creeping up
on middle age or older hands like John Prine and the singer/songwriter/novelist
Bill Morrissey, who finds himself Grammy-nominated for his Songs of
Mississippi John Hurt (Rounder). Morrissey -- not to be confused with the
former Smiths singer headed this way next week -- is at the Emerson Umbrella,
(978) 371-0820, in Concord, on February 12.
On the old-school tip, Def Leppard soldier on -- even though the few
Mutt Lange-produced tracks on their latest, Euphoria, sound less like
vintage Hysteria than the ones Lange penned for his wife, Shania Twain,
on her Come On Over. The Def ones remain a draw, we guess, at least as
much because of that VH1 special -- wherein a one-armed drummer admits to a
little wife beating -- as for any latter-day musical exploits. But they're on a
dream bill with Joan Jett -- one of those rare individuals who can move
easily from the flimsy world of pop metal to the avuncular riot grrrl
underground -- at the Cumberland County Civic Center, (207) 775-3331, in
Portland, Maine, on February 15. There's a little old-school flavor of a
slightly later vintage -- namely, late-'80s skate thrash -- built into So-Cal
metal phenoms System of a Down, whose homonymous debut has the kind of
vintage, crunchy jackhammer appeal that only Rick Rubin could've gotten so
right. They're headlining the "SnoCore" extravaganza with Mike Patton's Mr.
Bungle, Puya, and Incubus, at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401)
272-5876, in Providence, on February 15 and at Avalon, (617) 423-6398, in
Boston, on February 16. And Boston-to-LA neo-metal stars Powerman 5000
return to the area with the same opening bill that seems to come through with
every neo-metal headliner -- Dope and White Zombie clones
Static-X. That bill's at Lupo's on February 16 and at the Palladium,
(508) 797-9696, in Worcester, on February 19.
Another Boston-via-LA success story winds up back East this week. After a
couple of years of whining about her label woes and lack of critical acclaim,
Aimee Mann got her wish -- a lauded set of songs on the soundtrack to
Magnolia, which sets the stage for a long-delayed new album to be
released later this year. Mann's on a theater tour with husband Michael
Penn in a together-and-alone setting that mirrors the pair's popular
residency in LA; it brings them to the Somerville Theatre, (617) 931-2000, on
February 12 and to Lupo's on February 13.
-- Carly Carioli