Heavy Dates

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

With a sneer almost exactly halfway between Cypress Hill's B-Real and Ozzy -- and the active-rock crunch to match -- Coby Shaddix and his buds in Papa Roach are being groomed for modern-rock superstardom. They're just off a tour with Korn and Powerman 5000, their chart-topping single "Last Resort" has chased their debut, Infest (Dreamworks), into the Top Five, and no one'll remember 'em five years from now, but for the time being they're on top of the world. Catch 'em on the way up, as opposed to on the way down, with hed (p.e.) opening at Avalon, in Boston, (617) 423-6398, on September 1 and at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, in Providence, (401) 272-5876, on September 2. Taproot jump on the Roach bandwagon on September 3 for a show at the Webster Theatre, in Hartford, Connecticut, (860) 525-5553, then circle back for a headlining gig sponsored by a metal dot-com at the Middle East, in Cambridge, (617) 864-3278, on September 6 with New England rowdies Nok and Colepitz.

It's the return of the ska-punk one-hitters this week: four years and three albums later, Goldfinger are still trying to recapture the elusive ca-ching of "Here in Your Bedroom," but they're betting that's enough to fill the Asylum, in Portland, Maine, (207) 772-8274, on August 31 and Lupo's on September 1. Both dates have "What's the Dillio?" goofballs Mest and the Urge opening. Meanwhile, Hollywood (the label, not the town) ska-punks the Suicide Machines are making the rounds with former Capitol ska-punks Less Than Jake, who recently made like Megadeth and "left" the label. Both bands play Brandeis University, in Waltham, (781) 736-2000, on September 4 and Lupo's on September 5.

That nutty Les Claypool -- he of the mighty (boring, mostly) Primus -- has been taking his bass-diddling skills to new heights of wankery in collusion with successive members of Grateful Dead side projects and other hippie refuse (even the Police's Stewart Copeland). For the latest of these brief alliances, going under the banner of Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, he's corralled Primus mate Todd Huth and Ratdog's Jay Lane and Jeff Chimenti for a round of touring that brings 'em to the Somerville Theatre, in Somerville, (617) 931-2000, on September 1. Also seeking out brave new futures in the groove-centric underground is fretless bassist Rob Wasserman, who likes to mention in his biography that he used to play with Lou Reed but omits to say that he pretty much ruined Lou's band. These days he's plying something called Space Island (Atlantic), a disc that involves drum programming, improvisation, and lots and lots of effects pedals. He headlines the "Buzztopia" tour featuring Groove Collective and New Orleans's loads-of-fun Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Boston's Roxy, (617) 931-2000, on September 5.

-- Carly Carioli