Heavy Dates

WORCESTER

This Thursday, blues guitarist Coco Montoya makes his first Worcester visit in years at Gilrein's. On Friday, Gangsta Bitch Barbie preview their upcoming Grand Royal debut disc at the Lucky Dog Music Hall; Portland, Maine's Colepitz, whose self-titled disc on Wonderdrug is one of the year's heaviest, get things cooking along with Flip 22 and At Will. The always funky Jive have been AWOL of late as they spend time working on new songs and getting them recorded. With it being Friday the 13th and all, they're dropping hints about the mysterious Ice-B turning up when they open for the Street Corner Healers at the Tammany Club. Change of System received rave reviews for their recent Locobazooka appearance. They'll be challenged to up the volume when they share a bill with Officer Down, Wunderlick, and Jujitsu at the Gaslight Tavern. Steve Hurl may be one of the area's most underrated roots performers. His Jumpin' Juba visits Ye Olde Tavern on Friday and Rocco's on Saturday. Mud Soup, who enjoyed the reputation as quite the party band in the mid '90s, recently regrouped. On Saturday, they're back at the Firehouse Cafe. Arthur Dent Foundation keyboardist Steve Mossberg is at the Java Hut on Tuesday, the same night former Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford brings his ripping new group into the Palladium.

-- Brian Goslow

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

The esteemed singer/songwriter John Hiatt may be getting back to his roots -- his latest, Crossing Muddy Waters, is the first acoustic disc he's recorded in a quarter-century career, and it takes a back-porch approach to a batch of songs steeped in country, gospel, and, of course, the blues. But Hiatt's also keeping up with the digital times, releasing Crossing Muddy Waters both on Vanguard and through the online, downloadable-music portal Emusic. He's in the flesh at Avalon, (617) 423-6398, in Boston, on Saturday; at the State Theatre, (207) 775-3331, in Portland, Maine, on Sunday; and at the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on Monday. Another John, former X-man John Doe, has finally penned a lyric that expresses the deepest emotions of the staff here at the Phoenix. "CDs & CDs & CDs & CDs & more CDs/Now it's totally fuckin' out of hand/Too many," Doe sings on "Too Many Goddamn Bands," from his latest album, Freedom Is (spinART). We feel his pain, and so we know he'll forgive us for having given only a fleeting audience to Freedom Is. We assume it's rootsy and listenable, and you'll likely hear the best of it when Doe hits the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge, on Saturday with Mary Lou Lord.

More than just a model for the portable post-techno rock star, could Moby be a template for the post-CD digital-music economy? Every song on his blockbuster hyper-roots album Play has been licensed for television, film, or commercial use -- suggesting an alternative revenue model in the event that someday we all download our music for free. Of course, there's always touring, which Moby's doing a bit of as well -- he's at Avalon next Thursday (October 19), and at the Palladium, (800) 477-6849, in Worcester a week from Tuesday (October 24). Meanwhile, another DJ/producer who's been heard crooning his own tunes -- Brian Transeau, better known as BT -- is on the road behind his new Movement in Still Life (Nettwerk), which moves away from trance and toward Chemical Brothers/Crystal Method territory, with guest vocals from recently liberated former Soul Coughing frontman M. Doughty. BT's on a tour with Belgian trip-hoppers Hooverphonic that hits Boston's Avalon on Wednesday. And the electronic-minded "Moonshine Overamerica" tour with DJ Keoki hits the Wallace Civic Center, (978) 345-7593, in Fitchburg on Saturday.

Emo-prog gods (of late way more prog than emo) Sunny Day Real Estate are at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on Wednesday; they also play the Middle East next Friday (October 20) in a free show open only to WFNX-card holders. The second leg of Epitaph's "Punk-O-Rama" hits Lupo's on Saturday, with trick-or-treat Latino-core dudes Voodoo Glow Skulls headlining over NYC hardcore legends Agnostic Front, All, and Straight Faced. Athens garage-pop group the Woggles have a new disc of psychotronic soul called Fractured (Telstar) and a tour that hits the Skinny, (207) 871-8983, in Portland, Maine, on Tuesday; Lilli's (617) 591-1661, in Somerville on Wednesday; and the Century Lounge, (401) 751-2255, in Providence next Thursday (October 19). In modern-rock package tours, Fenix TX headline with Lefty, Good Charlotte, and A New Found Glory tonight (October 12) at the Met Café, (401) 861-2142, in Providence, and at Axis (617) 423-6398, in Boston, tomorrow (that's Friday the 13th). And the Sepultura spinoff Soulfly headline a rap-heavy metal bill at Avalon on Monday with downset., Primer 55, and Slaves on Dope. Too bad they'll have to miss KRS-One's set at Pearl Street (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, that same night.

-- Carly Carioli