Heavy Dates

WORCESTER

After buying out their contract from Capitol/EMI, Florida ska-sters Less Than Jake have landed with Fat Wreck Chords. They celebrate the release of Borders and Boundaries on Thursday at the Palladium.

On Friday, Skulltoboggan hold a CD-release party for their Hedsled at Mulligan's with help from Officer Down, Dirt Junkie, and Dog Leg. Teen bands like Exile and Red Mercury have been pretty much MIA since Cafe Abba closed down in June; but they'll be joined by Downcycle, Capital Seven, and Prevail for a Friday-night "acoustic" show at the Java Hut. With all the late-'80s-sounding music being released these days, it's no surprise to see someone's formed a hair-band tribute. Both the boys and girls can put on their fishnets when Aqua Nett perform at the Lucky Dog Music Hall. Entrain's hectic touring schedule has caused two of its members to jump off their almost non-stop party train; welcome new bassist Lenny Bradford aboard when the band appear at the Tammany Club on Friday night.

On Saturday, two winners in this year's Worcester Phoenix Best Music Poll -- Red Mercury and Critical Condition -- perform at Ralph's, Recycled Dysfunkshun, who are releasing their second CD but losing a singer, headline the Worcester Phoenix Fall Music Concert Series at Jillian's with help from past BMP winner the Deal; another former champ, Joe Rockhead (whose upcoming CD is reportedly excellent) is joined by Tricycle at Liquid, and continuing the Parade of Champions, the Time Beings rock the Above Club. Star Ghost Dog's The Great Indoors (Catapult) will be landing on more than a few area "Best of 2000" charts; find out why when the Boston popsters and equally jangly Pure Fiction appear at the Alley.

Rochester, New York's metallic Withered Earth are renowned, much like our own Upsidedown Cross, as the kind of band that doesn't get asked back for too many return engagements. As far as we can tell, however, there's no outstanding warrants for their arrest as a result of their appearance at Cafe Abba earlier this year. Thus, they've been invited back to Worcester for a show at the Lucky Dog on Wednesday. Acetylene and Wrathbone Key warm up the crowd.

-- Brian Goslow

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

New England has produced some of the country's finest and most cerebral hardcore-verging-on-metal bands in the past few years, and this weekend a pile of 'em set up shop outside I-495 for an ear-shattering (potentially bone-breaking?) spate of shows. Veteran freakout kings Converge -- about to head into the studio to record a new disc for Equal Vision to be called Jane Doe -- headline two events: Friday night at the Met Café, (401) 861-2142, in Providence, and Saturday afternoon at the Palladium, (508) 797-9696, in Worcester, both with the Hope Conspiracy, a punishing Boston band (featuring members from Minneapolis's defunct Harvest) about to release their debut, Coldblue (also on Equal Vision). Friday night's line-up also includes Bane, Converge guitarist Aaron Dalbec's straight-up hardcore project, and deranged Vermont emo-metalers Drowningman. Boston punks American Nightmare open the Saturday show. The Equal Vision roster continues to rock the Palladium on Saturday night with a separate-admission upstairs show by newer, mellower signees the Stryder and Fairweather. And the Albany-based label concludes its informal showcase on Monday when its biggest band, Jersey emo wunderkinder Saves the Day, open for Cali skate-punks Face to Face at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence.

From the land that emo forgot: Hot Water Music do the Seaweed/Fugazi thing on a newly issued singles comp, Never Ender (No Idea), which includes their first demo. They're on tour with Strike Anywhere and the Windy City's Alkaline Trio, all of whom make a Sunday-afternoon all-ages stop at Brandeis University, (781) 736-2000, in Waltham. From the political landscape that Ralph Nader forgot: the old-school democratic-socialist left has its hands full trying to get folks up for the idea of lifting sanctions against Iraq. Fortunately, it's got the obscurantist Providence avant-spazz-punk underground on its side. All the big names -- Arab on Radar, Olneyville Sound System, and Lightning Bolt -- are in one room for an "End the Sanctions Against Iraq" benefit at Providence's AS220, (401) 831-9327, on Friday that will toast author Anthony Arnove (Iraq Under Siege). From the radio dial that time forgot: REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Survivor brave the eye of the tiger at Tsongas Arena, (617) 931-2000, in Lowell, on November 9. That would be the Styx, by the way, without founding keyboardist (and singer on most of their hits) Dennis DeYoung, who's suing his former mates.

Who says what's old is new again? Well, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones are thanking their lucky stars for that new boomlet-induced jam-hippie-jazz-funk audience; just dig this crazy four-night stand (!) at the Somerville Theatre, (617) 931-2000, in Davis Square this week, Monday through Thursday, after which Béla's boys embark for the State Theater, (207) 775-3331, in Portland, Maine, next Saturday, November 18, and the Calvin Theatre, (413) 586-8686, out Noho way next Sunday, November 19. And Bob Dylan's latest tour takes him back to school, there to charm the patchouli off a new generation of incomprehensible smart-asses. One of the few stops on Dylan's latest swing that ain't a college is the Tsongas Arena on Saturday. He's also hitting Boston University's Walter Brown Arena on Friday, but all the tickets were distributed free to students, so good luck prying 'em out of those spoiled, grubby little hands. And Natalie MacMaster's concert at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, (617) 876-4275, on Friday is sold out; if you're desperate, try the Calvin on Sunday.

-- Carly Carioli