Heavy Dates

WORCESTER

Heavy dates

On Thursday, it's a night of pop `n ska with Sticker, Miss Fortune, Christie Leigh and the Lookers, Starla Dear (featuring former members of the Fuzzy Pinks) at the Lucky Dog Music Hall while Downshift, Seven Hill Psychos, and Red Right Hand are at Liquid in Leominster. On Friday, it's an evening of metal madness with Shed, Kal El, Cosmo, and Donnybrook at the Alley, Shakey Steve and the BlueCats, Jason James and the Bay State House Rockers, the Wildcats, and the Chowhounds join in to raise funds for WCUW at Gilrein's. Also on Friday, Clutch Grabwell are at the Plantation Club Drafthouse, the Odds, Time Beings, Belmondos, Downbeat Five, and the Pathetics combine for one of the purest punk rock and roll gatherings in the city's history at Ralph's, and Jah Spirit and Clemmy's Guttata bring good vibes to the Tammany Club. On Saturday, Chuck and Mud play a show for the kids in the morning while the Bob Dick Band play inspired bluegrass in the early evening at the Cafe Fantastique. On Saturday night, the Blind Tiger Swing Posse host pre-holiday festivities at Gilrein's, the Oak Street Jam Band and Waz groove the Tam, and it's a night of pop `n surf with Huck, Deadites, and Gein and the Graverobbers at the Lucky Dog, where come Wednesday, you'll be ready for the Headbangers' Ball with Blood Belly, FleshKrank, and Red Mercury.

-- Brian Goslow

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Transplanted garage-pop cads the Figgs earned a permanent place in the canon for backing Graham Parker on tour a few years back, but they've proved consistent and inspired reinventors of the form on their own. Their latest, Sucking in Stereo, is indeed a dual-channel effort. The band are at the Skinny, (207) 871-8983, in Portland, Maine, tonight (December 21) with Hellicopter-Hellicopter and at the Metronome, (802) 865-4563, in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday before heading to T.T. the Bear's Place, (617)492-2327, in Cambridge on New Year's Eve. Transplanted Southerners Quintaine Americana -- who have a scathing new EP called The Devil Went Down to Mississippi (Polterchrist/Curve of the Earth) -- join the mammoth blues-punk duo Throttle and Delta Clutch tonight (December 21) at Lilli's, (617) 591-1661, in Somerville. Next Thursday, Quintaine pop up again at the Middle East (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge with local hardcore vets Tree, motör-headed ZZ Top-ical rock fiends Lamont, and hillbilly-boogie wildmen Bottleneck Drag.

Flywheel, (413) 527-9800, in Easthampton, has a full schedule this weekend. Tonight (December 21), it's a New England emo-indie convergence with the Warren Commission, Hartford's Halo Altera, Providence's Mini-Watt, and Eastie locals Pazza Ragazza. On Friday check out Pennsylvania's Numbers Are Neutral and Proverbs of the Illest, along with locals Last Forty Seconds, and Connecticut's River City Rampage.

There's more punk in the suburbs, and it stars a couple of up-and-comers on the Revelation label. On Friday, Massachusetts's own Garrison headline a bill in support of their new A Mile in Cold Water, along with the Farewell, Again Without Feeling, Just for Today, Fairhaven, and Six Billion Dead at the Portuguese American Club, (508) 222-9748, in Attleboro. The following evening, Garrison move on to the Knights of Columbus Hall, (978) 687-9834, in Lawrence with Jericho, Euclid, the National Blue, the Migration Trap, Phil, My Life with Her Ghost, and the Pearl Machine. Meanwhile, New York's the Movielife have a new Brian McTernan-produced disc, This Time Next Year (Revelation), and they headline a bill at the same Portuguese American Club on Saturday, along with As the Sun Sets, Pushing for Summer, Moment, and Easel.

-- Carly Carioli