Heavy Dates
WORCESTER
Heavy dates
On Thursday, it's a culture clash when Jason James and the Bay State House
Rockers' rockabilly and surf show shares the stage with the heavy hardcore
funk of T-House of the Almighty at Liquid. On Friday, it's a night of
heavy hitters with Johnny Wishbone, NOK, We're All Gonna Die, and
Rebound at the Alley; the Tammany Club hosts the Oak Street Jam
Band, and singer/songwriter Ken Baxter, who'll hopefully have a
second CD out this year, is at Greendale's Pub. This Saturday, a new all-ages
club -- the Clubhouse Consortium in Athol -- opens with a noon time show
featuring Controlled Aggression, Distrust, Second Class Citizen,
Skulltoboggan, Pimp Daddy Jones, Evil People, Bedlam, and
Desensitized. Later that night, Hunter Orange Overdose, which
features former members of Bonehead, Thundercock, and Super Creb Star Dynamite,
are at Ralph's along with Change of System and Donnybrook. Also
on Saturday, Jive bring their neurotic funk to the Above Club, Chuck
and Mud and the Whole-in-the-Dam Band are at Cafe Fantastique, Fatwall
Jack swing through Gilrein's, which will present Little Mike and the
Tornados, who'll be "Driving All Day" to play tunes from their latest
Ichiban release, Hot Shot, on Sunday.
BOSTON/PROVIDENCE
On the cover of his new Riding
with the King, B.B. King rides easy in the back seat of a
convertible driven by his buddy Eric Clapton, who also makes a few appearances
on the disc. No argument from this corner: the Beale Street Blues Boy deserves
a little coasting after all those years in the driver's seat. King arrives in
style at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, (978) 931-2000, on Wednesday; the
Palace Theatre, (203) 325-4466, in Stamford, Connecticut, next Thursday
(January 11); Foxwoods Casino, (800) 200-2882, in Mashantucket, Connecticut,
next Friday and Saturday (January 12 and 13); and the Calvin Theatre, (413)
586-8686, in Northampton a week from Sunday (January 14).
The Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton hosts a couple of multi-night
stands this week. Brother of Sweet Baby James, and of late a professor at
Berklee College of Music (where he's surely breeding the next swarming
generation of whitebread singer-songwriters), Livingston Taylor drops in
Friday and Saturday. Jazz guitar great Pat Metheny will be there with a
trio Monday through Wednesday.
Like Livingston, Madball singer Freddy Cricien was in his early days
best known for his older brother, Agnostic Front's Roger Miret. In the ensuing
decade, Cricien's band has become nearly as popular as bubba's outfit; Madball
are currently out in support of their new Hold It Down (Epitaph). They
play the Met Café, (401) 861-2142, in Providence on Sunday with Reach
the Sky, Kill Your Idols, and E-Town Concrete.
The beginning of January finds most of the real bands taking a brief vacation
-- which means it's time for our semi-annual tribute to suburban punk bands
we've never heard of. Thanks to the wonderful proliferation of Web pages, we
even managed to get a look at a few of `em. Tonight (January 4), the Flywheel
Arts Center, (413) 527-9800, in Easthampton hosts a benefit for that perennial
recipient of punk-band benefit money, Food Not Bombs, featuring Dead
Skunx, Dartboard, the Suffering Bastards, and Only Minutes
Left. Tomorrow (January 5), the same room will have Hookers/Nashville
Pussy-style sleaze-punkers the Strippers with Vampire Lezbos, the
long-suffering regionally acclaimed punk band whose claims to fame include
having turned down the original bass player for Tool when he auditioned back in
`85. And on Sunday, Flywheel hosts Western Mass's answer to Screeching Weasel,
snot-punk upstarts Grand Prixxx, with Dead Legend, Cappuccino
Jellybeans, No Intention, Crossed Out, and the
Accidents.
-- Carly Carioli