Heavy Dates

Heavy dates

On Thursday, Dexter Grove pulls into the Tammany Club, Blues Food add sizzle to the steaks at Gilrein's, Ralph Wiggum, the Tide, HoKaHa, and Mekanizm rip the Lucky Dog Music Hall, and Cosmo, Second Class Citizen, and Absinthe of Faith blast Liquid. On Friday, longtime Worcester faves the Fly Amero Band, featuring Cliff Goodwin and Dave Brown, bring "The Big Strum" to Ralph's, Slipknot slips into spring at the Tammany Club, Chet Williamson joins the Matt Brown Jazz Trio, featuring Troy Neilsen on guitar, at Borders, Mugshot moves in for the first of two nights at Sakura Tokyo, the Larry Dougher Band visit Gilrein's, Space'n helps expand the boundaries of the Lucky Dog with help from Colorblind, Shiver, and Dangaru, the Palladium hosts Clutch, VOD, Murphy's Law, and Tree, and a true sign summer is closing in on us -- the Blue Plate Lounge presents Two Track Trestle. On Saturday, They Might Be Giants, who are in the midst of a career revival, thanks in part to their performance of "Boss of Me," the theme song to Fox TV's Malcolm in the Middle, as well as the them to the WB Network's The Oblongs, are at WPI's Harrington Auditorium, you can surf with Gein and the Graverobbers and slam to 4:20, Slugworth, and FreakShow at the Lucky Dog, catch the reggae vibe of Loose Change at the Tammany Club, the Unband attempt to break the NoHo snowstorm jinx at Ralph's (along with the Tims, the Probates, and the Stone Coyotes -- see story on page 15), and Tomo Fujita and Blue Funk present a night of high class guitar blues at Gilrein's.

Brian Goslow

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

The publishing arm of Dave Eggers's McSweeny's media empire will release Amy Fusselman's The Pharmacist's Mate sometime this summer. It's "only sort of about electrical engineering on boats," according to the typically obtuse McSweeny's promo copy. "In fact, it does not really involve engineering at all, though it does involve boats . . . and while it involves the Navy and WWII, it is at its core a truly gorgeous book about family and procreation, and that's about all we will say for now. It also involves music and death." Fusselman reads at WordsWorth Books, (617) 498-0062, in Cambridge on Friday with Donnell Alexander, whose Ghetto Celebrity, a memoirish novel about the author's upbringing in black, small-town Ohio in the 1960s, is likewise forthcoming from McSweeny's. You can also catch Fusselman reading with Gilmore Tamny -- formerly of the Ohio indie-rock band the Yips, who were signed to Matador a few years back -- at Brookline Booksmith, (617) 566-6660, on Monday.

Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner in Worcester, (508) 753-9543, hosts two Phoenix-sponsored shows this weekend. On Friday, Fly Amero presents "The Big Strum," an evening of funk-blues hoo-hah featuring some guys who've played with Joe Cocker and Billy Joel. On Saturday, urban playboys the Unband headline a bill featuring LA-by-way-of-Greenfield roots-rockers the Stone Coyotes, trash-punk assholes the Probates, and the Tims, an eccentric acoustic duo who cover songs by Johnny Thunders and Ozzy Osbourne, among others.

WBOS's EarthFest, (617) 822-9600, confab commandeers the MDC Hatch Shell, on the Charles River Esplanade, this Saturday starting at noon; on the bill are such soft-rock faves as Blues Traveler, Joan Osborne, Fisher, Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughan's old band), and the Cowboy Junkies. Most of 'em are flying in for the gig and flying back out just as quick, but you can also catch the newly slimmed-down John Popper and the rest of Blues Traveler on Sunday at the Webster Theatre, (860) 525-5553, in Hartford.

Dayton indie heroes Guided by Voices have a new disc (see "Off the Record," in Section One) and a tour with Spoon that hits the Higher Ground on Monday and the Paradise on Tuesday. And that gig's just the tip of a May Day modern-rock iceberg that includes local-boys-gone-MTV-darlings American Hi-Fi opening for Our Lady Peace at Avalon, (617) 423-6398, in Boston; metal pranksters hed (p.e.) mouthing off at Axis, (617) 423-6398, in Boston; and a 15th-anniversary gig by the Fort Apache Studios, (617) 868-2242, folks that'll include performances by Juliana Hatfield, Tanya Donelly, Bill Janovitz, and Fuzzy at the Fort itself, in Cambridge.

-- Carly Carioli