Heavy Dates

by John O'Neill and Carly Carioli

WORCESTER

Friday, January 2, offers up a great night of diversified music in our general region. The Espresso Bar puts on a mighty fine evening of pop-punk fun when Gas Food Lodging play with Boston's Beezwax and Sloppy Joe. It used to be if you missed a Sleepy LaBeef show it was okay because you could see him somewhere else the next week. Not so any longer as "The Human Jukebox" has moved south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Tonight he returns to the area when he plays the Sit 'N Bull Pub tonight. For a six dollar cover you'll get to hear ol' Sleepy play as many as 75 songs. That boils down to mere pennies per serving and he'll always entertain requests! Huck used to be Wormtown bigshots a few years back, kinda like a Buffalo Tom Lite. Then they moved to Boston to sink into relative obscurity. They're back tonight and well-worth checking because you never know what pop gem they'll pull out their collective sleeve to whack you over the noggin with. They play at Sir Morgan's Cove. Get there early because Shiner are also on the bill. You probably don't know them yet, but if they're anything like their demo tape, you will. On Saturday, January 3, guitar wiz Troy Gonyea, after months of playing to a lucky few on Thursdays, gets a much-deserved weekend gig when his trio headline Gilrein's. Barrence Whitfield will go down as one of the all-time great underrated voices in rock history. Equal parts Don Covey, Arthur Alexander, and Bunker Hill, Whitfield is capable of delivering intense, soulful ballads as well as bruising, incendiary screamers. Catch his new outfit, the Movers, tonight at the Sit 'N Bull Pub. On Sunday, the Espresso Bar offers up a killer show with the Westies, Racketball, Decepticonz, and the Surf Goons, who get this week's award for best name. Finally, the ubiquitous Bob Jordan hosts yet another open-mic night Wednesday, January 7, at the Above Club.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

What with the demise of the Strand in Providence and the usual post-New Year's dearth of touring bands, 1998 gets off to a somewhat less-than-auspicious beginning on the road. But as hangover cures go, you could do worse than NYC ska originals the Toasters, who'll be at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876), in Providence, on January 3 for an early-evening all-ages show with Racketball, the Decepticonz, Gol Go 13, and Overhead. Then they'll reconvene at the Middle East (617-864-3278), in Cambridge, the following night for another all-ages fest with Thumper and New Hampshire's Brass Monkeys. Livingston Taylor, James' second-tier folkie brother, plays two nights, January 2 and 3, at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610), in Northampton, both with Kevin So. And a bill featuring bands with members of Barenaked Ladies -- the Brothers Creeggan with Kevin Hearn and Thinbuckle -- plays the Iron Horse on January 8 and T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-2327), in Cambridge, on the 9th.

Garage-punk legends ? and the Mysterians are back and, reportedly, as good as they ever were. Back when "96 Tears" made 'em overnight sensations, most of them were still in high school. Farfisa maestro Frank Rodriguez made headlines in his hometown when he used some of his newly-acquired wealth to buy a Cadillac -- before he was even old enough to drive! "The thing that freaks me out," says guitarist Bobby Balderama, who had to go back to school to get his GED after the Mysterians broke up, "is that in the '70s, when I was playing in bar bands on the weekends and working, and all these bands from the '70s were hitting it big, I'd find out that they were older than me!" Now old enough to drive, and widely acknowledged as the forefathers of the Stooges, the original band come to the Middle East on January 8 with the Fleshtones and the Lyres, and to the Met Café (401-861-2142), in Providence, on January 10 with the Lyres, the Swingin' Neckbreakers (who'll be at the Middle East on January 9), and the Mr. Rogers Project (who headline their own show at the Met on the first of the year with Double Nuthins).

-- Carly Carioli