Heavy Dates

by John O'Neill and Matt Ashare

WORCESTER: All's quiet on the Wormtown front this weekend as Independence Day sets into club land, but there are a few shows still worthy of your undivided attention. Sir Morgan's Cove hosts the always fabulous Pathetics on Friday, July 3rd. Hard playin', never thinkin', those boys are truly an unpolished nugget of almost-talent. To here them play is sure to bring a tear to even the most jaded punk's eyeball. They're joined by Little Sister, White Knuckle Sobriety, Hitch, and Moloko Plus. Also on Friday the always obnoxious Mr. Rodgers Project return from their Providence home to mix things up at the Espresso Bar. Phenol get the headlining honors, and Dimwit help out on the bill. Saxophonist Lee Childs leads the Bourbon Street Paraders in a merry romp through the traditional jazz songbook at the New England Science Center. It's $10 for adults, kids under twelve swing for free.

And, then it's July 4, the day our great nation celebrates its independence from England (which, if not for the millions of dollars we "lent" after WWII, would have sunk into the Atlantic years ago. At least they finally returned the favor in the form of that entertaining Woodward chick and her family). Worcester celebrates with jam bands deluxe. And what, we ask, says "freedom" more than a bunch of hippies twirling in a circle? Slipknot do the Firehouse Cafe, while the Arthur Dent Foundation hold court at the Plantation Club. O'Flaherty's Piano Pub features an evening with those always-cool Worcester jazz stalwarts Dick Odgren and Emil Haddad. The Space returns from a brief hiatus on Sunday the 5th to offer the all-ages public Assuck and Frodus. Also on the bill are Reversal of Man, Iris and The Year Is One. All this for six bucks. Finally, the WPI Jazz Ensemble continue to appear every Tuesday at the Sahara Restaurant. It's free, and the hummus is top-shelf too.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE: Nowhere will the resurgence of heavy metal be more apparent than at this week's two New England Ozzfest dates, July 7 and 9 at Great Woods, (617) 423-6398, in Mansfield, the first of which is sold out. Featured will be a Sabbath-less Ozzy as well as Tool, Megadeth, and Limp Bizkit, plus a second stage stocked with the brutalizing Melvins (who have a new live EP out on Amphetamine Reptile) and Rhode Island's Kilgore, whose major-label debut is in stores. The day off between Ozzfest dates -- which straddle the Spice Girls on July 8 -- means one-off gigs. What chance that Geri Spice might be replaced on stage, for one night only, by Ozzy Osbourne, a/k/a Geriatric Spice? Only their managers know. One thing's for sure: Maynard James Keenan will not be a Spice, because on July 8 Tool and the Melvins hike up north to the Central Maine Civic Center, (207) 783-2009. Meanwhile, on that same day Megadeth opt for a free, all-ages, acoustic performance from 2 to 4 p.m. (which will likely be broken into two separately seated sets) at the Hard Rock Café, (617) 353-1400. And after the circus leaves town, main-stagers Coal Chamber and Sevendust will join forces with Life of Agony, Drain, and Ultraspank for a show at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine (call 617-423-6398 for tickets), on July 10.

The father of hip-hop visionary Nas, the avant-garde cornettist turned acclaimed bandleader Olu Dara, is at the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on July 6. He also opens for blues guy Jimmie Vaughan at the Roxy, (617) 338-7699, in Boston, on July 8, and at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, on July 9. And Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Jazz Center Orchestra kick off a summer-long concert series at the Berkshire Performing Arts Theatre, (413) 733-2500, in Lenox, on July 5.

-- Matt Ashare