Heavy Dates

WORCESTER: Friday, September 4, gets off to a start with a little dose of nostalgia, when the late, lamented, Bonehead get back together for a one-time reunion show. Yikes! Has it really been three years since the release of their CD First Crop and their subsequent break-up? Cheer the old boys on when they hit the Sir Morgan's Cove stage with a little help from Special 79, Wild Vein, and Choke Puppy. Over at Ralph's, it's the ultra-bizarre line-up of Paco, the Magnificent Ambersons, and the Inexplicable Quartet, while the Troy Gonyea Trio do the swing thing at Gilrein's. On Saturday, get ready to shout at the devil with the return of the mighty Slayer. Satanism will be just one of the many offenses featured prominently tonight (there should also be heavy serial killing, Nazi-crap, and sadism references) at the Palladium. Fear Factory and Kilgore round out the excitement. Also on Saturday, the Shirley Lewis Experee-ance return to Gilrein's for a night of great, soulful blues. Meanwhile, Slattery's Front Room features the Mike DiBari Swingtet, and the Pathetics and Free Radicals let loose at Dinny's. On Sunday, the Plantation Club hosts a benefit show for Connor's Place and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Clutch Grabwell, the Heavy Metal Horns, Walter and Valerie Crockett, Probable Cause, and Big Dawg all lend their time to this excellent event. Also on Sunday, the Space hosts a show featuring Kansas City's number-one avant-pop sons, Shiner. Farewell Bend also represent KC, and Kossabone Red and Tipping Canoe open the evening.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE: Those of us who can't make annual pilgrimages to New Orleans -- and even some who can -- rely on the annual Cajun and Bluegrass festival in Escoheag, Rhode Island, for an infusion of spicy, late-summer swamp sonics. With that annual festival taking a year off, the Rhythm & Roots Festival at Escoheag -- at the same location, the Stepping Stone Ranch, (888) 855-6940 -- has come up with an all-killer, no-filler weekend featuring an expanded line-up, plus daytime workshops for Cajun, zydeco, and old-time swing players. Candye Kane & the Swinging Armadillos, the Austin Lounge Lizards, Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, Salamander Crossing, and Skip Gorman kick things off on September 4. Delafose and Salamader Crossing return the following day along with Asleep at the Wheel, Tim O'Brien, Fred Eaglesmith, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and Filé. And on September 6 Doc Watson headlines a bill with Dave Allen, Northern Lights, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas, the Mollie O'Brien Band, Balfa Toujours, and Natalie MacMaster. In area satellite gigs, you can catch the Austin Lounge Lizards at Johnny D's, (617) 776-9667, in Somerville, on September 3; Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas at the same club on September 10; and Big Sandy at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on September 6.

It's the last week of the season to catch tunes on the dunes at the Wellfleet Beachcomber, 349-6055, and they're winding it down island-style this Labor Day weekend with mambo punks Babaloo on September 4 -- you can also catch 'em at the aforementioned Johnny D's on September 5 -- and seminal skank masters Bim Skala Bim on September 5 (with Big D & the Kids' Table) and September 6 (with the club's house band, the Incredible Casuals).

-- Carly Carioli