Heavy Dates

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Hard to believe, when you look back on it, how eager hardcore bands were to attempt heavy metal in the '80s -- in the name of progress, no less! Thrash bragging rights were worth plenty, and though there have to have been at least a few dozen bands claiming they'd thunk up the idea first, D.R.I. were the only ones who actually called an album Crossover (in '87, which was only, like, six years after Black Flag's Damaged). And so the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles have gotten away with the "seminal" tag for years, which at least gives them an excuse to get back together now and again. My fondest memory of them is still "Beneath the Wheel," from Thrash Zone (1989), which was, I think, about getting run over by a school bus. Perhaps they'll defrost it at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on January 15, where they're on a bill with Murphy's Law, who remain the only New York hardcore band -- Agnostic Front included -- ever to make a better album after they'd re-formed than they had when they were together the first time around. Openers Tree and Blood for Blood are almost young enough to be their children.

-- Carly Carioli