Heavy Dates

Heavy Dates

Another large weekend looms over the Wormtown horizon, beginning with the return of Pioneer Valley Honesty-to-God, True-Blue, Gold-Plated, Hall-of-Fame, Living-Legend, Ray Mason. Ray celebrates the release of his fourth disc, Castanets (Wormco). Ray is also the subject of a tribute album courtesy of Boston's venerable Tar Hut Records. A pretty remarkable feat when you consider a) he's still alive and b) tributes generally lean toward tepid, middle-of-the-road bands honoring the tepid, middle-of-the-road crap spawned a generation previous. Brother Ray and his top-flight band rock the Above Club this Friday. Pop-pals Huck and Little Big Wheel's Jim Weeks do the opening sets. Over at the Space, Six Going on Seven have a party for their sophomore effort, Heartbreak's Got a Backbeat. Error Type 11, Get High, Full Fathom Five (featuring ex CIVies), and the Good Furies all play. Back from oblivion, the mighty warbling psychiatrist Dr. Chris Van Kleeck returns to the Bean Counter to sing songs of split personalities, Prozac, and erection problems; and Gilrein's welcomes back the now-Barranceless Movers. On Saturday, it's the long-awaited CD release for the fabulous Pathetics. Not Quite Right is the name, and the title pretty much says all you need to know. They started as a bunch of numskulls dedicated to playing silly three- chord nonsense and drinking relatively upscale brews. And a year and a half later, nothing has changed (though to paraphrase Roy Rogers, "They never met a beer they didn't drink"). Now that's keeping it real! Little Big Wheel, Das Fearless Leaders, and the Free Radicals all join in the mayhem at the Lucky Dog. Elsewhere, the Deadites headline a bill at the Commercial Street Cafe, along with sets from Soilomatic, Count Zero, and mindFIELD; acoustic smart guy Dan Hart hits the Java Hut, and the Boogaloo Swamis return to Cafe Fantastique. On Sunday, Gilrein's hosts a benefit for the New England Blues Society. Shirley Lewis, "Nasty" J Place, James Montgomery, the Harmonix, Wildcats, Erica Rodney, D.D. and the Road Kings, Shakey Steve, and Gordon Beadle all lend a hand, and Pete Henderson plays master of ceremonies to this quite worthy cause. Meanwhile the area's country folk get-together for a hoedown to benefit Mark McGivern, at the Country Lodge in Leominster. Goldrush, Glen Zacek and Sugar Creek, Robin Wright, Gale Force, the John Penny Band, Dreamland Express, and Tracy and Co. all make an appearance. Children under 12 get in free.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

In retrospect, Kid Rock seems a pivotal figure in the development of white hip-hop superstars, mainly because he never became one. Vanilla Ice beat him to the great white hype, and so, even though Kid signed briefly to Jive, he became an also-ran footnote -- as far as credentials go, more people probably know him as the producer of an early Insane Clown Posse record than from The Polyfuze Method (Continuum, 1993). But Kid hung on and felt out the territory -- taking note of Korn, he put together a single backed by a heavy-metal band and ended up signed to a major again. Which set the stage for the long-disgraced Vanilla Ice to copy his comeback battle plan and do the exact same thing, albeit to less enjoyable affect -- thereby creating some karmic black hole that produced yet another great white hip-hop hope, Eminem, whose "What's My Name?" seems destined to become the biggest rap hit since "Ice Ice Baby" by a white guy who's not a Beastie Boy. Kid Rock, meanwhile, recently declared to SPIN that Steven Tyler was one of the funkiest white dudes on the planet; when asked whether he didn't think Tyler was just a Mick Jagger clone, Kid responded, "The Rolling Stones wished they were poor white boys from the South!" A puzzling observation, to be sure; in any case, while Kid Rock plays Axis, (617) 262-2437, in Boston, on March 23 -- down the street from what used to be the Aerosmith bar -- Jagger and the Stones will be finishing up a two-night, sold-out stand at the FleetCenter, (617) 931-2000. You can also catch the Kid at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on March 22 with Stain'd. Look for Vanilla Ice, meanwhile, to hit the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge, on April 4; Eminem visits the Palladium, (508) 797-9696, in Worcester, on April 14.

The aforementioned Korn, who now find themselves responsible for the success of at least a half-dozen like-minded hangers-on, tool into the Worcester Centrum on March 19, and into the Providence Civic Center (for tickets at both venues call 617-931-2000) on March 20, with Rob Zombie and Videodrone, the latter of whom just released a debut on Korn's Elementree/Reprise imprint (which has already given us new-romantic coverboys Orgy). Korn's buddies Limp Bizkit are reportedly readying a new album that'll include cameos by, yep, Eminem, as well as Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man. Meth's on the year's biggest hip-hop tour to date -- the "Hard Knock Life" jaunt headlined by Jay-Z and rounded out by DMX. It hits the Worcester Centrum on March 24 before playing a sold-out date at the FleetCenter on March 27.

-- Carly Carioli