Heavy Dates

Heavy Dates

Hey, remember Dr. Bewkenheimer? They were the band whose singer left to record with some old-fart heavy-metal fossil. Anyhoo, the Bewk are back, at least for one evening, and they play somewhere mid-bill this Friday at the Feelers Festival. Also on tap are locals Chillum, God Stands Still, Split, Rawhead Rex, Eastcide, Downchild, Shed, and Last Man Standing. Headlining are Anthrophobia, whose name roughly translates as "fear of human beings." While we get the sentiment, in fairness, we'd like to stick up for the anthrocentrics. When you're at the top of the food chain, you should flaunt it! Burn, rain forest, burn! Club the seals, eat the cows, burn away the ozone, pave the wildflowers! The world is our ship, and if we wanna run it full-speed into the rocks of karma, then damn it, we will. Dolphins may be smarter, but once you reel 'em in onto terra firma, we'll crush the ol' limp-fins. Feelers Fest takes place at the Palladium. Downchild also head over to the Lucky Dog, after their big-hall set, to split the evening with Hartford's fab Flames, whose disc Fast. Easy. Cheap. (Joetown) is a pop-rock tour de force, and Runaway Brain. Elsewhere, Holden catches hell compliments of the one-two punch of Das Fearless Leaders and the Crybabies at the Blue Plate, wonder-kid Troy Gonyea and the Premiers swing Gilrein's, Phoenix party faves Clutch Grabwell let it rip at the Plantation Club, and free-style champs the Sonic Explorers do the Above Club. We were worried, what with the Spinal Tap-like fervor that Huck seem to chew up bass players. Have no fear, we caught the latest incarnation and the fellas still retain their status as one of the Worm's All-Time Greats, no matter who's twisting the pegs on the four-string. They play the Above Club this Saturday, with an opening set from Raymond (ex-Gas Food Lodging), another new band to keep an eye on. Also on Saturday, the Wildcats celebrate the release of their new disc at Gilrein's, Willie "T-Bone" Smith does the blues thing at Greendales, and Woodgrain Theory headline a night at Commercial Street. Sunday brings the (third) Lennie's Annual Birthday Bash to Benefit Why Me? Inc. Besides being a coffee-addicted, self-absorbed cartoonist, and one of roughly a half-dozen trombonists who can claim regular work, Lennie Peterson also puts on a hell of a benefit. That's why it gets bigger and better every year. Uncle Wally, Clutch Grabwell, Lee Totten, Probable Cause, Bubbleheads, Becky Chase Band, and the Ink Stained Wretches (featuring scribe Paul Della Valle) do the honors. The Space has a potluck vegan barbecue (words that should never go together) and music from El Guapo, Panopoly Academy Corp of Engineers, Secretly Famous, Warren Commission, and Super Agent. Not bad for six clams. Tuesday the Lucky Dog goes acoustic with sets from Scott Anderson, Mike Duffy, and this week's winner for over-exposure, Downchild. Runaway Brain do the same at the Black Orchid in Shrewsbury.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Okay, see if you follow me here -- Lenny Kravitz is a throwback to everything that sucked about the '60s, the Black Crowes are a lousy throwback to the Stones albums that didn't suck in the '70s . . . so where does Everlast fit in? It's unlikely that the kind of floating nostalgia that endears the headliners to their audience would really work in the former House of Pain rapper's favor. More likely, it's a confirmation that his balladish, blandish acoustic hip-hop has found a home in the wider arena of mainstream middle-of-the-road pop. The whole shebang kicks off the season at the Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts, (617) 931-2000, in Mansfield, this Friday, May 28.

Switching gears: in a few weeks we'll see the debut of the first annual Provincetown Film Festival, with a promising line-up that includes a new film from Greg (The Doom Generation) Araki and an appearance by summer resident John Waters, among other things. This Sunday, May 30, critical fave singer/songwriter Patty Larkin lends a hand by playing a concert to benefit the festival at 8:30 p.m. at the Universalist Meeting House, (800) 648-0364, 236 Commercial Street, in Provincetown.

In the meantime, cinéastes can head to the festival-crazed town of Newport, Rhode Island. You know about the Folk and the Jazz, but before we get to those there's the second annual Newport International Film Festival, which runs June 1 through 6. Among the spoils: four US and three world premieres, as well as a free outdoor screening of Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot and a seven-film Bill Murray retrospective. (Silly or provocative? Discuss.) The big opening-night event is a preview screening, direct from Cannes, of An Ideal Husband, the new film by Othello director Oliver Parker starring Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, and Jeremy Northam. That's this Tuesday, June 1, at the Jane Pickens Theatre, 49 Touro Street in Newport. Call (401) 848-9443 for the lowdown, or visit the Web site at www.newportfilmfestival.com.

As a footnote only, we mention that the insufferable Michael Flatley's overblown Irish-stepdancing juggernaut Lord of the Dance -- which has now reached franchise status, with one troupe ensconced in Vegas, one on tour in Europe, and a third bringing tap-tap terror to the states -- is at UMass-Amherst's Mullins Center, (413) 733-2500, on June 1 and 2; at the Wang Center, (800) 447-7400, in Boston, June 3 through 5; and at the Providence Performing Arts Center, (617) 931-2000, in Rhode Island, June 8 and 9.

-- Carly Carioli