Heavy Dates

Yikes! We aren't sure exactly what's going on, but we wholeheartedly approve. This week the Worm City becomes home to one giant, rock sandwich. Go ahead, take a bite. Don't be afraid to make a pig of yourself, either, because who knows when you'll get this much quality entertainment again. The binge starts this Friday at the Lucky Dog with New Jersey's number-one, action-chicks, Sit N' Spin. Besides being the best all-femme line-up since the Go Go's (and a case can be made for the more punk Supersnazz and the Donnas), the Spinsters are also one of the world's hidden garage-pop gems -- think Ronnettes meet Kinks. The Flames, Joe Rockhead, and Super Zero open. Meanwhile, the always-fab Clutch Grabwell shake-and-bake at the Plantation Club. On Saturday, it's an early evening show from the Amazing Crowns (formerly the Amazing Royal Crowns and the Royal Crowns before those assholes in the Royal Crown Review played sic `em with their Big Label lawyers. Twice!). They play the L'il Pal Room at the Palladium. Elsewhere, Jason James and the Houserockers and the Deal pull a one-two, sock-a-roo at the Above Club. Word has it that the James gang will be the backing band for some old cat named Bo Diddley next month, but more on that later. For the pop fiend in you, the Lucky Dog offers Huck (who's soon-to-be-released third disc, Nothing to Hold on to But a Grudge (Orcaphat), is a minor masterpiece), Curtain Society, and Boston's Red Telephone. Up the highway at Slattery's, it's the reborn Barrence Whitfield and the Savages. Once the wildest band in the land, they still know how to bring home the bacon and make it sizzle. Then there's Tuesday, a.k.a. THE DAY. Who else could it be but the one-and-only Link Wray. The Greatest Guitarist EVER, and next to Elvis, Chuck Berry, and the Beatles, one of the biggest influences in the history of the genre we've come to call Rock and Roll. Beck? Clapton? Paige? All are complete pussies compared to the mighty Link. And if that's not enough, the Lyres (still the world's premiere garage punks) and the Odds (Wormtown's flagship outfit) are opening, which qualifies this show as possibly the best ever to pass through the city. Not to mention three-fourths of the former and two of the later make up DMZ, Boston's original Punk Gods. Now we aren't gonna say that they'll get up and play a song or two together, but do you really want to take the chance and possibly miss "When I Get Off" or "Barracuda?" We didn't think so. The only way this could get better is if it rained prime rib and the Dark Brothers called me back on that cameo request. Now, take a night to rest up and recoup, because Thursday brings the trailer-schlock-rock of Southern Culture on the Skids. Equal parts rock and roll muscle and white-trash shtick, they play the L'il Pal along with the Strangemen.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Yep, June of '44 have gone out on yet another limb with their new one. They may be the band to prove, once and for all for the post-indie generation, that repeated goings out on limbs can become just as boring as doing the same old thing over and over again. We wouldn't mind their dub-laced archeology and architectural meanderings so much if they actually went anywhere once in a while, but they've committed themselves firmly to the primacy of getting lost and staying there, a tradition that continues unabated on their new Anahata (Quarterstick). "Equators to Bi-Polar" would seem to posit their lack of direction as the result of attempting every direction all at once; and even on the anemic "Cardiac Atlas" they have trouble summoning up an ounce of heart. Those still looking for a reason to root can take solace in the thought that Victory at Sea's Christina Files was behind the board on a couple of tunes, which may or may not have anything to do with the lullabyish "Southeast of Boston." In any case, June of '44 will be south and west of Boston on September 12, when they play the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence; and then just slightly, uh, north of Boston, when they play the Middle East (864-EAST) in Cambridge on September 13.

Ticketholders for the sold-out Barry White/Earth Wind & Fire gig on Friday the 10th at the FleetCenter are hereby congratulated. Everyone else looking for a little funk will have to settle for James Brown sideman Maceo Parker, yet again, at the Somerville Theatre (931-2000) on September 15 and 16. Cracker soul and goofabilly charm are the order of the day for Southern Culture on the Skids, the inaugurators of Chapel Hill's annual garage-punk dirty weekend, Sleazefest. They'll bring a little bit of the sleaze north with 'em when they hit the Met Café on September 14; the Middle East on September 15; and the Palladium's upstairs room (508-797-9696) in Worcester on September 16. SCOTS once recorded a damn-smokin' version of Link Wray's serial-killer instro-punk anthem "Jack the Ripper"; you're almost assured of hearing the original when Wray teams up with the Itchies at the Hot Club (401-861-9007) in Providence on September 11 and with the Lyres at the Lucky Dog Music Hall (508-363-1888) in Worcester on September 14. More spirited punk with a '50s rock-a-hooligan vibe comes courtesy of the Amazing Crowns, who've been promising their sophomore disc, Still Royal, but have yet to deliver. We hear it's due in a couple months, and the band are back on the well-distributed indie Monolyth after Velvel went bye-bye. The Crowns are at Bill's Bar (421-9678) on September 9 and at the Palladium's upstairs room on September 11 with Kicked in the Head and the Goonies.

Other odds and sods: NBC's "Gravity Games" are responsible for the September 10 Providence Civic Center (931-2000) gig featuring Spin coverboy Kid Rock, the rejiggered Foo Fighters (whose Nothing Left To Lose is due next week), Busta Rhymes, and Tom Waits's buddies Primus. R.E.M. sneak into the Tweeter Center (931-2000) at the end of the summer on September 11; former Soundgarden belter Chris Cornell tests out the solo waters at a sold-out Sanders Theatre at Harvard University on September 13. And Mr. Willie Nelson graces the Lowell Memorial Auditorium (978-454-2299) with his presence on September 14.

-- Carly Carioli