Heavy Dates

Thanksgiving weekend is always a big one in clubland, so let's just dig in. One of this past year's better discoveries was a kid named Mingo. His My Ride has to go down as one of the top-10 local releases. It's smooth, smart, and just sassy enough to appeal to commercial radio; though we gave up trying to figure out how that very strange beast operates years ago! All we can say for sure is that it isn't based on talent. Take a lift with Mingo this Friday at Cafe Abba. The Clutch Grabwell phenomena is rapidly approaching the boiling point. While we gave our word not to spill the beans, we will throw this one bone: barring a break-up/plane crash/Y2K world meltdown, the band will most definitely be signed to a major-label deal within several months. Right now it's a damn feeding frenzy over John Boyle and his merry men, and we couldn't be more proud of the former Phoenix cover boys and our reader's pick as 1999 Best Local Rock Act. Celebrate early when they play the Lucky Dog along with Dr. Demento chart-toppers Slant 6 and the Jumpstarts. Elsewhere on Friday, one of our favorite songwriters Dan Hart returns to the Java Hut, Vykki Vox will play tunes from her disc Can You Feel It? (Webrock) at the brandy-new club, Liquid, and the Floyd Patterson Band hold court at Ye Olde Tavern, in West Brookfield. Plenty of music-type professionals have made a big deal over the guitar style and direction of Michael Hill's Blues Mob. Considered one of the new leaders of the contemporary blues movement, Hill and his boys return this Saturday to shake Gilrein's. Young Neal and the Vipers return to Jillian's and the final week of the Phoenix Fall Music Series, while Rick Blaze and the Ballbusters let punk fly at London Billiards. For a cool change of pace, head to Point Breeze and see jazz-heavy Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau. Traditionally, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest of the year. Friends are back in town to celebrate, and there's plenty to choose from. Jason James and the Bay State Houserockers headline the bill at Ralph's, but get there early to catch the set from Dimwit, whom we'll officially go on record to call the best new punk band on the scene. Smart, funny, and full of piss, they've definitely studied the pop-style playbook of the Ramones, Queers, and Mr. T Experience. The funk/jam/soul of Jive is featured at the Above Club, Pork and Beans do that Phish-inspired thing at the Tammany Club, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson and the Magic Rockers are your best blues bet at the Sit N' Bull Pub, and Skulltoboggan, Officer Down, and Dogleg bring the heavy to Funny Bones Cafe. Thanksgiving night means time to work off the turkey and get away from that band of lunatics you've been cooped-up with the entire day (also known as your biological family). Ralph's has a great pairing with the ab-fab Prize Fighter and Boston's Slow Fore (recently signed to Espo Records, the label that gave Garrison their start). It's your last chance to catch Downchild for a very long time; they play at the Lucky Dog, and the Arthur Dent Foundation appear at the Tammany Club.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

If you'd have told us about this time last decade that Metallica were gonna end up co-headlining Madison Square Garden with an orchestra and that Megadeth would turn into a disco-blues band -- in the tradition of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Def Leppard -- we'd have bet our jean-jacket vests that you were full of it. Same goes if you'd told us that Jesse Ventura would reignite the concept of third-party politics in America and Hulk Hogan would end up a bad guy. Yet all of this somehow figures in what could be the most crucial document to deciphering our weird times: Tommy Boy's WCW Mayhem: The Music, a soundtrack to fake wrestling in which beef-jerky salesman Macho Man Randy Savage's theme steals a lick from Metallica's "Search and Destroy" and lasts less than a minute but is still better than Slayer's contribution. Our point? Something to do with Megadeth, whose Risk is slipping quick off the Billboard charts but whose "Crush 'Em" is now the official Goldberg theme song. Mustaine and company are at the Central Maine Civic Center, (207) 783-2009, in Lewiston, on November 20, and at the Orpheum, (617) 931-2000, in Boston, on the 21st. Static-X and DDT open up.

Filter don't have the wrasslin' gig, but inasmuch as their new single sounds enough like "Hey Man, Nice Shot" to fool the consumer, their Title of Record (Reprise) is still hanging tough in the Top 100. Neither do Filter have ring girls, but they've got the next best thing -- an opening band by the name of Drain STH, a cross between Alice in Chains and the Swedish bikini team, with the added bonus that one of 'em is married to one of the dudes in Black Sabbath. They're at Avalon, (617) 423-6398, in Boston, on November 20; at the State Theatre, in Portland, (207) 775-3331, on November 21; and at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on November 23.

Alert the Coast Guard and the Guitar Center set: we've got some more of those endangered species beaching themselves on the shores of the Charles. The last of a dying genus (the instrumental ax god), Steve Vai may have done himself up in modern-rock camouflage, but that don't mean he ain't on life support. He's at Lupo's tonight (November 18); and at Avalon on November 19. From the other side of the fence: D.R.I.'s idea of a Crossover in the mid '80s was playing both kinds of music: punk and metal. Not so big a deal anymore, and yet they keep doing it, along with local hardcore true believers Tree, at the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge, on November 22 and at the Met Café, (401) 861-2142, in Providence, on November 25.

At least there's safety in numbers for the four emerging New England singer-songwriters who have banded together under the moniker Voices on the Verge -- that's Jess Klein, Rose Polenzani, Erin McKeown, and Beth Amsel, in the role of a Cry, Cry, Cry for the post-Lilith Fair set. The group headline their own show at the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on November 18; on the 20th they top a bill of "Great Women's Voices" at the Somerville Theatre, (617) 628-3390, that also includes Faith Soloway, Kris Delmhorst, and Lori McKenna.

-- Carly Carioli