Heavy Dates

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

It's Fugazi time again. You know the deal. Six bucks, all ages, and no slamming, unless you want Ian MacKaye to stop the show and heckle you. There's no new album, which isn't anything special, though if you need something to obsess about, there's still Instrument, Jem Cohen's impressionistic video portrait of the band, as well as a soundtrack featuring, uh, instrumental demos and stuff. Apparently Fugazi guy Brendan Canty can't get enough of this soundtrack thing -- he recently scored a Discovery Channel series on skyscrapers and bridges. The Discovery Channel: that's so Fugazi. The band's only New England appearance is at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, December 2.

Can't say as we've heard anything quite as strange as Bring 'Em Bach Alive (Spitfire), the latest disc from former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach. It's your typical subpar greatest-hits-live disc, except for the two new songs written by Jimmy Flemion of avant-homocore weirdos the Frogs -- who's also part of the touring band and will be wearing his trademark green-lamé batwing outfit. Besides being quite pretty, and just tastefully tasteless enough to be compared with Skid Row's classic hits, Flemion's "Superjerk, Superstar, Supertears" might be the most accidentally revealing hair-metal ballad since GNR's "November Rain." Bach's at the Station, (401) 823-4660, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, December 2.

Folk-rockers Eddie from Ohio are, in fact, from Virginia. Just wanted to clear that up. They're at the Somerville Theatre, (617) 628-3390, in Somerville, on December 4 with Vermont singer/songwriter Diane Zeigler, who has a new disc coming on Rounder next spring; and at the Iron Horse, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on December 5. Celtic traditionalist Aine Minogue keeps the home fires burning with her studied harp playing and singing, and she'll be performing a series of holiday concerts drawn from her To Warm the Winter's Night (DruidStone): at the Beacon Hill Coffeehouse, (781) 891-1497, in Boston, on December 4; at the Blackthorn Tavern, (508) 238-4068, in Easton, on December 5; and at the Natick Arts Center, (508) 647-0179, in Natick, on December 10.

-- Carly Carioli