Roadtrips

Say what you will about Limp Bizkit, they don't seem to mind playing for free. Just before the release of last year's chart-topping Significant Other (Interscope), they showed up on our doorstep here at 126 Brookline Avenue and played to about a thousand kids from the top of a parking garage. This summer, with a new single from the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack and a new album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, on the way, they've again taken to the road for a free tour sponsored by the embattled MP3-sharing software company Napster (the band claim the $2 million they got from Napster is solely to offset production costs). Bizkit's latest guerrilla tour stops at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester on July 14 and 15. At press time, the dates were still officially unconfirmed, though both opening bands -- hip-hoppers Cypress Hill and Capitol Eye -- are listing those dates on their Web sites. Details -- including how the free tickets or wristbands will be distributed -- will most likely be leaked to local radio stations today (Thursday), if not earlier.

If Sonic Youth can open for Pearl Jam, then we guess it's not too much of a stretch for Blonde Redhead -- a slightly less adventurous, second-generation SY-influenced outfit, minus the melodic peaks -- to be opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters at the Meadows Music Theatre (860-548-7370) in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 13 and the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on July 16. Still, we're reminded that indie cred looks much less pretty on the mainstage in broad daylight than it does on the drawing board.

Roger Waters no longer owns the rights to the name Pink Floyd, but he does own the voice, and his set at the Providence Civic Center (401-331-6700) on July 16 should be Floydian in everything but the name. On the other hand, Diana Ross owns the rights to the Supremes and the voice, but the absence of any other founding Supreme has put a serious dent in what is being billed as a Supremes reunion. That tour, which has gotten lukewarm reviews and suffered at the box office, comes to the FleetCenter (617-931-2000) in Boston on July 13; tickets are still plentiful. Or if Michael Bolton's your man, you'll want to catch him in his six-performance run of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at Boston's Wang Theatre (800-477-7400) July 13 through 16.

Elsewhere, Randy Travis is joined by Sub Pop's token hillbilly, Mike Ireland, at the South Shore Music Circus (781-383-1400) in Cohasset on July 15. Eighties pop-metal stars Def Leppard kick off their summer tour at the Tweeter Center on July 20; they'll also end that tour in Massachusetts, at the Big E Exposition in West Springfield (617-931-2000) on September 30. The surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, who recently offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever defaced the graves of founding members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, play the SNET Oakdale Theatre (203-265-1501) in Wallingford, Connecticut, on July 13; the same venue also hosts the Beach Boys the next night, though if you're in the mood for good vibrations, we recommend instead the date by Brian Wilson, performing all of Pet Sounds with a 55-piece orchestra, at the FleetBoston Pavilion (617-931-2000) on July 18.
-- Carly Carioli