[Sidebar] May 10 - 17, 2001
[Music Reviews]
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Roadtrips

Weezer aren't the only long-lost emo titans back in the spotlight this month: witness the return of Piebald, the long-running Merrimack Valley faves with a similar penchant for black-rimmed glasses and humorously rocking love songs. Out of commission for the better part of a year, they played a much-hyped reunion show last month at the annual MACRoCK festival in Virginia. This Sunday, they're making up for lost time with two home-town shows in one day: an all-ages matinee with Fairweather and Thursday (the band, not the day of the week) at Bill's Bar (617-421-9678) in Boston, followed that night by an 18-plus evening show at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge with Orange Island and Vermont's finest purveyors of instrumental math rock, the Cancer Conspiracy. And that's not all: next month, the busy local indie label Big Wheel Recreation will release Barely Legal/All Ages, a two-CD Piebald retrospective, along with singer Travis Shettel's solo debut, Totally Travis! Those releases will be followed by CD-release parties at the Met Café (401-272-5876) in Providence next Saturday (May 26), with Junction 18, Drowningman, and Keepsake, and next Sunday (May 27) at the El-N-Gee (860-437-3800) in New London, Connecticut, with Six Going On Seven, Junction 18, and Keepsake.

If you can cover the bus ticket to the wilds of Connecticut, you can see some pretty fantastic stuff for free at the Mohegan Sun (888-226-7711 extension 27163), where the music's a lure for the slots. On Saturday, for instance, you can catch pioneering pop-country crossover star Glen Campbell, who, aside from being the original Rhinestone Cowboy, is also the only human being to have played on the recordings of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and Merle Haggard's "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde."

From the City of Brotherly Love -- not to mention the City of Gamble & Huff -- comes Musiq Soulchild, another fine and funky addition to the D'Angelo/Joe soul-brother brigade. Musiq's "Love," an album cut from his Aijuswanaseing (Def Soul), is currently climbing the charts, and he capitalizes with dates on Friday at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston and Saturday at Lupo's (401-272-5876) in Providence.

Thanks in no small part to superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold, the Tranceport mix CDs have become a kind of annointment for trance's next big thing. This weekend we get the outgoing queen -- Sandra Collins, architect of Tranceport III -- and incoming champ -- Max Graham, who is behind the brand-spanking-new Tranceport IV -- in our neck of the woods. Graham spins tonight (May 17) at Axis (617-423-NEXT) in Boston; Collins spins Friday at Avalon, where her special guest will be Emmanuel Lewis. That's right, as in Webster. Must be a trance thing.

Heavyweight funnyman Jerry Seinfeld's gargantuan Wang Theatre (800-447-7400) gig in Boston next Thursday (May 24) is sold out, but at press time tickets remained for his show at the Providence Performing Arts Center (617-931-2000) this Sunday. Cutie-pie modern-rock twins Evan and Jaron have a sold-out date at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Saturday; try 'em tonight (May 17) at Toad's Place (203-624-8623) in New Haven.
-- Carly Carioli

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