Roadtrips

The summer concert season kicks into high gear this week with a couple of high-profile, sold-out multi-night stands by the biggest acts in rock and pop. And U2 and 'N Sync might have more to talk about than you'd think. The latest single from the world's premier boy band -- the first from their forthcoming Celebrity (Jive) -- is the BT-produced "Pop," and as a defense of the titular mega-genre, it's at least as scathing and disingenuous as anything off U2's "ironic" 1997 album of the same name. In the same way that Bono once affected (or did he?) the cold calculation of a cynical pop entrepreneur, 'N Sync here affect the pose of the indignant artiste: "Sick and tired of hearing all these people talk about/`What's the deal with this pop life and when's it gonna fade out?' " Not any time soon, it would seem. 'N Sync play a two-night engagement at Foxboro Stadium (617-931-2000) tonight, (May 31) and tomorrow. It's officially sold out, as is U2's four-night stand Tuesday, Wednesday, and next Friday and Saturday at the FleetCenter (617-931-2000) in Boston, with PJ Harvey opening, in support of last year's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

It's also a weekend of radio-station-sponsored festivals, beginning with the KISS concert at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Saturday, which teams Ricky Martin with Aerosmith, Puffy's girl group Dream (who also open the 'N Sync dates), Evan & Jaron, TV popstars Eden's Crush and O-Town, ATC, Jessica Simpson, Joey McIntyre, Lee Ann Womack, Lionel Richie, Nelly Furtado, pop-dancehall sensation Shaggy, the Corrs, and the Wallflowers.

There is, of course, a gaggle of satellite gigs. The kiddie Abba-tribute group the A*Teens and pop/R&B chanteuse Pink join KISS-concert leftovers Simpson, MacIntyre, Womack, Richie, and Furtado for another radio fest at the Providence Civic Center (401-331-6700) on Sunday. Then the French-born, Sweden-bred pop-girlie-in-waiting Amanda (who has an album coming on Madonna's Maverick label) and modern-rockers Eve 6 join ATC, McIntyre, Richie, and the Wallflowers for yet another radio date on Tuesday at Cumberland Civic Center (207-775-3458) in Portland, Maine.

Meanwhile, "Monsterfest," the underground metal/hardcore version of a radio-station festival (no radio station but tons of bands all the same), takes place Friday through Sunday at Memorial Auditorium (802-862-2244), 242 Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. The line-up is a true dream bill. Friday's show includes Hatebreed, H2O, Candiria, Bane, Poison the Well, and the Hope Conspiracy. Saturday's has Napalm Death, Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Soilent Green, Botch, Drowningman, Isis, American Nightmare, Diecast, Burnt by the Sun, and more. And on Sunday, we get the original Bad Brains line-up, doing business as Soul Brains, plus Cave In, Piebald, the Icarus Line, the Cancer Conspiracy, Garrison, Jesus Eater, and Milligram. You can also catch Napalm Death and Soilent Green at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester on Friday. And the Icarus Line play Axis (617-262-2437) in Boston on Wednesday with Paris, Texas, and Rise Park.
-- Carly Carioli