Roadtrips

There will be those who will refuse to believe that Ted Nugent's new live Full Bluntal Nugity (Spitfire) -- which was recorded at the turn of the millennium in Detroit Rock City -- is vastly superior to 1978's Double Live Gonzo. And it is to those very people that we address the following Nugent-ism, which is drawn directly from the amazing liner notes to Nugity: "Those still are flames flyin' outta my ass. Now everybody take a deep breath and relax. Don't be ascared. Just shut the fuck up and grab the damn marshmallows! Drive safely." Yes, Full Bluntal Nugity -- his funniest album title since If You Can't Lick 'Em . . . Lick 'Em, especially when you consider that Ted's as virulently drug-free as a straight-edger -- boasts some of the Nuge's finest free-association. Two things struck us upon viewing the album cover. First, we felt sorry for the poor buffalo that got stuck between the legs of the Motor City Madman. Second, Nugent is wearing combat fatigues . . . and one of those prissy 'N Sync-style headset microphones! But what makes Full Bluntal far superior to Gonzo is the lingering trace of the '80s and Ted's stint in Damn Yankees, during which he absorbed and assimilated the decade's pyrotechnic hard-rock clichés into his own sasquatchian pre-punk ax-monster sludge -- the kind of stuff you can't be taught anymore, apparently, unless you're from Sweden or Japan. In any case, at the head of a savage power trio the millennial Nugent sounds something like a cross between Teengenerate and Van Halen -- which is to say downright contemporary, especially if you've seen the shtick that MC5 wanna-bes like Zen Guerrilla are trying to pull off. Sample the Nuge plowing anew through the old stuff, like "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" ("a little dinner music for my friends") and the immortal "Cat Scratch Fever" ("Hell, I'm just a dumb old motherfucker from the swamp, man, and I wrote the number-one guitar lick in the history of the world right here in Detroit!"), and see whether you aren't ready to trade in Gonzo. Or witness the master himself opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd and Deep Purple at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Saturday. The same bill hits Meadows Music (860-548-7370) in Hartford the following Saturday (June 23).

JAMN 94.5's big blowout at the Tweeter Center next Thursday (June 21) offers a too-rare opportunity to see some of hip-hop's charttoppers in the flesh. On the bill: the one-man hip-hop dynasty Jay-Z, gruff-voiced, Hollywood-bound Ja Rule ("Between Me and You," "Put It On Me"), junior Snoop kiddo Lil Bow Wow, Xzibit, Memphis Bleek, Lil' Mo, new R&B sensations City High ("What Would You Do?"), DJ Funkmaster Flex, and guest host Sisqo, who on June 19 will release a new disc entitled Return of Dragon (Def Jam), on which he'll try to reprise the perhaps irreproduceable genius of his "Thong Song." And the Dave Matthews Band commandeer Foxboro Stadium (617-931-2000) on Saturday (sold out) and Sunday (tickets still available), with opener Macy Gray.
-- Carly Carioli