A couple summers ago, Massachusetts was the only stop on the ink-and-metal "Tattoo the Earth" tour where you couldn't get tattoo'd. Now that the art is finally legal here, the mammoth first annual Massachusetts Tattoo Festival promises to unleash the world's finest needle-niks on virgin soil. In conjunction with the creators of the Tattoo the Earth festival, the three-day carnival, which is being held at the Worcester Centrum (617-931-2000) this Friday through Sunday, has spawned a three-day music-fest offshoot playing concurrently at the Palladium (800-477-6849). First up is a Friday-night metalfest with Six Feet Under, Candiria, Lamb of God, God Forbid, Darkest Hour, Unearth, and All That Remains. (Previously announced European heavyweights Dimmu Borgir, Napalm Death, and Witchery were, we presume, scared off.) Saturday it's an all-day punk blowout with Dropkick Murphys, Sick of It All, Tiger Army, Converge, the Unseen, Reach the Sky, Stretch Armstrong, Kill Your Idols, Hope Conspiracy, and more. And Sunday night Days of the New cap a modern-rock bill with Pete and From Zero.

America's premier teenage rock-and-roll machine remains four California girls called the Donnas, even though they've hit the drinking age running with their latest, The Donnas Turn 21 (Lookout). They're sleazy in the way only a gaggle of Jordache-sporting mall chicks raised on the Ramones, the Runaways, Kiss, and Mötley Crüe can be: looking for action in all the wrong places, giving out as good a backseat education as they get, and making their late-night booty call bring some fries with his shake. On tour with the NYC girl-group trio the Eyeliners and Little Rock's the Kicks, the Donnas hit Toad's Place (203-624-8623) in New Haven on Sunday; Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Wednesday; and the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston next Thursday, October 11.

The crossroads where heartbreaking pop and soulful alterna-country meet are staked out this week by a bunch of fine groups. On Friday, insurgent-country godfather Robbie Fulks hits T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge in support of his new Couples in Trouble (Bloodshot); meanwhile his one-time labelmate, ex-Whiskeytown golden boy Ryan Adams, supports his new Gold (Lost Highway) with a gig across the river at the Paradise. The Elephant 6-associated Beulah come closer to the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, and Burt Bacharach than to Gram Parsons, but the song "Gene Autry" on their new The Coast Is Never Clear (Velocett) comes close enough; they're at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Sunday. Neo-gothic hillbilly undertakers the Handsome Family rattle the dead with tunes from their reeling new Twilight at the Middle East on Tuesday. And ex-Scud Mountain Boy Joe Pernice's Pernice Brothers kick off a tour in support of their new World Won't End (Ashmont) on Wednesday at Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton.