A tween-pop boy band who got their start doing TV ads for Frosted Flakes and Lunchables before landing a spot on the Pokémon soundtrack, Dream Street are still a long way from easy street. But their homonymous album, previously available only at Toys "R" Us, has gotten a national launch, and they're on the road for shows at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Saturday and at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Sunday. For both shows, they're joined by a slightly older -- but still jailbaitish -- girl group called 3rd Faze, who often appear with the Dream Street kids on a Saturday-morning teen-fitness show called Go for It! Speaking of which: you can also catch the boys at the "Go for It! Roadshow" at Tsongas Arena (978-848-6900) in Lowell on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One of our first reservations about Pearl Jam was that they were reported to be fans of a "progressive" Christian pop-metal band called King's X -- which may explain why the King's X dudes have any cachet with modern rockers at all. The X men are currently on tour with young whippersnappers Moke ("My Degeneration") that hits the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Sunday and the Webster Theater (860-525-5553) in Hartford next Thursday, October 25. In other blasts from the alterna-metal past: manic funkateers Fishbone never made the Red Hot Chili Peppers/Primus transition to post-Lollapalooza fame, but they're hanging in with gigs on Wednesday at the aforementioned Webster Theater and next Thursday (the 25th) at Harpers Ferry (617-254-9743) in Allston. Vintage-'89 flower-power rap eclectics De La Soul top another version of their "Spitkickers Tour" with old-school legend Biz Markie on Friday at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley and on Saturday at the Palladium in Worcester (call 800-477-6849 for tickets to both shows).

We'd already given up trying to keep up with Robert Pollard when he unloaded that 50-cassette avalanche on his fan club, so we no longer ask what Guided by Voices are up to. If you care, you know; the rest of us don't wanna hear it. There'll probably be some new songs when GBV play the Middle East on Saturday and Toad's Place (203-624-8623) in New Haven on Sunday.

Even with tongues planted firmly in cheek, the faux Nordic goth-metal group Type O Negative have sometimes been hard to take: the first time we saw 'em, way back in the early '90s, they unleashed a 17-minute opus called "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" (a love song whose chorus went, "I know you're fucking someone else"). These days they're more likely to rip off the Cars via the Damned -- which works better than you'd think. They haven't put out an album in two years, but it's Halloween, so they're on a tour that hits the Palladium on Wednesday and Lupo's next Thursday, the 25th.