Jersey's got the Metal Meltdown. Wisconsin's got the Milwaukee Metal Fest. California's got November to Dismember. We have the New England Hardcore and Metal Fest, a two-day marathon of pulverizing insanity featuring, at last count, 62 of the best and brightest brutalizers from America and abroad. The wave of mutilation commences on Friday with Florida numbskulls Cannibal Corpse -- a holiday in the sun for folks who enjoy breathless free verse about raping the dead -- and Sweden's Arch Enemy, with a side dish of Today Is the Day, Incantation, Killswitch Engage, and many more. Saturday's headliners are In Flames (from Sweden again) and the South Carolina outfit Nile, whose elaborately arranged death metal is what Cannibal Corpse might sound like if they all had PhD's in Egyptology and a geeky hankering for ancient instruments that'd make early-music buffs blush. That's all at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester; Friday's show kicks off at 3 p.m., and Saturday's starts at noon.

The millennial apocalypse that was prophesied on a gaggle of 1999 hip-hop albums -- including the Wu-Tang Clan's double disc Forever (Loud) -- kinda did come to pass. It just, typically for hip-hop, arrived 18 months late. The author of "911 Is a Joke" showed up as a guest on the Wu's soul-powered Iron Flag (Sony) last December, and though that was about as close as the disc came to talking about terrorism in New York City, the thought of a reinvigorated Wu-Tang is as heartening an emblem of American resilience and ingenuity as you could ask for. (Anyone seeking a corresponding sense of economic optimism is hereby directed to the title of Ghostface Killah's recent Bulletproof Wallets.) The whole Wu crew -- except, barring another jailbreak, the incarcerated Ol' Dirty Bastard, who nonetheless just released his third solo album -- show up on Friday at UMass-Amherst's Mullins Center (413-545-0505), on Saturday at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence, and on Sunday at the Palladium.

We know how despicable this is, but we genuinely adore Sum 41 -- and even worse, we think the thing that pushed us over the edge was the episode on MTV's Cribs where the drummer shows off his humble abode, which also happens to be his parents' house. We enjoy their cute License To Ill-era Beasties impersonation, we appreciate their '80s-metal jones, and what's more, they're harmlessly Canadian. Catch 'em at Lupo's on Sunday; at the Webster Theatre (860-246-8001) in Hartford on Tuesday; at the Palladium on Wednesday; and at the State Theatre (207-780-8265) in Portland next Thursday, April 11.

Speaking of Canadian children: the Kids in the Hall reunion continues with stops on Tuesday at the Orpheum (617-931-2000) and next Friday at the Burlington Memorial Auditorium (802-864-6044) in Burlington, Vermont. Speaking of comedians: Robin Williams takes a break from pursuing Smoochy tonight (Thursday, April 4) to play the Providence Performing Arts Center (401-421-2997). And George Carlin is at the North Shore Music Theatre (978-232-7200) on Monday.