Mest have been encouraging fans visiting www.mestcrapp.com to pick the punk-reggae-flavored 15-song set for the band's first headlining tour, which hits New England in a big way this weekend. Mest's latest single, "Mother's Prayer," could fool you into thinking you're listening to the new release from Smashmouth or Sugar Ray. That's exactly the territory their record company hopes the Chicago South Siders' Destination Unknown tour -- which opens tonight (September 12, with Catch 22, Autopilot Off, and Yellowcard) at Lupo's (401-272-5876) in Providence -- will take them. Friday they're at the Edge (207-621-6387) in Augusta; Saturday they'll share the stage with three dozen other bands (including Hot Rod Circuit, Superdrag, and Midtown) as part of Skatefest 2002 at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester; Sunday they visit the Webster Theater (860-246-8001) in Hartford.

Goldfinger pull into Lupo's on Friday night. The So Cal punkers who were slated to save the world back in the mid '90s (we're still here, aren't we?) -- and whose biggest mark on the planet was their cover of Nena's "99 Luftballoons" for the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack -- recently returned to the States after appearing at the Reading and Leeds festivals in England. "Tell Me," the second single from Open Your Eyes (Jive), recently started to crack some commercial-radio playlists, suggesting widespread success could still come to a band whose sets include the humble love song "Fuck Ted Nugent."

Who says musicians shouldn't try to save the world? The New England Metalfest War on Terror Tour features German thrash-metal legends Kreator -- whose latest, Violent Revolution (Steamhammer), is sharing shelf space with a greatest-hits collection titled Past Life Trauma and a slate of reissues on the Noise label -- as well as Destruction, grind-metalists Cephalic Carnage, December, GoreHammer, Hirudinea, and New Hampshire madmen Candy Striper Death Orgy; the marathon event takes place Saturday at Club 125 (978-521-0099) in Bradford.

With more than three million copies of Drive (BMG/RCA) sold -- thanks in part to his September 11 tribute "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)?" -- Alan Jackson is the hottest man in country. The song is the odds-on favorite for Song of the Year at the Country Music Awards, for which he received a record 10 nominations (shattering the previous mark set by Merle Haggard's legendary "Okie from Muskogee"). On Saturday he's at Meadowbrook Farms (603-293-4700) in Gilford, New Hampshire; Sunday the tour bus pulls into the Cumberland Civic Center (207-775-3458) in Portland. The Nashville-based Pinmonkey, who released Speak No Evil (RCA) earlier this year and will soon be joining Country Music Television's Most Wanted Live Tour, open both shows.

Having failed to accomplish next-big-country-singer status (unlike her sister, Shelby Lynne), Allison Moorer chose to dirty things up a bit for her third album (and first for Universal South after two efforts on MCA), Miss Fortune, choosing to leave the commercial spotlight of the Grand Ole Opry for a long emotional walk through the backroads of Tennessee. On Tuesday she's at the Iron Horse Music Hall (800-THE-TICK) in Northampton; next Thursday, September 19, she'll be at the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston.