If the workshops at this weekend's politically minded Boston National Youth Hip-Hop Conference have you hankering to see theory in practice, we recommend that you high-tail it out to Worcester, where on Saturday the grandaddies of rap-as-insurrection -- that's right, Public Enemy -- arrive at the Palladium (800-477-6849) behind their new odds-and-sods disc Revolverlution (Koch), with Dilated Peoples and Blackalicious in tow. The same bill also travels to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Sunday and to Pearl Street (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Monday. And old-school activism attends old-school flavor when the Beatnuts and Non-Phixion bring their "Rap the Vote" tour to Lupo's on Monday; to Axis (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Tuesday; and to Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Wednesday.

It's a big week for psych-pop fans, too, as friend-of-White-Stripes Brendan Benson, who sounds like a garagier Matthew Sweet, hits the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence tonight (Thursday, September 19) and the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Friday. Elephant 6ers Of Montreal, one of that collective's perennially undersung ensembles, have made their most rewarding disc to date in Aldhils Arboretum (Kindercore), a blast of Beatles-style flower-power eccentricity with graveyard-hearted lyrics about growing old and losing one's mind; they're at Pearl Street on Friday and at T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Sunday. Hottest ticket of them all: Welsh sensations Super Furry Animals are at Pearl Street on Sunday and at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Monday.

It's also a pulverizing week in metal. Fresh off their collaboration with Fantomas leader Mike Patton (see "Off the Record," on page 28 of Arts), chaos-theory chord wranglers Dillinger Escape Plan hit the Palladium on Tuesday with the Icarus Line. Pairing low-end bass-behemoth damage and warlording Dungeons & Dragons mysticism, High on Fire's Surrounded by Thieves (Relapse) may well replace Kyuss's Blues for the Red Sun as the penultimate stoner-metal treatise; the band are at the Skinny (207-871-8983) in Portland on Monday, at the Middle East on Tuesday, and at the Met Café next Sunday. Their even woollier labelmates Mastodon precede them at the Middle East on Monday with the Red Chord and 5ive. Meanwhile, Seattle screamo destroyers Playing Enemy play the Skinny tonight (September 19) and then on Friday headline some place called Papa's in Somerville (345 Somerville Avenue; 617-776-4833) with local terrors Anodyne, Shot Dead, and Defcon 4.

Worcester's annual suburban-metal festival, Locobazooka (617-423-NEXT), blossomed into a national tour this year. The homecoming gig is bigger than the tour version -- even if it is still the poor man's OzzFest. For "Big Momma Loco" in Green Hill Park this Saturday, they've got Disturbed, Ozzy sideman Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society, Blindside, Nonpoint, Must, and a zillion local bands who want to be the next Reveille.