When we bummed a light off a bored-looking kid in a prep-school jacket out in front of Davis Square's now-defunct Gallery Bershad a couple of years back, we hadn't the faintest idea he was in the band we were there to see. And even after we dug Julian Casablancas's Lou Reed/Iggy Pop/David Johansen impersonation, we figured the Strokes would be lucky to sell a few thousand records. So we're idiots, but though hipsters have now abandoned them as overhyped, we're still on the bandwagon. And we're still amazed that the Strokes have come as far as they have. Sure, we facetiously described the White Stripes/Strokes debate as the Beatles/Stones argument of our time, but we didn't think the Strokes would actually end up opening for the Rolling Stones, which they'll do beginning next Saturday, October 5, at the Hartford Civic Center (860-249-6333). In the meantime, the Strokes are wrapping up their biggest headline tour to date with gigs at the State Theater (207-780-8265) in Portland on Tuesday and the FleetBoston Pavilion (617-931-2000) on Wednesday with Sloan and the Realistics.

We'd been hoping Paul McCartney would take the bait and bring Jack and Meg along for his current tour, which hits the Hartford Civic Center on Friday and the FleetCenter (617-931-2000) on Monday and Tuesday. Alas, even an opening slot for the Beatles is no guarantee of long-term success, as witness Barry Tashian and the Remains, who were the biggest pop group in New England back in the mid '60s and ended up opening for the Fab Four's final US tour. They broke up soon after, but record collectors still swear by the group, and that cult following inspired a 1999 reunion. The Remains are back again with their first new album in more than 30 years, and they'll hold a CD-release party at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Friday with roots-rock journeyman Dennis Brennan, who in turn once opened for the Remains as a teenager with his first band, the Paranoids.

A few years ago, Girls Against Boys went electronic on their major-label debut and flopped miserably. On Saturday at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge, they're back with a new disc in the searing post-punk mode that made them the most semi-famous indie band of the late '90s, just in time to enter a playing field where indie groups are all going electro. That field includes labelmates Milemarker, who arrive at Bill's Bar (617-421-9678) in Boston the same night behind their new Satanic Versus EP.

What the world really needs now is more chamber-rock bands with full-time bassoon players; right now you'll have to make do with the Clogs. An Aussie/American quartet led by a Fulbright scholar, they're all classically trained musicians from the new-music scene who are more in tune with Satie and Stravinsky than Slint and Squirrel Bait. Their debut, Thom's Night Out (Brassland), sounds like a more fully realized version of what post-rockers like the Rachel's have been at all these years, and it's recorded so quiet that you can hear the bassoonist breathe (warning: he has a nose whistle). On Saturday, the Clogs are at the Lyndon Institute (802-626-3357) in Lyndon, Vermont; on Tuesday, they open for Touch & Go faves the Shipping News at T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge.