It's taken a dozen years, but we think it's official now: Pearl Jam are cool again. No, we're not saying that because Eddie Vedder is wearing a mohawk and cutting tracks with Zeke. We're saying it because the only indie-rock band who matter, Sleater-Kinney, have deigned to travel with the PJs as their opening band on a trek through the Midwest and the South this spring. S-K's most recent release got lost in the shuffle, but in a year without their old opening act the White Stripes making candy-colored headlines, One Beat (Kill Rock Stars) probably would have been album of the year, and it's got a longer shelf life than the September 11-checking opening track would lead you to believe. Their current tour isn't hitting Boston, but if you hop in the car, you can catch them at Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton, MA next Thursday, February 13, or at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Valentine's Day. Opening both dates are the Black Keys, a blues-punk duo who sound less like the aforementioned Motor City heartthrobs than like the ancient Mississippi hill-country dudes on the Fat Possum label. Which is probably why after hearing the Keys' standout debut, The Big Come Up (Alive), Fat Possum snapped them up last month.

All-around menace to society "White Trash Rob" Lind does double duty at the El-N-Gee (860-437-3800) in New London, CT on Friday, opening a five-band bill with his furiously Slaytanic new outfit Ramallah and then closing with a set by his tough-guy hardcore outfit Blood for Blood. On Sunday, Mass hardcore heroes Bane are at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester with Reach the Sky and Most Precious Blood. And Egyptology-obsessed extreme-metal overlords Nile bring their new In Their Darkened Shrines (Relapse) to the Palladium on Friday with the slowly rotting corpse of Napalm Death.

What happens when the bottom falls out of the mook-metal market? Things get ugly. Seether are from South Africa, so they're forgiven the faux pas of naming themselves after a decent Veruca Salt song, but no one's forgiving them for being on Creed's label. Desperately seeking an audience for their Nirvana-be '02 album Disclaimer (Wind Up), they're at Pearl Street tonight (Thursday, February 6) and at Chantilly's (603-621-0330) in Manchester, NH on Friday with Ra, the modern-rock chumps who make Godsmack and Disturbed sound adventurous. On Saturday, Ra head to Lupo's, and Seether split for the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge. Like Ra, DC-area rap-rockers Sev were hoping the next wave of Limp Bizkit clones would all have one-syllable names, and -- again like Ra -- they were snapped up by Universal, only to be left wandering the suburban neon-barroom wastelands of New England. You'll find them tonight at the Edge (207-621-6387) in Augusta; on Friday at Jarrod's Place (508-222-8878) in Attleboro, MA; on Saturday at Chantilly's; and on Sunday at the Webster Theatre (860-246-8001) in Hartford, CT.