Roadtrips

There has never been a rave at the Methuen Valley Expo Center (508-788-8822), and after this one it's unlikely there'll ever be another -- the place is going dark at the end of the month, so who cares if the kids sweat all over the floor? With 5000 of its 90,000 square feet devoted to breakdancing, and appearances from UK mom/DJ Mrs. Wood, speed garage-ist Caspar Pound, and Texas breakbeat specialist Kelly Reverb, the event goes down on March 21. For more lowdown, check it out on the Web at www/gis.net/-magnetic. If reels are more your speed, try the Guinness Irish Music Festival, also March 21, at Bootleggers (401-274-3234) in Providence, with Black 47, Pendragon, Paddy Keenan, Skip Healy, Tony Cuffe, Eric M. Armour, and Nivek. More beer-sponsored music pops up in Saugus, where Budweiser is turning the Oxygen complex (781-321-1660) into a spring-break theme park, once again on March 21. C & C Music Factory will be on hand to make you go hmmmmm. And the wandering bards of the Rock 'n Roll Romance Revival -- the loose confederation of local cabaret/rock/spoken-word types -- are considering settling down for a residency at the Works Theatre in Somerville (617-625-6478). They're decking the place out on, yes, March 21 with nine bands (among them Rick Berlin, Ape Hangers, Garage Dogs), two talkers, and all the trimmings.

Windy and Carl -- a guitar duo whose trance-inducing, echo-laden tonal washes clock in somewhere between Mazzy Star on a handful of Valium and a long, hot bath -- were a welcome intermission at last year's Terrastock, stacked amid gear-jamming noise from Lhasa Cement Plant and some now-forgotten quirky indie-rock indiscretion. Whether their slow, oozing, cumulus haze can keep you awake on a normal night is up for discussion at the Century Lounge (401-751-2255) in Providence on March 24 with Saturnine and Mike and Margie from the Difference Engine, as well as at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) on March 25 with Germany's To Rococo Rot, Minnesota's Lifter Puller, and Junk Lemonade.

On the roots tip, creekdipper Victoria Williams is at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on March 19, and at the Berklee Performance Center (331-2211) on March 21, both with Chris (son of Stephen) Stills. And Six String Drag, whose cavalier take on the alterna-country No Pression thing got 'em signed to Steve Earle's label, are at T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) on March 20 and the Call (401-751-2255) in Providence on March 21.

--C.C.