Roadtrips

New England is festival-crazy this weekend, with some half-dozen offerings in the area. Skatepunks can check out the Warped Tour in Northampton this Wednesday, July 29. The inaugural year of the Gibson Guitar Festival (401-847-3700) -- replacing the defunct Rhythm & Blues festival -- springs up at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, July 25 and 26, with Bo Diddley, James Cotton, and Nils Lofgren on Saturday and the Radiators, Charlie Hunter, Chris Whitley, and Marc Ribot on Sunday. Lofgren, the former Springsteen/Lou Reed sideman, also pops up in Boston at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) on the 26th. And if you want to travel a bit farther, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (860-350-7472) in Hillsdale, New York (at the corner of Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont), features three days of folkies, including Bill Morrissey, Dar Williams, the Bobs, Great Big Sea, John Gorka, the Nields, Patty Larkin, Richard Shindell, Sloan Wainwright, and Vance Gilbert, from July 24 through 26. There's also the Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival (413-499-2805) July 24 through 26 at Steele's Family Farm in Lanesboro; and the New England Reggae Festival (888-855-6940) at the Stepping Stone Ranch in Escoheag, Rhode Island, July 25 and 26, with the likes of Dion Knibb and the Agitators, Crucial Massive, and Dub Station.

The Servotron robot alliance touches down for silicon-based surf-inflected punk and new wave -- think Devo and the Borg locked in mortal combat -- with two shows on July 29 at the Atlantic Connection (508-693-7129) in Oak Bluff on Martha's Vineyard; after assimilating the humans there, they'll move on to the Middle East in Boston on the 30th -- along with the widely sought-after Boston band the Whitey Bulgers -- and the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on the 31st. For the time being, you'll have to get outta town to see stoner-metal stars Monster Magnet, whose only area date as yet -- despite that single that's all over the radio -- is at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on July 26. Squirrel Nut Zippers sideman Andrew Bird leads his own band, Bowl of Fire, to the Green Street Grill (617-876-1655) in Cambridge on July 27, the Call (401-751-2255) in Providence on the 29th, and back to Somerville at Johnny D's (617-776-2004) on the 30th.

-- CC