Roadtrips

The idea is to build a skate park out in Worcester, and so far the city isn't opposed to the idea. What's needed is, of course, money, and proceeds from this Saturday's "SK8:98" festival at the Palladium (508-797-9696) are going toward the park's establishment. MTV's round mound of underground sound, Matt Pinfield, MCs an all-day, all-night, all-ages bill with Vision of Disorder, Earth Crisis, H2O, Tree, Murphy's Law, Corey Glover, Shootyz Groove, dayinthelife, Scissorfight, Proton Accelerator, H8 Machine, Nothingface, Force Fed Shovelhead, and more; you can also soak celebrities and skate an outdoor ramp. If you've had your fill of ye olde-school punk rock, there's some of the new-school stuff on a bill with Jejune, Piebald, Six Going on Seven, and World Is My Fuse that sets up shop at the Space (508-753-0017) in Worcester this Sunday afternoon, then hightails it east in time to do it all over again at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge later that night. In Boston-to-Worcester death-metal action, Eyehategod get evil with Relapse firebrands Soilent Green, Mayhem's Crowbar, and Isis on Tuesday at the Middle East; the first three bands team up with Fragment at the Espresso Bar (508-770-1455) on Wednesday.

If you're heading in the opposite direction this weekend, there's plenty on tap down the Cape. On Saturday and Sunday the first annual Cape Cod Summer Music Festival at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds (331-2211) on Route 151 in Falmouth hosts funk legend Maceo Parker, reggae great Burning Spear, N'awlins swamp-boogie fiends the Radiators, bluesman John Mooney, and zydeco star Boozoo Chavis, plus local surf, ska, and mambo from the Ray Corvair Trio, Bim Skala Bim, and Babaloo, respectively. Weird electro-recombinant rock science project Operation Re-Information are at the Beachcomber (508-349-6055) in Wellfleet on Saturday. And if you want to see the new-and-improved line-up of pubcore faves the Dropkick Murphys, the closest they'll get to Boston this summer will be on Saturday at the Juice Bar (508-255-9467) in Orleans on a 5 p.m., all-ages bill with San Francisco's Workin' Stiffs, New York's Truants, Florida's Belltones, and Nobody's Heroes. On a completely unrelated note, Joan Baez is at the Cape Cod Melody Tent (331-2211) in Hyannis on Tuesday.

-- CC