Roadtrips

Guaranteed to be more fun than a high-school shooting spree, the first annual New England Metal and Hardcore Fest brings the noise to Worcester's Palladium (508-797-9696) for a three-day orgy of loud-fast-rules. Following in the footsteps of the Milwaukee Metalfest and New Jersey's Metal Meltdown, the line-up includes nearly 100 bands on two stages that'll make Ozzfest look like Lilith Fair. This Friday (April 30), starting at 6, you get veterans Morbid Angel and Napalm Death on the main stage, with the best new stuff from Relapse and Hydrahead -- Today Is the Day, Cave-In, Isis, Dillinger Escape Plan -- molesting the side stage. On Saturday, the mayhem starts at noon and features bloodbath muppeteers GWAR, Deicide, Gorguts, and Cryptopsy. And Manowar headline a Sunday metal massacre with Earth Crisis, Madball, Reveille, Scissorfight, and many more. See our club listings, on page 5, for the full line-up.

A close cousin of the underground Deep Heaven series in Boston, the mysterious space-rock alliance that calls itself FOMA! -- this time out, they're telling us it stands for Formations of Musical Abuse, though last time it was something like Fitchburg Outraged at Meat Additives -- is back with another gig at the Wallace Planetarium (978-808-3687), adjacent to the Wallace Civic Center, in Fitchburg on May 1. The FOMA! folks have lined up trance-psych-trauma futurists Lockgroove, the Lothars theremin orchestra, and Moon Patrol, as well as a heavy light show, some indie-film projection, and a rave-for-rock-kids "dream room."

We know Liz Phair is a new mom and everything, but isn't it a little early for her to be looking at schools? Probably, but she'll have the chance to anyway; she's doing a quickie tour of East Coast colleges including Wellesley College's Alumni Hall (781-283-1000) on April 30 and Harrington Auditorium at Worcester Polytechnical Institute (508-831-5950) on May 1. She'll also hit Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on May 2.
-- CC