Roadtrips

The subject of being a rock-and-roll star was popular again last year. Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals (Nothing/Interscope), Hole's Celebrity Skin (Geffen), and Monster Magnet's Powertrip (A&M) each had its own take on the topic -- and each was so at odds with the others that it shouldn't have come as a surprise when a mega-tour featuring all three bands imploded less than halfway through its run. The only release of the three to regard stardom wholly without reservation was Powertrip -- an unabashed ode to Vegas, strippers, self-delusion, drugs, money, power, denial, deceit, ego, id, and speed as the truest expressions of the American dream, as the only stuff worth crowing about. Manson's ambisexual paranoid-android alter ego wallowed in its cold-hearted, drug-induced haze as if that were some kind of emotional security blanket; and Courtney Love marveled at her own self-invention in the face of intractable odds; but next to Magnet's Dave Wyndorf they sounded like a couple of whiners. Powertrip cut past the metaphors and headed straight for the medicine cabinet -- a few tabs later, the guy's proclaiming himself a Thunder God or something, taunting his audience with barbs like "Who's gonna call you on the wack dope-smoking slacking little sucker you are?", proclaiming he'll never work another goddamn day in his life, and daring you not to buy his records. He's currently the closest thing to P.T. Barnum in rock and roll, and with lines like the immortal "Space lawd, mutha, mutha" and "You're looking for the one who fucked your mom/It's not me," the Magnet are the perfect complement to this Mother's Day weekend. They're at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on May 8 with Staind (ask 'em whether they remember any Korn songs from their cover-band days) and White Zombie sound-alikes Static-X. Then on Mama's Day proper, May 9, the Magnet are at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester with Staind, Reveille, and Verbena (who put out an awesome Stones/Stooges hybrid on Merge, signed to Capitol, and have since, we're told, begun to sound a bit like Nirvana).

On the rootsier side of things, Lucinda Williams makes her only area stop this time around at Lupo's on May 6 with Patty Griffin. Former Rank and File/True Believers hero Alejandro Escovedo is at Johnny D's (617-776-2004) in Somerville on May 6 and at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on May 8. Folkie singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke is at Pearl Street (413-584-0610) in Northampton on May 7 with local-singer-songwriter-boy-done-good Jude, who's been touring with the Cranberries of late and has a disc out on Madonna's Maverick label. After that Brooke moves on to the Berklee Performance Center (401-331-2211) for a gig on May 8. And John Medeski -- of Martin Medeski & Wood -- sits in with the Hal Crook Group to lay down some organ on live tracks they'll record during shows on May 11 and 12 at Providence's AS220 (401-831-9327).

File under: shameless impersonation. Heard a band on the radio recently who sounded an awful lot like Sugar -- and, it turns out, have the gall to call themselves Fuel, which just happens to have been the title of one of the last Sugar albums. They're climbing the modern-rock radio charts, and they'll be at Lupo's on May 14 with fellow active-rock hopefuls Finger 11.
-- CC