Roadtrips

Worcester has occasionally gotten a bad rap in this column, but we find ourselves envious of the line-up this week at that city's outstanding all-ages venue, the Space (508-753-0017), which offers a few of the finest names in post-hardcore. On Saturday the 26th the room boasts Dischord heavies Bluetip along with Garrison, Shiner, and Boston's stellar Six Going on Seven. You can also catch Bluetip and Shiner at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) on June 25. On Sunday, Hydrahead's avant-metal prodigies Cave In cap off a nationwide tour at the Space in support of their new genre-busting EP Creative Eclipses; also on the bill are new labelmates, and one of the finest grindcore outfits in the country, Discordance Axis, plus industro-noisecore kids Isis, and Burn It Down. Further Hydrahead-associated goings-on surface at the Space on July 2, when prog-artcore dudes Converge headline a bill with Buried Alive, Saves the Day, and Morser. And that same night the superb grindcore act Soilent Green, who put out the vinyl version of their Sewn Mouth Secrets on Hydrahead, hit the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence. On Monday the freshest voice in the indie-emo underground, Joan of Arc (in photo), hit the Space with Euphone and Rose of Sharon; you can also catch Joan of Arc and Euphone with the Ivory Coast on the 29th at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge.

You've got your pick of swampified soul at two spicy shindigs this weekend. On June 26 from noon to 9 outdoors at the Tsongas Arena Riverfront Grounds (978-897-4663) in Lowell, the Mohegan Sun-sponsored "Bayou Bash" features N'awlins legend Dr. John, local mattress-hawking jam-band faves Entrain, the Fat City Band, the Boogaloo Swamis, mod-punk outlaws the Shods, and Dell and Exit In. And on June 26 and 27 at the Stepping Stone Ranch (401-885-9219) in Escoheag, Rhode Island -- the site, for the past 10 years, of the Big Easy Cajun Fest -- the Ragin' Cajun Rhythm and Blues Fest includes CJ and His Red Hot Louisiana Band, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Dirty Rice, Dave Howard and the High Rollers, and Johnny and the East Coast Rockers.

Bonnie Raitt opens up the season of the Pines Theater Summer Music Festival (800-THE-TICK) in Northampton on June 29; she won't be back this way again until August 26 at the Tweeter Center (331-2211) in Mansfield. Alterna-folkie queen Mary Lou Lord shows up at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on June 25. And Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence hosts area dates for grand-guignol-style metal heroes GWAR on June 27 and NY old-school hardcore stalwarts Sick of It All -- on tour with Good Riddance, In My Eyes, and Kid Dynamite -- on July 1, in a show originally scheduled for Boston's Tremont Temple.
-- Carly Carioli