Roadtrips

If you'd have told us about this time last decade that Metallica were gonna end up co-headlining Madison Square Garden with an orchestra and that Megadeth would turn into a disco-blues band -- in the tradition of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Def Leppard -- we'd have bet our jean-jacket vests that you were full of it. Same goes if you'd told us that Jesse Ventura would reignite the concept of third-party politics in America and Hulk Hogan would end up a bad guy. Yet all of this somehow figures in what could be the most crucial document to deciphering our weird times: Tommy Boy's WCW Mayhem: The Music, a soundtrack to fake wrestling in which beef-jerky salesman Macho Man Randy Savage's theme steals a lick from Metallica's "Seek and Destroy" and lasts less than a minute but is still better than Slayer's contribution. Our point? Something to do with Megadeth, whose Risk is slipping quick off the Billboard charts but whose "Crush 'Em" is now the official Goldberg theme song. Mustaine and company are at the Central Maine Civic Center (207-783-2009) in Lewiston on November 20, and at the Orpheum (401-331-2211) in Boston on the 21st. Static-X and DDT open up.

Filter don't have the wrasslin' gig, but inasmuch as their new single sounds enough like "Hey Man, Nice Shot" to fool the consumer, their Title of Record (Reprise) is still hanging tough in the Top 100. Neither do Filter have ring girls, but they've got the next best thing -- an opening band by the name of Drain STH, a cross between Alice in Chains and the Swedish bikini team, with the added bonus that one of 'em is married to one of the dudes in Black Sabbath. They're at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on November 20; at the State Theatre in Portland (207-775-3331) on November 21; and at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on November 23.

Alert the Coast Guard and the Guitar Center set: we've got some more of those endangered species beaching themselves on the shores of the Charles. The last of a dying genus (the instrumental ax god), Steve Vai may have done himself up in modern-rock camouflage, but that don't mean he ain't on life support. He's at Lupo's tonight (November 18); and at Avalon on November 19. From the other side of the fence: D.R.I.'s idea of a Crossover in the mid '80s was playing both kinds of music: punk and metal. Not so big a deal anymore, and yet they keep doing it, along with local hardcore true believers Tree, at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on November 22 and at the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on November 25.

At least there's safety in numbers for the four emerging New England singer-songwriters who have banded together under the moniker Voices on the Verge -- that's Jess Klein, Rose Polenzani, Erin McKeown, and Beth Amsel, in the role of a Cry, Cry, Cry for the post-Lilith Fair set. The group headline their own show at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton tonight (November 18); on the 20th they top a bill of "Great Women's Voices" at the Somerville Theatre (617-628-3390) that also includes Faith Soloway, Kris Delmhorst, and Lori McKenna.
-- Carly Carioli