If Bert McCracken had played his cards right, he might have been the Son-in-Law of Darkness by now. But the barmy little puke had other plans, like penning the world’s most lachrymose screamo prom ballads — even without the help of Kelly O’s songwriting team, the Used’s new In Love and Death (Reprise) hews closer to Radio Disney bubblegrunge than to mainstreamo punk. Might want to refill those Zippos before heading to the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Tuesday, when they’re headlining with the Bronx, the Bled, Head Automatica, and No Warning. Across town that same night, Weiland gets his Guns N’ Roses on with Velvet Revolver at the Worcester Centrum (508-755-6800) — we never thought these guys would beat Axl to the record shelves, let alone Audioslave to arenas. Our advice: catch VR before they put out another album, which is to say while they still have to pad their sets with STP and GNR covers. They’re also at Verizon Wireless Arena (603-644-5000) in Manchester, New Hampshire, next Friday, November 12.

We’re finding it easier to get worked up about the Velvets than we are about the latest edition of the Headbangers’ Ball tour, which hits the Palladium on Saturday. If not for well-costumed black-metal headliners Cradle of Filth, it might as well be subtitled, à la Ozzy & Sharon’s new reality show, The Battle for Ozzfest. Vampire-screamo kids Bleeding Through are still bummed that Trent Reznor decided to change the title of the forthcoming NIN album, Arch Enemy are no Lamb of God, and as much as Himsa’s Courting Tragedy and Disaster (Prosthetic) rips like the third coming of Shadows Fall, they kinda suck live.

With their new Futures (Interscope), Jimmy Eat World have gone a perfect three for three on the majors, and they’ll bring a catalogue bursting with crunchy smart-pop nuggets to a sold-out Avalon (617-262-2424) in Boston on Saturday and to Lupo’s at the Strand (401-331-5876), for which tickets still remain, in Providence on Sunday. Liverpool art-punks Clinic return with songs from their new Winchester Cathedral (Domino) to Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton on Sunday, the Big Easy (207-871-8817) in Portland on Monday, and the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston on Tuesday.

If you missed the Interpol/Secret Machines bill at Avalon last month, it doubles back to Lupo’s at the Strand on Monday. Indie-pop fabulists the Unicorns are at Pearl Street on Sunday. And a pair of melancholic indie-folk chanteuses support new discs: the French-Canadian singer-songwriter and former Eric’s Trip bassist Julie Doiron brings tunes from her lullaby-like Goodnight Nobody (Jagjaguar) to Zeitgeist Gallery (617-876-6060) in Cambridge on Tuesday and to Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton next Thursday, November 11. And Cubby Berk, a/k/a Lovers, winds up a tour behind her starry-eyed magic-folk album The Gutter and the Garden (Orange Twin) with shows at Flywheel on Monday and at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Tuesday with the Mekons’ Sally Timms.