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[Roadtripping]

"If you’re working in your little room, and you’re working on something good," sings Jack White on a song from the White Stripes’ breakthrough album White Blood Cells, "then you’re gonna need a bigger room." Well, that time has arrived. Having served an apprenticeship in the Detroit garage-punk underground, the candy-striped duo have seen White Blood Cells (originally on Sympathy for the Record Industry) break onto MTV and get picked up by V2. And now that "Fell in Love with a Girl" is beginning to infiltrate rock radio, Strokes versus White Stripes is shaping up to be the Beatles-versus-Stones debate of 2002. The Stripes are at the Roxy (617-931-2000) in Boston on Wednesday and at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence next Thursday, April 4.

On that same subject, our condolences go out to another group of garage-punk veterans from Detroit who happen to be playing opposite the White Stripes on Wednesday night. That would be the wild, no-fi Demolition Doll Rods, who boast ex-Gories guitarist Danny "Dolrod" Kroha as the cross-dressing third member of an otherwise all-girl bikini-clad trio. The author of this column spun the Doll Rods’ "Married for the Weekend" at his own wedding, and he is likely to remain unfairly biased in favor of the genius of the song’s composers. Suffice to say that we think their album TLA (Matador), a cross between the Stooges and the Shangri-Las, is beyond brilliant. The Doll Rods hit the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Wednesday.

With their major-label debut on Interscope just around the corner, are the Briefs punk’s next big thing? They sure do look the part — creepers, silly ties, funny sunglasses. But we liked the 1978-revival shtick better when Japanese punks the Registrators did it. Judge for yourself when the Briefs hit the Middle East on Saturday with the Explosion and the Beatings (from Baltimore, not the Boston band of the same name); the Briefs are also at the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Sunday. Meanwhile the girl-gang pop-punk group the Eyeliners, touring behind their Sealed with a Kiss (Panic Button), are at Buzz (617-267-8969) in Boston on Friday and at the El-N-Gee (860-437-3800) in New London on Saturday.

It’s metalfest season, and with the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival only a week away, WCCC delivers its "Rock Expo" at the Connecticut Expo Center (860-493-1305) in Hartford on Saturday, with Converge, Hatebreed, Gargantua Soul, Headstrong, Kittie, Mushroomhead, Soil, and Stalemate. On Sunday, Hatebreed play a CD-release party at the Middle East (see Sean Richardson’s preview in the Arts section). And on Monday, the Middle East hosts Soil, Headstrong, and Skinlab. Your only chance to catch self-proclaimed "Kings of Metal" Manowar — who were, back when Dictators/Shakin’ Street dude Ross the Boss was still a member, the Guinness-certified loudest rock band in the world — is Tuesday at Fester and Friends (978-469-0655) in Haverill, after which the Manowar dudes are off to headline the mammoth Metal Meltdown IV in New Jersey.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

Issue Date: March 28 - April 4, 2002
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