Call the mayor and draw up a proclamation: it’s Emo Week in New England. Having found it easy bein’ green, Weezer of late have teamed up with Kermit and his Muppet pals for a new video. Opening are Sparta, the band formerly known as one-half of At the Drive-In, and emo-unplugged poster children Dashboard Confessional. They’re all at Meadows Music (203-265-1501) in Hartford on Saturday and at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Sunday. No longer stuck in the middle but climbing steadily up the charts are Jimmy Eat World, who lead a clash-of-the-emo-titans tour with waning champs the Promise Ring and waxing young star Conor Oberst, here taking a break from Bright Eyes to tour his full-on screaming-electric Desaparecidos (imagine Robert Smith attempting Bruce Springsteen with Sebadoh as his backing band) behind their suburban-sprawl concept album Read Music, Speak Spanish (Saddle Creek). They all hit the State Theatre (207-780-8265) in Portland on Monday and the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Tuesday. Desaparecidos warm up with a headlining gig at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Sunday.

Holding it down for the ’70s-style power-pop and country-rock undergrounds, respectively, Sub Pop labelmates the Shins and Beachwood Sparks team up on Tuesday at T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge and Wednesday at Pearl Street (413-584-0610) in Northampton.

The Make-Up were more or less responsible for turning a nation of indie-rock slackers into a cabal of skinny, tight-pantsed, Mod-revivalist fashion clones, almost none of whom had Ian Svenonius’s charisma and baptismal fervor. So we’re thankful Ian’s back (along with well-coiffed female foil Michelle Mae) to save us from the hordes with a new band called the Scene Creamers — name taken from an obscure epithet aimed at the Situationists, so at least his politics haven’t changed — who make their area debut at the Middle East on Friday and at the Secret Theatre (860-439-2850) in New London on Saturday.

Having learned his craft as a teenager at the knee of the great Dewey Balfa, the virtuoso accordionist and fiddler Steve Riley is one of the superstars of the Louisiana French music scene. He plays a headlining gig with his Mamou Playboys tonight (Thursday, July 18) at Johnny D’s (617-776-2004) in Somerville, then proceeds to the Green River Festival (413-773-5463) in Greenfield on Friday — it runs Friday and Saturday and includes performances by Chris Ardoin, Little Feat, and Chris Smither, among others — before winding up at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (888-946-8495) in Ancramdale, New York, an affair that runs this Thursday through Saturday and includes performances by such heavyweights as Natalie MacMaster and Nickel Creek (both tonight), the Sam Bush Band (Friday), and Ricky Skaggs and the Del McCoury Band (both Saturday).

Issue Date: July 18 - 25, 2002
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