Just as the Promise Ring did on Very Emergency, Kansas City's the Get Up Kids drop emo for the new-found glory of power pop on their new On a Wire (Vagrant), and though they've acquired a doleful maturity, they seem to have lost a bit of their focus in the bargain (see the Promise Ring's Wood/Water). But at least they're barking up the right tree by bringing along Chapel Hill superstars Superchunk, who back in the early '90s invented quite a few of the twists and turns that get today's hot-wired upstarts (see openers Hot Rod Circuit) from hardcore guts to pop smirks. See all three at the Webster Theatre (860-246-8001) in Hartford on Friday and at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Saturday.

Until Jawbreaker decide to get back together -- or at least until Jets to Brazil decide it's safe to rock again -- you could do worse than pick up Apathy and Exhaustion, the latest disc by the Lawrence Arms, on which they do a neat and surprisingly inoffensive impersonation of pre-Dear You Blake punk. They're on tour with a pair of back-to-basics neo-hardcore bands, Glasseater and Trial by Fire; see them at the El N Gee (860-437-3800) in New London on Sunday and at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Monday. All three bands are also on the bill of the second annual Monsterfest at the Annex/242 Main Street (802-863-5966) in Burlington, Vermont. The two-day, 50-band, cross-genre blowout includes Shadows Fall, Isis, Bloodlet, Taking Back Sunday, and the Damn Personals on Friday; Saturday's headliners include Converge, Trans Am, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Drowningman. And a shitload of Bowery-style street punk comes this way in the form of the Krays, the New York Rel-X, the Midnight Creeps, and the Dead End Boys, all of whom play the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Friday before pulling a grueling cross-state shuffle at the Pond (617-661-8828) in Cambridge on Saturday afternoon and at Ralph's (508-753-9543) in Worcester on Saturday night.

Slack-jawed yokel-rockers Southern Culture on the Skids play on Tuesday at Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont; on Wednesday at the Skinny (207-871-8983) in Portland; and next Thursday, July 11, at the Middle East. Former Stray Cat Brian Setzer, back in rockabilly mode after a lucrative ride on the swing train, opens for roots-rock lifer Tom Petty on Wednesday at the Verizon Wireless Arena (603-644-5000) in Manchester, New Hampshire, and next Thursday, July 11, at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield.

A sampling of what other towns are doing on the Fourth: Linda Ronstadt brings an orchestra to Tanglewood (413-637-5165) in Lenox; Diamond Rio -- the bluegrass outfit featuring former Nitty Gritty Dirt Band dude Jimmy Oleander, not to be confused with the newfangled portable music device -- are at Bangor Auditorium (207-775-3331) in Maine; and Taylor Dayne, the J-Lo of the '80s, is at Newport Yachting Center (401-846-1600). And two choices if you're looking a celebration of all-American bad taste: re-formed '80s cock-rockers Pretty Boy Floyd revive pop metal in all its debauched glory at the Pond while Faster Pussycat do the same at Area 22 (401-848-0077) in Newport.