Roadtrips

Often referred to as the fifth Beatle, George Martin has made quite a career out of being the guy who produced (among other Fab Four goodies) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He's already been knighted over in England, and he's due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March. On February 20, he'll bring his lecture/multimedia presentation on the making of Sgt. Pepper to the Berklee Performance Center (331-2211) in Boston. One might say that Sir George has made almost as good a career out of being the fifth Beatle as Ringo Starr has made out of being the fourth. The last of the lads still plugging away on the rock circuit, Ringo will be at the Mohegan Sun casino (888-226-7711) in Uncasville, Connecticut, on February 19 and 20 with his All-Starr Band.

Depending on which press release you believe, "FOMA!" stands for either "Fitchburg Organization for Musical Abuses" or "Furious over Meat Additives." Either way, it's the acronym used to describe the second installment of a series by Fitchburg-area bands playing art/space-rock under the fake stars of the Wallace Civic Center Planetarium (978-345-7593), adjacent to the Fitchburg hockey rink that used to be the favored venue of big rock acts from Nirvana to Sepultura to Marilyn Manson. On the bill for the February 20 "FOMA!" show are Moon Patrol, New Pond Fondle, the Wicked Farleys, and Boston ringers Lockgroove.

Unlike a lot of the lesser hopped-up zydeco bands that have followed in the wake of senior wild man Boozoo Chavis, young Chris Ardoin blends strong R&B-flavored singing and songwriting with the Creole verities of swinging two-steps, sweet mid-tempo waltzes, and the whoosh and lilt of his button accordion. Of course, this 17-year-old should know: his grandfather is Creole progenitor Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin. Ardoin brings his band, Double Clutchin', to Johnny D's (617-776-2004) in Somerville on February 19 and then shares an impressive Cajun/zydeco bill with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and Balfa Toujours at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet (401-783-3926) in Cranston, Rhode Island, on the 20th.

A couple of weeks ago, a Philadelphia paper referred to fellow Pennsylvanians Rusted Root as purveyors of "faux-world" music. We're of the opinion that this is the definitive and final word on them, although we also think that "world music" is almost always faux anyway. Catch the Root on February 19 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium (800-233-3123) in Providence, and at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester on February 20. We smell something a little faux in the skewed (or is that ska'd) sugar-pop of Sugar Ray, as well as in the G. Love-ish honky soul of Everlast's Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, but that's another story. You can get their side of it on February 21 at the Palladium. And by the by, the guy whose work inspired all this nonsense about authenticity, Mr. Bob Dylan, plays the Mullins Center (331-2211) at UMass Amherst on February 24.
-- CC