May 2 - 9, 1 9 9 6

Roadtrips

They're back from the dead and they're hitting the road this week without the founding frontman that most of us associate with the band. The Misfits, the horror-punk group that gave Glen Danzig his start and teenage zombies a soundtrack for their lives, have a young, new singer and gigs booked on May 4 at Club Babyhead (401-421-1698), in Providence, and May 5 at the Middle East (864-EAST), in Cambridge. Also back from the where-are-they-now file is the British one-hit-wonder group of "I'll Stop the World and Melt with You" fame, Modern English. They're on a tour with up-and-comers Three Day Wheeley that hits Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876), in Providence, on May 4 and Mama Kin (536-2100), in Boston, on May 5.

The eclectic and always intriguing Thinking Fellers Union Local #282 hook up with Chicago's Red Red Meat, a band that deconstructs classic Stones riffs like nobody's business, on May 2 at T.T. the Bear's Place (492-BEAR), in Cambridge, and on May 3 at the Met Café (401-861-2142), in Providence. Denver's rootsy Sixteen Horsepower do their Gun Club-style thing on May 3 at the Middle East on a bill with Boston's-own Dirt Merchants and on May 4 at the Met Café with Boston-gal Jules Verdone. And Mudhoney's main man Mark Arm swings through with his scabrous, garage-rockin' side-project Bloodloss on May 7 at the Met Café and on May 8 at T.T. the Bear's Place, where the Cheater Slicks open.

After a decade away from area clubs, Valerie and Walter Crockett bring their country-fueled acoustic songwriters' music to Club Passim (492-7679), in Harvard Square, on May 3 at 8 p.m., and swing up to Del Rossi's (603-563-7195), in Dublin, New Hampshire, the next night. Along with tunes from their former group, Crockett, will be some new numbers they've been recording with Duke Levine at Mason Daring's studio.

A new series of tours called "3x5" features three bands for five bucks at Axis (262-2437), in Boston, on May 7 and Lupo's on May 8. The bands are Stanford Prison Experiment, Local H, and Limblifter. Modern rockers God Lives Underwater bring Far with them to Axis on May 8 and to the Strand (401-272-0444), in Providence, on May 9. And the great blues guitarist Buddy Guy hooks up with acoustic-blues newcomer Alvin Youngblood Hart on May 10 at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel and May 11 at the Roxy (931-2000), in Boston.