E-Mail This Article to a Friend Kicked in the Shins Genius popsters the Shins play the Roxy, the Locust swarms the Palladium, and more

Can we get an ‘Amen’?

The 1982 documentary Say Amen Somebody introduced music fans to the world of what you might call deep gospel — the other great black musical tradition, standing alongside the blues as the fount of youth that’s influenced R&B, rock, and pop since the early years of the century. The film followed the music from its roots in the ’20s, in the person of Chicago legend the Reverend Thomas A. Dorsey (he died in 1993), through such latter-day disciples as the Barrett Sisters, who started as children in the ’40s and have continued making records into the 21st century. The Barretts — DeLois, Billie, and Rodessa — have never been to Boston, but that’s about to change, since they’ll be the guests of honor at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center’s 17th annual "Joyful Noise" gospel-music tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, on January 18 at 5:30 p.m. They’ll be joined by a line-up of top-notch local talent including the Union Baptist Church Choir, the Reverend Clarence Powell, the internationally traveled Just 4 Praize (formerly Praise), and Confirmation. Tickets are $25 and $30; call (617) 496-2222.

Model sons

It used to be you hadda sell big to date models on TV, but with sub-platinum prince Jack White lowering the bar (thanks, Renée), shlumpy indie-rock geeks are getting in on the action. The Shins are from Albuquerque, for cryin’ out loud, and they don’t even have a gimmick — no color coordination, no bunny suits, no socialite parents, just hazy, next-to-genius indie pop with a distinct ’60s psych-folk inclination. New-school indie boys already worship at frontman James Mercer’s hushpuppies, and we can only imagine what he’s getting, since his keyboard player dates that way-cute raven-haired matchstick Elyse from Tyra Banks’s America’s Top Model. (Gal can write, too: her bio for the Shins’ latest, Chutes Too Narrow, wasn’t half as bad as most of the other crap that got written about ’em.) No word on whether Elyse will be with the Shins when they begin their first major big-room swing through America in the ’04, a jaunt that’ll bring them to the Roxy, 279 Tremont Street in the Theater District, on February 13. It’s an 18-plus, 6 p.m. show, and tickets are $17, $15 in advance; call (617) 931-2000.

Escape from the night of the Locust

Dillinger Escape Plan train an x-ray on extreme metal and make incomprehensibly dense fight music that’s all guts and no surface. The Locust soak hardcore in a warm bath and toss in a hair dryer. Putting them on the same bill is a recipe for uncommon mayhem, since we’re pretty sure most of each band’s fans will absolutely hate one another. DEP and the Locust will get it on at the Palladium, 261 Main Street in Worcester, on January 29. Tickets are $14; call (800) 477-6849.

Human rights on film

The fourth annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival brings 15 films from a dozen countries to the Coolidge Corner, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the International Institute of Boston in January, kicking off January 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the MFA with Osama. This one is billed as "the first feature film from post-Taliban Afghanistan," though it’s set during the deposed regime, with a young girl (Marina Golbahari) dressing up as a boy to earn a living and taking her life into her hands in the process. For the closing-night screening at the Coolidge on January 26 at 7 p.m., Carles Bosch will be on hand to present the local premiere of his Balseros (2002), a documentary that follows the American resettlement of seven rafters who fled Cuba in the mid 1990s. Also look for a special screening of local documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s Domestic Violence 2 (2002), a three-hours-plus sequel to his unsettling 2001 film on the same topic. The Coolidge is at 290 Harvard Street in Brookline; call (617) 734-2501. The MFA is at 465 Huntington Avenue in Boston; call (617) 369-3300. And the International Institute is at 1 Milk Street in Boston; call (617) 695-9990. Tickets are $12 for the opening- and closing-night screenings, and $9 for all others. For more information, visit www.hrw.org/iff.