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[Roadtripping]

Last year’s Ladyfest shindig in Olympia, Washington, set off a series of like-minded festivals across the country, all focusing on the same confluence of community-minded workshops, art, and music that’s become the hallmark of post-riot-grrrl grassroots punk and politics. This weekend, Western Massachusetts gets into the swing of things with Ladyfest Easthampton (413-527-9800), which brings together experimental rock and indie groups, visual artists, and workshops on everything from self-defense to bicycle repair to DIY beauty products. The music holds forth at Easthampton Town Hall, with performances on Friday by V for Vendetta, Tara Jane O’Neil, K., the Naysayer, and others, and lots more on Saturday, including an appearance by a quartet featuring Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, SY/Gastr del Sol alum Jim O’Rourke, Ikue Mori, and DJ Olive. The workshops take place all day Saturday at Easthampton’s Flywheel artspace, which is organizing the festival.

Conspicuously absent from the Ladyfest proceedings are Kathleen Hanna’s lo-fi punk/new-wave/hip-hop group Le Tigre, vets of several previous Ladyfest events, who will nonetheless be in the area this weekend. They’ll be playing an all-ages show sponsored by the rad Boston-based feminist punk/arts collective Anonymous Girls this Friday at Spontaneous Celebrations (617-524-6373) in Jamaica Plain. Also on the bill: Tigre labelmates Traci + the Plastics, Boston’s the Faux, feminist hip-hop MC Cathy Cathodic, and more. On Saturday, Le Tigre and Tracy + the Plastics move on to the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence, where they’re joined by V for Vendetta.

Members of the Get Up Kids and Coalesce populate the hoax-punk group Reggie & the Full Effect, which purports to be the band of a mercurial, reclusive cult star who vanished in the late ’80s. The plot sounds familiar, and so do the tunes, but the hooks are sterling, from pop songs that sound like Weezer with keyboards to some crunchy metal riffing peppered with lotsa inside gags. Reggie & crew hit the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester tonight (August 23) with Hot Rod Circuit, Ultimate Fakebook, and Koufax.

Wicked haaahd-metal dooods Godsmack return triumphant to New England this weekend on a tour with the infinitely more credible Deftones. They’re at Meadows Music (860-548-7370) in Hartford tonight (August 23) and at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Friday and Saturday. The " Voices of Metal " tour featuring Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, former Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy, and full-band versions of Slaughter and Vixen hits the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) in New Hampshire tonight; then the Ballroom hosts a near-home-town throwdown by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who take over the joint next Thursday and Friday, August 30 and 31, for a pair of all-ages shows at the shore.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

Issue Date: August 23 - 30, 2001