Heavy Dates

New Year's Eve marks the kickoff for the new Commercial Street Cafe, which upon inspection already has the best stage in the Commonwealth. Eastcide, God Stands Still, and Split take the sound system for the inaugural run at 9 p.m. The brand-new year gets off to a slow start on Friday with a few limited engagements locally. Apparently club owners thought the vast majority would be recouping from the night before. (How many times do you think the Artist Formerly Associated With Talent's 1999 was played? He's rubbing his hands together in anticipation of next month's royalty check as you read this.) The Above Club checks in with a gig from the Outcats, a band who are definitely worth checking out if only for the antics of their vocalist/mini-hurricane R.C. Shirley Lewis returns to Gilrein's, and, if you're up for the trip, Shakey Steve and the BluesCats hit John Stone's Inn, in Ashland. On Saturday, January 2, local folk legends Chuck and Mud continue their CD-release tour with a gig at Cafe Fantastique. Hey, if it took you 19 years to finally cough up a disc, you'd probably have as many release parties as possible too! Speaking of 19 years, that would be roughly the last time Boston's answer to the Stones, Aerosmith, put out an album worth owning. (Listen to Pump or Get a Grip 10 years from now -- bet it doesn't hold up.) For thirty-five dollars you can check them out at the Centrum tonight, along with the utterly forgettable Candlebox. Elsewhere, the Racky Thomas Band have a CD release of their own at Slattery's Front Room, and, after a lengthy absence, Bob Jordan returns to the Java Hut.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

A moment of silence for Sir Morgan's Cove (508-753-2188), the Worcester spot where many fine Boston bands had some of their worst gigs ever. Wormtown's less than an hour away by car, but at least a decade behind on the cultural odometer, and nothing brought that fact home more surely than showing up at the Cove, where people still pined for the days when the Stones stopped by and were often willing to settle for memories -- or cheap facsimiles thereof. Plenty of original acts played the Cove, lots of them lousy, and the ones that drew best seemed to have the worst taste. It was a keystone in a club scene that's served mainly as a nostalgia machine, hosting tribute bands who eulogized not only typical '70s icons -- your Pink Floyds, Led Zeppelins, and Grateful Deads -- but also bands that were still evolving back in the real world: Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, Tool, Korn. The present, like the past, seemed within its walls to be a place for dead things, and the future (which never seemed all too tangible at the Cove, like something regarded merely as rumor) finally ran out. The Cove will be missed, or at least remembered, as another in a long line of absent glories that faded long before they disappeared -- because it seemed to embody the lingering static stupor of a once-thriving, now sleepy town trying to shake off a head-splitting hangover of industrial boom and bust. A going concern since the dawn of the '70s, the club was held under the same owner since the late '80s, and, appropriately enough, will cash in its chips in the wee hours of the '90s' last New Year, forever blind to a new century. The final bill, on December 31, is as follows: Chillum, White Knuckle Society, Jujitsu, Junk Sculpture, Top Hat Charlie, and Woodgrain Theory. The club will re-open briefly under new ownership and a new name, the Lucky Dog Music Hall, on January 2, with a gig by Boston's Tree and Gangsta Bitch Barbie, after which it will close for renovations. It's been reported that the new proprietors will be seeking to broaden the scope of live music at the club to include such breaking trends as ska and swing; if that's the case, then the decision not to retain the old name seems appropriate -- keeping up with changing times was never something that went over well at the place called Sir Morgan's Cove.

Just when you thought the days of the singer/songwriter supergroup had receded further than the hairlines of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, along comes Cry, Cry, Cry -- featuring the combined talents of noted folkies Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, and Lucy Kaplansky. They've already sold out their gig at the Somerville Theatre (876-4275) on January 2; the ticketless may still trek out to Northampton on New Year's Day to catch 'em at the Calvin Theatre (413-586-8686). For those of you locked out of Aerosmith's New Year's Eve show at the FleetCenter in Boston, tickets are still available for their gig at the Worcester Centrum (931-2000) on January 2.

-- Carly Carioli