No discussion on alternative rock circa 2000 would be complete without mention of Papa Roach and their radio-ready hit single “Last Resort,” especially if you were in high school or college during that time. The Vacaville band (also known for singles “Scars,” “Forever” and “Lifeline”) broke out of Sacramento and went on to sell more than 10 million albums worldwide. They return this weekend for a two-night stand at the recently opened venue Ace of Spades, touring behind their seventh album, "Time for Annihilation." More alternative rock than nu-metal now, the band can probably still be counted on to deliver a high-energy rock show filled with heavy guitars, sharp hooks and “guy liner.”

        Think back to your freshman year of high school.  Imagine you just went through an especially excruciating day of what was surely an excruciating year.  You slept through first period, missed a quiz, got pantsed on the green (or a comparable humiliation), your crush pointed out that you had a "bat in the cave," and everybody laughed at you . . . you get the idea. Murphy saw your day, and was so moved, that he wrote a law to commemorate it.               Fourteen-year-old you somehow made it through this day from Hell.  You got home, got to your room, locked your door and laid on your bed, overwhelmed with a soul-crushing angst that only a 14-year-old can feel.                You

I don't get out as much as I'd like, and judging from the numbers of people usually out to hear music on a Tuesday night, neither does anyone else. But not this Tuesday! I didn't get to everything, but there were two big shows that drew very respectable crowds out into the fog and damp. The one where I spent most of my evening was at the Jonathan Richman show at the Blue Lamp. For those who know him - and most of the crowd of 100 or so seemed to - it was like old home week. For those who didn't, at least two were talked into going in when they were told that Richman was the random musician who popped up from time to time in the film "There's Something About Mary." That was Jonathan's one