Fri. May 25

 Progressive rock got such a bad rap during the first punk era, it took a long time to recover. Rightfully so, perhaps. I remember talking to Peter Gabriel about why he left Genesis (and prog-rock form) on his first solo album. He said, "Progessive rock used to mean 'exploring music,' and it's come to mean 'using keyboards." In a nutshell, yes. Plus there was all that bloat, those phantasmagorical images, the haughty aura of musicianship ... Well,  there's been a prog-rock recovery. One could say it started with Queensryche and continued with Tool. And one could very much say its leader now is Porcupin Tree, the English quartet led by singer-guitarist Steven Wilson. They're back with the smartly titled "Fear of a Blank Planet," a play off Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" and a rather trenchant comment on its own. At first we tought the "blank"-ness referred to the possible result of global warming. But it turns out it it refers more to a populace hooked on a numbing routine of drugs, MTV, video games, the Internet, etc. Youth culture in the ruts. Shades of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" thematically if not musically. Porcupine Tree earned a rave for the disc in Q, where it was called "a dramatic, wide-screen, expertly executed, even genuinely thrilling record worthy of an audience way beyond nu-prog's regular constituency." Well, yes. (Prog-rock guitar god Robert Fripp guested on the disc.) Wilson favors songs over 7 minutes (one, "Anesthetize" runs over 17!) Wilson began the Tree as a solo project in 1992. It became a band the following year, and it's built its audience bit by bit here in the States. But they're heading toward that big breakthrough and, with their Roxy date Friday May 25, this may be the last time you can catch these expansive sounds in clubland. Tickets: $30. Starts at 7 p.m.

Tremont St., 617-931-2000 roxyplex.com

Fri. May 25

How old is Dick Dale? 100? 200? We don't care. We saw the surf guitar pioneer a few years ago at the Middle East Downstairs and have every intention of doing the same Friday May 25 at the same spot. Given his age - all right, he's 70 - and ours (50) - nothing is guaranteed. But if he's there: He will rock like there's no tomorrow and if we're there our ears will bleed (figuratively) and we will have a wonderful time being knocked out by this heavy metal/surf wave that just keeps on coming. Look, there's no accounting for it. Most rockers mellow out way before Dale. But this long-haired rebel yeller has no need of that, no visable knowledge that he should. That's a good thing. The Prime Movers - reunited rockers from Boston's garage rock past - open things up about 9:30. Tickets: $20.

472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278 mideastclub.com

Thurs. May 24

 “Sober, but not healthy, that’s the way I always refer to myself,” says Robert Fisher, dressed in black, sipping hot tea and nursing a bad throat at ZuZu!. “A long time ago, I outed myself on that. I don’t have a problem with that whole anonymity thing, because the way I look at it is: I’m still a fuck-up, so if some kid who’s struggling with things knows that and sees somebody can do it, that’s ok. Nothing wrong with that.”
  Fisher, 49, is the main singer-songwriter for the Willard Grant Conspiracy. (He is to them what Howe Gelb is to Giant Sand.) One of the many versions of the Willard Grant Conspiracy, a sextet, they will be playing the Lizard Lounge Thursday May 24.  Depending on budget and time commitments, the Conspiracy ranges anywhere from one – Fisher on voice and guitar – to 16. Fisher has 36 players he can call upon, on two continents. (The only time he’s made money on tour, he says, is when he was a one-man band, touring Europe for six months last year.) On the latest record, “Let It Roll," he used eight primary players, plus guests like Steve Wynn and Jack Dragonetti.

     Fisher told me, in phone chat earlier, it was a radical album. Later, before a gig in a Cambridge club, over tea, I ask him to amplify. “It’s a radical change from ‘Regard the End,’” he says. “That was a sculptured record, created around the songs, and assembled like a collage, whereas ‘Let It Roll’ is really a document of the live band. The main elements of the record are live recording done in the studio while we were on tour.  With the exception of a few songs, it uses the more rock ‘n’ roll aspects of what we do and what we’ve always done. To people who’ve seen us in Boston, it may not be such a surprise that the band is loud. But in Europe, for example, where for the first years, I had to tour without a rhythm section, they were by their nature a little quieter. … One of the things I wanted to do was to create a record that was like an old-fashioned record. I wanted dynamics. No record these days has dynamics because they squash all the compression in mastering it.”

Wed. May 23

 Did you know Ike Turner was busted for coke - again? Perez Hilton did and was one of the first to post on perezhilton.com, a celebrity sleaze sheet/site so hip and tawdry it was name-checked on "Dirt," the hip and tawdry F/X TV show about a tabloid mag. (Just last night, Perez had the audio from a distress call placed by the wife of the former lead singer for Creed. He had guns, he threw a glass at her, there was a child in the house ... ) If you've ever wanted to check out the raunchy photos of fallen, addled celebs, that's where you go. Perez Hilton - perhaps not his real name - likes diving into the celeb muck and having fun. Does this make him different from "Access Hollywood" or any of the network TV shows? Well, Perez - who we're sure is having a field day with Paris Hilton facing the slammer - is not ready to play nice. He calls himself the "Queen of All Media," which makes us immediately think of the David Bowie song "Queen Bitch." Hilton writes text and scrawls comments over paparazzi photos. Like Lindsay Lohan and her new English boyfriend are: "Coke 'n' Bloke." Nasty, clever, fiendish bugger. Well, Perez is bringing his fabulous self to Boston Wednesday May 23 for a stop at Mansion and Suite - the two new adjoining clubs in Boylston Alley run by the Kane brothers (Ed and Joe) and Patrick Lyons. What will he do? Dish. He'll take a mic and speak to the masses, but also mingle and mix. Not only do they have Hilton in the house, they've got hip UK rapper Lady Sovereign. Things start around 9 and - here's the cool thing - it's free to get in. But what you must do is RSVP to going.com.

One Boylston Place, 617-351-7000 mansionboston.com

ongoing - May 29

We were tipped off to the work of photographer Jonathan Stark, by a pal at the local gym. These things happen. It's not all press agents and club owners. Sometimes ... Anyway, we'd have to agree Stark brings a distinct visual and emotional perspective to his work.  This is how he puts it on his website:
“My work is rooted in the emotional nature of all things and in my visceral response to both animate and inanimate objects. From the moment a scene or subject captures my attention I am involved in an intimate relationship. In composing, focusing, and ultimately exposing the film I am exploring the depths of that relationship. When the subject is in my viewfinder nothing else in the world exists. I am immersed in that person’s face or in that landscapes composition. While landscapes and city scenes do not of course interact with me, they do cry out to me. It asks me to walk a little further or climb a little higher or crawl on my knees to find a view that truly highlights its visual uniqueness. With a person, the most engaging photographs occur when that person feels the intensity of my visual/emotional attraction to them and responds with openness and trust.” 
Stark has an exhibition up at the French Library and Cultural Center called "Reves et Realities." There are photos of the Seinee, beautiful scenes and night, and, yes, some portraits like the one you see here. It's free. The Library is open Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. -9 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Up through Tuesday May 29.

53 Marlborough St., 617-912-0400 frenchlib.org