Sat. May 12

 Look nothing is certain in life but: Paris Hilton (in photo) may be  in our midst Saturday May 12! Of course, she may be in jail or drunk somewhere else, too, but there is a possibility she'll be at Felt to celebrate Bullrun, which we're told is a new breed of high-end luxury/lifestyle automotive rallies. This ain't NASCAR in New Hampshire. What this is is a cross-country exhibition where 75-100 participants - generally traveling in their own cars - motor down the east coast. As you might gather, the people driving these cars can afford these cars, so we're talking CEOs and celebs. Hilton - if she has license, is out of jail, etc - is a driver, as are Carl Lewis, Dean Cain, Tila Tequila and Ryan Dunn, among others. Now, they have parties at clubs along the way, Felt being the local stop for the "after party." This, you may go to. Starts around 10 p.m. Is there a competition? Isn't there always? Boston's hottest babes may compete for the title of "Flag Girl" at the after party. We don't know what benefits this brings, but, well, it's a competition. Will the aforementioned celebs be there? No one's making any guarantees, but their day's "work" will be done and they'll no doubt want to unwind ... By the way, there is something going on beyond hedonism here. The drivers are raising bucks for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Last year's run brought in $90,000. Club admission to be determined.

533 Washington St., 617-350-5555 feltboston.com

 Sat. May 12

  Shane West, the guy who plays one of the handsome docs on “E.R.” was also the touring singer of the reconstituted L.A. hardcore punk band, the Germs. Alex Skuby, who had a role on “E.R.” nine years ago, is also fronting a rock band – the Alex Skuby Band – and is taking his show on the road, to  Mout Blue Norwell Saturday May 12. Coincidence? Well, yes. Skuby is probably best known as attorney Doug Pruzan, the boss to Leah Remini’s Carrie Hefferman on the now-ending “King of Queens.” He auditioned for what he thought would be a guest spot and ended up lasting five seasons. His character was sacked at the end of 2004 for, Skuby says, “losing $40 million” for the firm. Skuby calls his character “a neurotic, anxious, naïve attorney who made a lot mistakes.”
While Skuby has had a bunch of TV roles (including “CSI” and “Without a Trace”), he’s been a guitarist and singer for years. With the “Queens” role over, Skuby thought it was time to get more serious about his first love. “I’m 34,” he says,  “and I loved music before I ever thought of being an actor. If I get an offer to do something lucrative (acting wise), I will do it. I’m not gonna push it that far out of my life, but I’m not gonna stay in the rat race. I’m gonna take a year and focus on the music.” (You can see Skuby as the romantic lead in what he calls a “cute comedy,” “Finding Preet,” now in video stores.)
Skuby has been playing and writing for years with keyboardist Steve Peretiatko. They’ve currently a quintet, but looking for a rhythm guitarist so Skuby can be more of a frontman. When he speaks of favorite frontmen, he mentions David Lee Roth. When he speaks of favorite artists, he’ll include Billy Joel and Metallica. “I like Billy Joel because he’s an amazing songwriter and phenomenal pianist and he’s forever put himself on the line and been through a lot of troubles.” Come to think, most of that goes for Metallica, too.

Sat. May 12

 Some of us have had a police experiences and not pleasant ones. The people behind, the Police Experience promise a much better time Saturday May 12. This Experience is about the English pop-punk-reggae band the Police, which, not coincidentally, has reunited and will tour this summer, stopping by the cozy confines of Fenway Park for a little gig. (Not far from where they began here, at the now defunct Rat. A little bigger spot, however.) Anyway, here's the story of the PE, which will play Memorial Hall in Plymouth with another "tribute" band, the Bob Marley Ensemble.
It starts with Miles Copeland, an entertainment executive best known for managing and/or promoting every act in the '70s punk/new wave scene including The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Blondie, John Cale, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and many more; founding I.R.S. Records, (The Buzzcocks, The Beat, The Cramps, Wall of Voodoo, Timbuk 3, R.E.M. and a number one album with the all-girl group, The Go-Gos), and managing his brother’s Stewart's band, The Police for many successful years.

When Ian Copeland, another bro, arranged for the band Fallout to play at Stewart’s birthday party, Fallout tore the house down with "Driven to Tears" and "Roxanne." Miles was in the house that night. He had been searching internationally for musicians who could hurl an audience back in time to re-live the raw, electrifying experience of seeing The Police at their prime. After listening to Fallout Miles said, “…close your eyes and it’s my boys!” His search was over. That night Fallout was reborn as The Police Experience, who are not the band pictured in the photo. Go ahead: Google Police Experience and you get shots of experienced policemen. So, this is a picture of the bottle blonds themselves. As to the PE, you can see if it's hype or on target. Warm up for the stadium gig. Or just trip back in time to a point when Sting wasn't Mr. Tantric Sex and Save the World.

Now, onto the Bob Marley Ensemble. It's directed by Matt Jenson, assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music. The powerful 15 member ensemble is said to be a joyful musical colossus that erupts onto the stage to bring the Jamaican icon back to life with "meticulous arrangements taken directly from Marley recordings." This powerful group of fantastic musicians, 3 bass, 4 vocalists, 2 keyboardists, 2 guitarists, bass, drum and two percussionists, "pour their hearts and souls into the music" to recreate the rebel, powerful music of Bob Marley. The show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets: $20.

11 Lincoln St., Plymouth,
www.seeplymouth/pmc.com

Fri. May 11

The rhythm grinds and chugs. The guitars dart in surreptiously and then explode. It's punk rock, it's dance rock, it's LCD Soundsystem.  When we heard them, we immediately thought "Brit" the way we hear Mark E. Smith of the Fall and think the same. But nope, there's only one Brit-born guy in the group and even he lives in America now. When we heard the fantastic "North American Scum," we figured it was a smart guy from Blighty havin' a go at us Yanks, but it turns out leader James Murphy (in photo) is New Jersey-born and New York based. So, he including himself (we suppose)  on the third track of their sophomore album, "Sound of Silver," which is an early pick for the year's top ten. The song is called "North American Scum." "I don't know where to  begin/We are North American," sings Murphy. the undisputed leader of this show, He's thrown himself in with our lot and what he's doing is surveying the junk culture that overruns America and the way American junk culture overwhelms the world. And both embracing that culture and dissing it. "I love this place I've grown to know," he sings. He praises New York (if you can get someone to pay the rent) and slams "fat American Christians." Mostly, he gets the chorus right, and will get young crowds of Americans to sing along proudly, just like their older brothers and sisters did when the Clash unleashed "I'm So Bored With the USA" on us. LCD Soundsystem, at Avalon Friday May 11, are not one song, of course. The on-line music mag Pitchfork put it perfectly: "These days, there isn't as much to talk about. If feels like less is up for graps, as if music fans are gripped by a general fatigue. I'm not sure if you rapidly skim the same articles as I do, but apparently 72 % of the Internet is now made of up free mp3s, while another 14% is acccompanying blurbs.... We're beseiged and stupefied enough by downloads and mixes and remixes and mashups and collections of songs masquerading as albums that an album that feels lke an album strikes me as postively ideal right now." LCD SS merges Eno-esque electronics and Bowie-esque vocals. (There's some Bryan Ferry and Mark E. Smith, of the Fall, in there, too.) Murphy - whose band this is - assimilates a lot, processes it and spits out something genuinely moving. Danceable, smart, rockin', rhythmic, progressive. They don't sound like Spiritualized, but they give me that kind of rush. Check out the live sound at Avalon. Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets: $15.

15 Lansdowne St., 617-262-2437 livenation.com

May 6

 Are you, per chance, looking to walk right up to John the Baptist's head on a platter and say, "Wow"? How about leaning over the corpse of a 16th century knight and thinking, "That's pretty impressive." You can do both these things at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as the exhibition gallery has collected some of the 16th century pieces Gardner collected around 1900 and coupled them to contemporary pieces - photographs, sculpture - by multi-media artist-in-residence Luigi Ontani. We went to the opening of  "Sculpture & Memory: Works from the Gardner and Luigi Otanti" early February and listened to some Otani and some of the Museum folks like curator Pieranna Cavalchini explain it. "He's an artist's artist," she told us, as we toured the small room holding the exhibit, "maybe not well-known to the general public." But she says it was a dream getting him to the Gardner as its artist-in-residence, and thought putting his work together with some of what Gardner collected made sense. "I love the juxtaposition of the two worlds, past and present. He's an artist who works with history. And the artist has a wicked sense of humor as did Mrs. Gardner." One of Otani's photos is of himself as Jesus Christ, holding a iconic rendition of Christ. Gardner's art works are always in the Museum - her will stipulated nothing be removed - but they've been in more obscure corners.  (St. Jerome is in the photo.) This puts them front and center and reconfigures the context. Otani spoke at the press gathering, but frankly the Italian's English isn't so good and whatever we wrote down in our notebook makes little sense now. So, we'll pluck the quote from the press handout: "There is no nostalgia in my work. I don't belive in time machines or living in the present. Mask and costume are very important to the global village." Mmmm, maybe, that does make as much sense as what we wrote down. Thoughts to ponder, certainly. At any rate, enjoy and contemplate the 10-piece exhibit in the Gothic Room, which is included in the admission fee. There are various talks with the artist throughout the exhibit. Check the Gardner website below for details.  The exhibit goes down after today, Sunday May 6. Admission: $15.

200 The Fenway, 617-566-7653 gardnermuseum.org