Sun. Oct. 30 

"Well," emails the Lights Out Adam Ritchie, we didn’t stop at The Kinks – we still had to make good on our annual Halloween tradition! This year it’s Zombie Michael Jackson." What's he talking about? Well, his "tribute" to the dead gloved one at Church Saturday, part of a local tradition of rock bands shedding their serious (or semi-serious mein) and going balls-out musically (and sometimes sartorially) to pretned they're one of their heroes. Sometimes, the bands they ape are close to their own - say Lights Out and the Kinks last year, or sometimes not. The Lights Out join Brownboot (the Beatles), Sidewalk Driver (Spinal Tap. Yes, a parody of a parody) and Muy Cansado (Prince).
Friday night at Radio (the old Club Choices, across from the Market Basket) you've got Full Body Anchor/Varsity Drag/Permafrost as Bikini Whale playing the B-52s, Neon Angels as the Runaways ("Hello, daddy, hello mom, I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!" That always sounds good!), Gondoliders as Motley Crue and Louder My Dear as INXS. Also Friday at Great Scott's the Pill, fake Brit-pop/shoegaze rules when Endless Wave takes on the nearly forgotten but great Ride, Dirty Bombs as Kasabian, Lindsey Star is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Spirit Kid as the Beatles. (That makes two Beatles, and Beetlejuice is not even playing this weekend.)
Saturday at the Midway Pat Healy upends the concept a little more as Uke2, playing the songs of U2, but under his frequent nom-de-cover Uke Springsteen. There's also a tribute to '80s hair metal that's not "Rock of Ages," but the folks in Full Time Dreamers under the moniker Conbra-Kai.
Saturday at Radio, it's Parlour Bells doing Jane's Addiction, Limbless Lovers as Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Dahkness as the Darkness (the Dahkness has various members of local bands) and Whores at the Door (other members of other local bands) as the Pixies. And at Church Sunday,  it's Missing Ships as (not too soon?) Amy Winehouse (watch the alcohol intake people), Carlisle Sound as the Kinks (two years in a row of Kinks, good thing, and Ray Davies coming to time in November), Desperate Kingdom as PJ Harvey and Ad Frank as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He's callin' 'em the Ad Seeds. Why not? Shows get underway about 9, though Sunday's Church show is at 8.

Tickets price range; $12-$5
For a peak at Zombie Michael Jackson: http://bcove.me/qyb2gfu2
Link for that event. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221692544559894

Great Scott, 1122 Commonwealth Ave., 617-566-9014 www.greatscottbostn.com Church, 69 Kilmarnock St., 617-236-7600 www.churchofBoston.com
Radio, 379-381 Somerville Ave., Somerville, 617-764-0005