Thurs. Nov. 22

  Thanksgiving, we all know, is the day for stuffing yourself silly, watching football games you don't care about, spending obligatory time with relatives whose names you vaguely recall, and napping. Ernie Boch Jr. is giving you another option: rocking at the Hard Rock Cafe with Ernie & the Automatics, starting at 7. And it's a free option at that. Now, Ernie Jr. sells cars. You all know that if you watch any TV at all. His late father told you to "Come on down," and now, so does Ernie. But this was not necessarily his destiny. Boch Jr. (in photo, at left) went to and graduated from Berklee College of Music (class of '82) playing jazz guitar. "I played jazz and went on the road for a couple of years," relates Boch. "I wasn't good enough to make a living at it." But he's good enough to play with some very fine musicians - Boston (the band) members Sib Hasian (on drums) and Barry Goudreau (on guitar) and Tim Archibald (on bass, formerly of New Man and with Peter Wolf.) And that's Ernie & the Automatics. Says Boch: "We play tunes you've never heard. We rock up some jazz tunes, play blues."

22-24 Clinton St., 617-424-ROCK www.hardrockcafe.com/boston