The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 70

Music wrasses Rock Notes Bush blossoms with 'Science' Eric Clapton Clapton Chronicles: The Best Beth Hart Screamin' For My Supper By Steve Morse (il.OHF. STAFF "1 'J avin Rossdale is getting used to this stardom thing. As singer, songwriter, and chief heartthrob of the Brit Si' 13.99 CD Kinq Of The Hill Music From Inspired By The TV Series $12.99 CD Dream Theater Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory Bush is Robin Goodridge, Nigel Pulsford, Rossdale, and Dave Parsons. fir SOUND CHOICE $13.99 CD $13.99 CD Pet Shop Boys Nightlife Natalie Merchant Live In Concert Bonnie Raitt's band, is at Club Passim.

Steve Morse you're looking for an evening of serious fun that is, pop music that's a little sophisticated and a little somber check out Brendan Perry, formerly of Dead Can Dance, on his first solo tour with a backing trio, and Kristin Hersh, former Throwing Muse, at Paradise tonight. Smart, sculpted alt-rock? Sloan at the Middle East Downstairs. Snotty punk? The Queers at T.T. the Bear's. Splatter-rock, gore, left-wing politics, and thrash-metal? GWAR (with Glenn Danzig-less Misfits) at the Palladium in Worcester.

Sunday, the semi-scabrous and psychedelic Ween play the Somerville Theatre. Wednesday, there's the smart pop-metal of Blue Oyster Cult at the Middle East Down. Jim Sullivan The Counting Crows are back for their second Orpheum show of the week tomorrow, but otherwise most of the action is in the clubs. The respected Pete Weiss and the Rock Band give a farewell show at the Lizard Lounge tonight. The Wicked Farleys bring their angular rock to the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain tonight The thoughtfully melodic Kevin McCluskey Band opens two nights at O'Leary's in Brookline.

Tomorrow, seasoned blues-rocker Jimmy Thackery stirs up Johnny D's, while heavy-rockers Tree land at the Rockpile in Saugus, and rockabilly acts the Racketeers and Ragin' Teens get busy at the Middle East On Sunday, Texas export Stephen Brouton, who has toured as guitarist in ft $13.99 CD $13.99 CD Simply Red Love The Russian Winter Latin Gold Various Artists for students with ID. More info: ish band Bush, he's dealt with endless scrutiny in recent years, but hasn't let it bother him. The same patience applied to writing songs for the new Bush album. He rented a seaside house in Ireland for three months and, instead of panicking over deadlines, invited friends to share it with him. He worked by day, partied by night, and all was right with the world.

"I'd say, Tou can come stay and we'll drink great drinks and hang by the fireside, but I'm working eight, 10 hours a day. You look after yourself and do what you want during that time. Use my car, "And I got into a very consistent schedule," says Rossdale. "I'd look around and see those rolling hills and beautiful crashing sea on the black rock and just be thinking of how much fun I was having and realizing that I was still making the music I wanted to make." Rossdale's seaside tenure served him well, because the newly released Bush album, "The Science of Things," is the band's best yet. He wrote 25 songs and whittled them down to 12, including the fast-moving new single, "The Chemicals Between Us," which just hit No.

1 on the alternative-rock charts. "I was thinking a lot about the differences between people," he says of the song. "There are the fundamental, most genetic differences such as DNA, but I was also realizing that one of the loneliest places you could ever be is lying in bed with someone and not saying what is on your mind. You seem miles away from the person next to you. And that was the basis of the song: 'The chemicals between us, the walls that lie between us, lying in this There's angst and anger on the album a Bush calling card but also a generous ray of hope, as on "Jesus Online," which is "specifically about trying to accept yourself and find something spiritual in this technological age.

The whole society is obsessed about how we're not good enough, but sometimes we should just shut up and accept ourselves. We should say that we don't need a new car or new jacket or new hairstyle." The album, featuring lively guitar tunes and some soft, meditative tracks, strikes a thoughtful balance in the lyrics. Some are wild, some are deep, but almost all show growth in Rossdale's songwriting. "It's just an ode to my 17 personalities," he says with a laugh. "It's the honesty I have about the contradictions that I have to face within myself." Some of those contradictions are about love I don't think anyone's love life is perfect," he says).

Some are about the new millennium is nowhere left to hide," he sings in the spacey "40 Miles from the And some show a profound new sensitivity about relationships, as in the AIDS-inspired song "Letting the Cables Sleep," about a friend who contracted the syndrome but had trouble talking about it. "I found out that my friend was HIV positive and J'd heard the rumors for a while," says Rossdale. "I started to hear it so much that I felt a responsibility to lend my support. So I asked him if he was sick and he said yes. It was just the whole stigma of the disease that made him not say anything before.

I felt so bad that he'd had to endure months without his friends knowing. It upset me a lot that we hadn't communicated about it It further made me feel that communication is everything and how much better we all feel when you purge yourself of what is really going on." As for purging on another level, ii $14.99 CD $13.99 CD Crosby, Stills, Nash Young Looking Forward Light It Up Music From Si Inspired By The Movie $13.99 CD $13.99 CD Rossdale and Bush received new respect for the band's performance at Woodstock '99 this summer. The group had the unenviable task of headlining over Korn one night, but more than held its own with a hard-rocking set that stunned any detractors. "Woodstock is now famous for the Sunday night fires and the terrible rapes," says Rossdale, whose group performed on the Friday of that weekend. "It was definitely a testosterone scene, but when we played, people had a lot of love for us.

I like Korn a lot and I wasn't worried about following them. I've always been of the opinion that if you just go out and do your thing, that's all that matters." Look for Bush to do some radio-sponsored Christmas shows in the next month, then mount an official tour next year. Boston Rock Opera returns: Most music buffs assume that the' Who's "Tommy" was the first rock opera, but beating that by a year was the little-known F. Sorrow" by the Pretty Things. The two groups shared the same engineer, Norman Smith, who also engineered the Beatles' "Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Pink Floyd's "Pipers at the Gates of Dawn." The Pretty Things have never before granted permission to stage "S.F. Sorrow" (a tale of an everyman, Sebastian F. Sorrow), but they granted it to Boston Rock Opera. Its world premiere runs Thursday to Nov. 13 (and also the following Thursday through Saturday) at Massachusetts College of Art's Tower Auditorium.

"We met with the Pretty Things when they were recently in town," says Mick Maldonado, the show's music director, who stars in it as trickster Baron Saturday. "We talked about the story line and they were familiar with our track record," Maldonado adds, citing previous BRO stagings of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and the Kinks' "Preservation." He says the new production is pretty "trippy and psychedelic" as it follows S. F. Sorrow (played by longtime BRO member Peter Moore) through love, war, and, later, a retreat into his inner life. "It's pretty abstract a little depressing, but uplifting at the same time," says Maldonado.

There's a 14-member cast and the band includes Joel Simches (who has played with Splashdown), Bill Bracken (a WBCN engineer), and Wright Maney, who has been with Rag Iron. Tix are $20 and $10 WAAF moves to Boston: Formerly based in the Worcester area, WAAF-FM (107.3) is now settled into its offices in Boston at 116 Huntington across from the Prudential Center. The station has been on a roll this year, helping to launch Bay State bands Godsmack, Staind, and Reveille to national success. The station also sponsored Limp Bizkit's provocative, if shortlived, rooftop concert in Kenmore Square. "Although the radio station is technically licensed to Worcester, there's been an effort for a long time to increase its presence in Boston," says new marketing director Mike Kramer.

He also says that WAAF's tower (currently in Paxton) will be moved 15 miles closer to Boston early next year, which should enhance the signal for the Boston market. Meanwhile, WAAF is stepping up its Hub promotions. On Tuesday, its annual "Walk for Change" has staffer Greg Hill walking from Worcester to Boston on Route 9 (a four-day trip with stops at numerous points to pick up donations); and Lyndon Byers doing the same on a Route 1 walk from South Attleboro to Boston. All proceeds go to the Greater Boston Food Bank. Bits and Pieces: Meshell Ndegeo-cello opens for Sting at the Orpheum Nov.

27-28. The Four Bitchin' Babes reunion is at Sanders Theatre Nov. 19. Maceo Parker at the Palladium in Worcester Dec. 4 The Boston Loopers Collective features musicians who use various types of looping technology (the repetition of audio samples) in their sound.

Members hold a concert at the Middle East on Monday. Derek Trucks is replacing Steve Ki-mock for the remainder of the Bob DylanPhil Lesh tour, which stops at the Worcester Centrum Center Nov. 14. Also, his Derek Trucks Band opens for Hot Tuna at Somerville Theatre Nov. 26.

Tonight: Seventeen has a release party at Bill's Bar. Tomorrow: Expanding Man at T.T. the Bear's, Chris McDermott's Love Perimeter at House of Blues, Big Bad Bollocks at the Skybar Sunday: Ween at Somerville Theatre Tuesday: Talented songwriter Jody Blackwell at the Lizard Lounge; and Michael Tarbox continues his weekly gig at Toad from 7 to 9 p.m., followed by Natalie Flanagan Wednesday: Primus at Avalon, Ratdog at the Palladium, the Big Wu at Bill's Bar. Prices may vary at Avon, CT location. a) inn iTTTr I-j I I 1 1 Jain The Clubl HMV CD Club Card Get Your Free Card Buy ID Get I Freel (me More for detallmj sale ends 1121 For the best music, selection, sound stations, In-store appearances and more It has to be HMV.

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