2. Sunday, November 17: Johnny Gates & The Invite. $10 advance / $12 day of.  6 pm doors / 7 pm show. All ages. The Met, 1005 Main St., Pawtucket, RI. What a journey for Johnny Gates & The Invite.  Having formed in Rhode Island in 2005 right out of being high school classmates, the band was one of the hardest working bands in the Providence indie / emo music scene, constantly playing The Living Room and Lupo’s.  After flirting with major labels and grinding to get on national tours, the band moved to Nashville in 2008 and retooled. The game changing moment for them was meeting with producer Nathan Chapman (who is known for his production work with Taylor Swift) who took the band under his wing and found them a major label and major booking agency.  Having left the pop element, the band now is a bit more  in the vein of The Wallflowers.  It was a bit of a learning curve for the band, to go from songwriting in their basement to the Nashville big business way of going in a room with a popular songwriter they have never met and collaborating. The show at The Met will be their first New England show in five years since their departure for the south.  Look for their major label debut in 2014 on Warner Records.

3.  Thursday, November 21: Boo City, Ravi Shavi, Ian O’Neil (of Deer Tick). $8. 8 pm doors / 9 pm show. All ages. The Met, 1005 Main St., Pawtucket, RI. Here is a co-bill of two of Providence’s funnest and best live acts.  Boo City is self described “Black Country Soul Rock Steady,” in other words an all-the-fuck-over-the-place party band.  While the band’s songs sound great on record (Google Boo City and Bandcamp), vocalists Tai Awolaju and Andrew “Moon” Bain’s songs really come out live. The show will also be Boo City’s world premier of their video “Nobody Knows.”  Ravi Shavi, Providence’s premier upstart garage rock band, are unstoppable when they are on their A-game. And Ian O’Neil, who is currently jetsetting around the world behind his band and Rhode Island’s own Deer Tick’s 5th record Negativity, opens what should be a great night of Providence music in Pawtucket.

4. Saturday, November 23: Bad Swimmers (Record Release Party), Little Big League, Bloodpheasant, Steve Layman, Darklands. $5. 9 pm. All ages. AS220, 115 Empire St., Providence, RI. Sean Murphy (of Rhode Island hardcore vets Verse) new project sounds like a bit more lo-fi and punk Superchunk, and that’s more than fine with me.  This show celebrates the release of See You, a new 10″ record coming out on Atomic Action.  Philly’s Little Big League remind me a lot of a more mellow Pretty Girls Make Graves.  Providence’s Bloodpheasant are on the top of my Providence bands I haven’t seen, but want to, describing themselves aptly as doom folk.  Steve Layman and one of Rhode Island’s several bands called Darklands round out the bill.