Thursday 2
Frankenstein Meets Godzilla
Duh-duh-dunh, duh-duh-dunnah, duh-duh-duh, daadaa.
Hmmm, hanananmmm, hanananummm.
Badadada-dadadada, badadada badadadadahhhh.

If the reaper visits the Chevrolet Theatre (95 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford, 203-265-1501, livenation.com) tonight, he'll reel in the most righteous riffers of '70s rockdom: water-smokers Deep Purple, cowbell kings Blue Oyster Cult and white-skinned axe-wielder Edgar Winter.

Read It and Weed

Kids can get their hands dirty at the library and then reap what they sow. The ABC Garden Club at the Fair Haven Library (182 Grand Ave., New Haven) meets every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. for an hour to learn about organic gardening and monitor the growth of their plants. Salsas are made and library-grown veggies like beets are sampled. Aside from butterfly-attracting flowers, the garden has nearly 20 varieties of edibles, including a mystery plant kids will discover when it matures.

Friday 3

Don't Dream, It's Not Over

A rebuilt Crowded House has just released Time on Earth, the band's first studio album in 14 years, and kicks off a U.S. tour 9 p.m. tonight at the Fox Theatre (Foxwoods Resort Casino, 39 Norwich-Westerly Rd., Ledyard, 1-800-FOXWOODS, foxwoods.com; $38.50-$49.50). Leader Neil Finn, who also wrote hits like "I Got You" for the '70s art-pop act Split Enz, is joined by original House (and former Enz) bassist Nick Seymour and Supertramp keyboardist Mark Hart (who's been in the House for years, on tour and in the studio). In order to remodel Crowded House without irreplaceable founding member Paul Hester (who committed suicide in 2005), Finn "had to have a brilliant drummer," as he says in a press release. In Matt Sherrod, best known for his work with Beck, Finn found "a certain pizzazz"—which should continue the tradition of fun live shows Crowded House has always been known for.

Amen!

The 10th annual Gospel Fest New Haven kicks off its joyful noise tonight with a poetry slam and open mic at Hillhouse High School (480 Sherman Pkwy., New Haven). Then the fest brings God to Goffe Street Park (Goffe St. & Sherman Ave., New Haven, 203-624-9228) on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. National headliners include Papa San, The Canton Spirituals and Doc McKenzie & The Hi-Lites, but it's the impassioned local acts that may raise your spirits highest. See the full line-up in our music listings.

Saturday 4

Not Punk Puppets

Loudandfast is great and all, but loudandfast is not an end unto itself. Punk rock might be the base layer for Lamb Bombs, Murdervan, The Black Noise Scam, NRL, Punch, Electric Bucket and The Haymarket Martyrs—the bands sharing a bill tonight at the Stony Creek Puppet House (128 Thimble Islands Rd., Branford, 203-488-5752, puppethouse.org). But brace yourself, for these acts will add twists of art-spazz, tongue-in-cheek humor, tongue-out-of-cheek perversity, political questioning, avant-weirdness and the stuff of some large record collections.

Sunday 5

The Space/Time Signature Continuum

Another glorious gauntlet of genre-mashing grinds through The Space (295 Treadwell St., Bldg. H, Hamden, thespace.tk, 7 p.m., $10) as mech-rock act The Mayor's Idea meet up with jam-band The Nomads and ska enthusiastic Chakras. Open Star Clusters will be there to add an astral dimension, and Alchemist will mix things up by nature. If you're not well rounded, then you're square.

Monday 6

Picture Islam

Shining cities of pilgrimage in an 18th century Islamic book of prayer can not be separated from the bombed mosques of Iraq that are the televised illuminations of our day. Some two dozen works which make up the exhibition of Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts: A Selection of New Acquisitions at Yale University are a concise encyclopedia of a culture—reminders of how little we know of what we are busy destroying. The pages are on view through Aug. 25 at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (121 Wall St., New Haven, 203-432-4047, library.yale.edu/beinecke).

Tuesday 7

Dunk and Go Nuts

Women's pro basketball players score more points than their non-vaginated counterparts. For them, it's all about the sport and the passion to play it. They don't make anywhere near the same amount of cash, they hit the court and run honest-to-god plays. Passing is essential during a women's game; nobody hangs 40 yards out and hurls moon shots at the hoop hoping to avoid the wingspan of some glandular mutant whose only athletic superlative is that he can dunk while lying down. The Connecticut Sun play the Sacramento Monarchs 7 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena (Uncasville, 1-888-226-7711, mohegansun.com).

Roots Mon Vibrations

The polio-stricken members of Israel Vibration shuffle out on stage like broken men, but once the music starts they cast off their crutches and sing with the roar of lions. Read about them, and their legendary backing band Roots Radics, elsewhere in this issue, and see them at 9:30 p.m. at the newly reopened Toad's Place (300 York St., New Haven, 203-624-TOAD, toadsplace.com; $20-$22).

Wednesday 8

Spade in Full

Love him or hate him, one thing is undeniable: David Spade is short and blond. And he is apparently quite good at stand-up comedy...$55-$65 good. We figure that's how much he has to charge to buy back his self-respect after the Joe Dirt/Dickie Roberts/Benchwarmers triumvirate of movie trash he's put out this century, and that's how much you'll pay to see him at the Fox Theater at 8 p.m. (Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, 800-200-2882, foxwoods.com). Spade is sure to be more than the daily recommended dose of sarcasm and celebrity trashing—the tow-headed SNL alum's stock in trade ever since Michael Jackson was black.

Will the Real Metal Please Stand Up?

Herman VonRohl controls the "piercing lungs of Hell" for local power-metal phenoms Nasty Disaster. Alongside his guitarist brother in metal, Ian McRok, and a metal maelstrom of bandmates, Nasty Disaster are doing their damnedest to keep the metal in metal and not hand it over to the fake rappers and emo sissies. Posers beware tonight at Toad's Place (300 York St., New Haven, 203-624-TOAD, toadsplace.com). Uh, unless you're the guys posing as Guns 'N Roses in the tribute band Appetite for Destruction. Calm to Chaos and Falling Season pound riffs as well.

That's not all we care about! For more Advocate recommendations, see our regular columns and listings sections.