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The Kinks. The Kinks used to play very bad tours. Not an occasional crummy concert, but whole tours, rotten in their ntirety. This was because they'd all get drunk and beat each other up onstage. Which was particularly true of the brothers Davies. Ray, older and larger, could be relied upon to smack his brother, Dave, younger and smaller, around numerous stages in equally numerous dank halls across America. No more. Ray has coupled his social insights with his instinctive love of vaudeville as it appeared in English music halls, and transformed his band of drunken louts into a drunken semi-pro Long Island lounge band. The Kinks have become my favorite band since last November when I first saw them in concert. Davies' manifestation of his music hall persona is the key to Everybody's in Show-Biz, and has become the key to a Kinks concert. With him, performing, separate from music, becomes an art. And boy, can he drink.

The Grateful Dead. Last I heard, my Dead freak friends were laying in provisions for a long trek to Springfield in Straus' BMW, on which they've scrawled, "Garcia is God." The plan is to see the Dead twice, there and at Boston Garden. And I know a guy who knows another guy who's seen the Dead thirty five times in the last year or so. Okay. I don't mind the Dead, but the prospect of seeing one of those five hour "Evenings with the Dead," twice in one week has the same effect as being forced to view the entire series of "As the World Turns." So I've never seen the Dead, and won't until they decide to plays slightly more manageable concert dates. Because I, for one, just don't find them musically exciting, and if that isn't the perfect advertisement for Alice Cooper, then I don't know what is.

And, if you're in town, check out Hot Tuna and Procul Harum. And Otis Rush is at Joe's Place.

The Kinks. Sunday, April 1st. The Music Hall. One show at 7 pm.

The Grateful Dead. Monday, April 2nd. Boston Garden. 8 pm.

Hot Tuna. Tuesday, April 3rd. The Orpheum Theatre. Two shows with The New Riders.

Procol Harum. Wednesday, April 4th. The Orpheum Theatre. 8 pm. Tickets are $2 and $3.