Also this issue: Underdog Night DJ Cosmo Baker's hip-hop Remedy night turns 5. -Sean O’Neal Beat Box -Ainé Ardron-Doley Very Emergency Facing illness and boredom, The Promise Ring changes its pace. -Chris Parker Billy Bob Thornton -A.D. Amorosi Groovin' and Pickin' -Mary Armstrong

May 23-29, 2002

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Indie Blastoff

Memorial Day Weekend kicks off hot and heavy with an all-ages underground jam at Transit. Reminiscent of the Def Jux tour that rolled through a less-than-packed house at the TLA a few months back, this supadupafly lineup is a virtual who's who in indie hip-hop: Harlem duo, Cannibal Ox (Vast Aire and Vordul Megilah), El-P (formerly of Company Flow), N.Y.'s Aesop Rock, Beantown's Mr. Lif and Philly brethren Louis Logic and Chief Kamachi. While the Def Juxters push the boundaries of the genre with innovative production and strictly ill lyricism, the Transit stage is set to become a place of limitless collaboration between these artists. Representing the hometown, drunken dragon Louis Logic is sure to stun Louis virgins while the elusive Chief Kamachi mystifies the mind. Local wax-spinners Cosmo (see the huge article on him on p. 35.) and LowBudget do the cut and scratch. The underground is alive, well and thumpin'.

Sat., May 25, 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m., $16-$18, Transit, 601 Spring Garden St., 215-629-0614, www.r5productions.com.

—Ainé Ardron-Doley