Fall In

Metal/Noise: Houston's fall metal calendar more or less revolves around the Mastodon, High on Fire, Converge and Deathklok black mass (Verizon, Nov. 12), but the true high holy day might be Oct. 9, which brings All That Remains and Lacuna Coil (House of Blues), Deicide (Meridian) and Kittie (Scout Bar) all to the area. Later on come Hatebreed and Cannibal Corpse (Meridian, Nov. 19) and Baroness (Dec. 8, Warehouse Live), while more progressive (or more stoned) metal­heads might prefer Fu Manchu (Walter's, Nov. 5), HEALTH (Mango's, Nov. 8), Melt Banana (Walter's, Nov. 9) or Municipal Waste (Meridian, Nov. 11). Also Nov. 11, "Captain Clegg" — a.k.a. Houston honky-tonker Jesse Dayton in his Halloween II guise — opens for Rob Zombie's latest traveling circus at Verizon.

Rap/Hip-Hop: Noise is a little shocked and dismayed that there are only a handful of these shows on the calendar, but bear in mind there are probably a lot of them we haven't heard about yet, and that corporate-sponsored "private" (well, semiprivate) events like this weekend's Common/Roots show (see "Chatter") seem to be the going trend in live hip-hop these days. The best of what we do know of is easily reunited fonky Atlanta crew Goodie Mob with Houston's own Scarface at House of Blues Oct. 19, but don't sleep on Jeru the Damaja (Warehouse Live, Oct. 15), Rakim (House of Blues, Nov. 3) and the rescheduled Yo! MTV Raps tour, which brings Naughty By Nature, 2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane, Tone Loc and more to the Arena Theatre Oct. 23.

Rock: Word around the music-biz water cooler is that U2's Oct. 14 Reliant Stadium appearance is the worst-selling North American date of the Irishmen's 360º tour. Still, with tickets as low as $32, don't expect too many empty seats. Give the lads' generally panned new album No Line on the Horizon another listen, too — "Breathe" and "Unknown Caller," especially, should sprout a healthy set of wings live.

No doubt AC/DC won't have much trouble filling Toyota Center for its second Black Ice stop here in less than a year Nov. 9, and start packing on the pancake makeup for KISS at the same arena Dec. 5 and Alice Cooper at Verizon Oct. 11. Southern rock aficionados have their choice of the Black Crowes (House of Blues, Oct. 14), Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic (Woodlands, Oct. 17), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Moody Gardens, Galveston, Oct. 31) and Edgar Winter (Dosey Doe, Nov. 21).

Finally, Noise is already cringing at the hangover from two of our all-time favorite bands, the Pogues — the Irish rovers' first time ever in Houston — and Drive-By Truckers back-to-back at House of Blues Oct. 29 and 30. But that's sure as hell not going to stop us from going.

Arena Theatre: www.arenahouston.com

Continental Club: www.continentalclub.com/Houston.html

Dosey Doe Coffee House: www.doseydoescoffeeshop.com

Fitzgerald's: www.fitzlive.com

House of Blues: www.hob.com/Houston

Listening Room at NiaMoves: www.listeningroomhouston.com/a

Mango's: www.mangoscafehouston.com

McGonigel's Mucky Duck: www.mcgonigels.com

Meridian: www.meridianhouston.com

Mink: www.minkonmain.com

Planeta Bar Rio: www.bar-riohouston.com

Reliant Stadium/Reliant Arena: www.reliantpark.com

Rudyard's: www.rudyards.com

Scout Bar: www.scoutbar.com

Super Happy Fun Land: www.superhappyfunland.com

Toyota Center: www.toyotacentertix.com

Verizon Wireless Theater: www.livenation.com

Warehouse Live: www.warehouselive.com

chris.gray@houstonpress.com