'Devil's Playground' shows Idol's rebel yell hasn't mellowed with age

The thought of spiky-haired Billy Idol singing the national anthem before his son's Little League game is hard to fathom. ''Yeah, I did it punk rock-style, too," says Idol. ''You come to the lines 'the rockets' red glare' and 'bombs bursting in air' and you can really get it going."

He's not joking.

Yes, the MTV-generation star is still going where few punks dare to tread, but now he's got a bona fide comeback album to show for it. The new ''Devil's Playground" is Idol's first set of original material in 12 years -- and, as he says not inaccurately, ''It picks up right where 'Rebel Yell' left off."

Idol may have been sometimes termed a blowhard when he romped through the '80s with such hits as ''Rebel Yell," ''White Wedding," and ''Eyes Without a Face," but at the very least, he rocked. And he's rocking with renewed vigor on ''Devil's Playground," on which he has hooked up again with guitarist Steve Stevens for the riffing might of ''Super Overdrive," ''World Comin' Down," and ''Scream."

Credit the success of other hard-edged bands such as Audioslave and Velvet Revolver for getting Idol back into harness. ''I've watched what they're doing -- and have seen how powerful they are," says Idol. ''I thought maybe it's time to update Billy Idol for 2005."

Idol, whose album just came out in advance of a tour coming to the Bank of America Pavilion on May 20, says that his long hiatus can be attributed to ''taking the grunge era off" and becoming the parent of two children, Will, 16, and Bonnie, 15, who helped him shake a drug addiction. ''I had to decide, 'Was I going to be a drug addict, a drunk, or a dad?" he says. He adds that his son even has a band called Lucas. ''He's in competition!" says Idol, though his son ''is more into chill-out music."

Kellogg's momentum: Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were on the road for 200-plus shows last year, and they're in for more of the same in 2005. ''This stage of our career is like med school," says Kellogg, a UMass-Amherst grad who grew up in Fairfield, Conn., and was a junior high school classmate of Grammy winner John Mayer. (''We're acquaintances, but not really friends," he says).

The band's tour itinerary reaches another high next week when it opens for O.A.R. at the Agganis Arena on Wednesday.

His band's new, self-titled album is a joy, with burnished melodic rock that echoes the Counting Crows and the Wallflowers. But apart from Kellogg's own incurably romantic songs, it is the group's stage show that is starting to win fans.

At a recent Paradise date, the Sixers engaged in some enthusiastic showmanship with impromptu dance moves, a gospel-stomp version of the Band's ''Up on Cripple Creek," and an a cappella treatment of the Beatles' ''Blackbird."

Kellogg has been based in Northampton, where he also worked as a promoter for the Iron Horse and as a stage manager for folk singer Dar Williams. But he's committed to his band now. ''We're going to stick with it like Maroon 5 did," he says.

Rumble time: Preliminary rounds are set for the WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble run, for six nights at the Middle East Upstairs starting Sunday. The lineup: Sunday -- Lock and Key, Bon Savants, Fluttr Effect, Robby Roadsteamer; Monday -- Spitzz, Emergency Music, Baby Boy H, Furvis; Tuesday -- Stray Bullets, Car Crash Show, Reverend Glasseye, Endway; Thursday -- Beyond the Embrace, Turpentine Brothers, Antler, Sudden Ease; Friday -- Aberdeen City, Muck and the Mires, Mass Hysteria, Rubikon; Saturday -- Violet Nine, the Marvels, Sand Machine, the Hidden.

''The music is really spread across genres this year," says Shred, WBCN's local music director. ''It goes from New Bedford's Beyond the Embrace -- an Iron Maiden-ish metal band -- to a couple of ska bands in Mass Hysteria and Stray Bullets."

U2 set list: The order of songs from U2's tour opener in San Diego on Monday are these:

''City of Blinding Lights," ''Vertigo," ''The Cry/ The Electric Co.," ''An Cat Dubh," ''Into the Heart," ''Beautiful Day," ''New Year's Day," ''Miracle Drug," ''Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," ''Love and Peace or Else," ''Sunday Bloody Sunday," Bullet the Blue Sky," ''Running to Stand Still," ''Zoo Station," ''The Fly," ''Elevation," then encores of ''Pride (In the Name of Love)," ''Where the Streets Have No Name," ''One," ''All Because of You," ''Yahweh," and ''40."

Bits and pieces: Cowboy Junkies headline the Somerville Theatre June 9. Tickets will go on sale today. . . . Tonight: Ray LaMontagne at Avalon; and there's a benefit at the Middle East Upstairs for Duncan Wilder Johnson, who recently broke several bones in a fall. Rick Berlin and the Hidden perform. . . . Tomorrow: Second annual Kathy Duff memorial concert at the Kirkland Cafe with the Lyres and Eric Martin & the Illyrians; David Wilcox at Emerson Umbrella in Concord; Get Back (Beatles tribute) at the Somerville Theatre; and the Dave Sammarco Band at the Overdraught Pub. . . . Sunday: Psychedelic Furs will appear at the Paradise.