Testing the bounds of freedom is just as quintessentially American as freedom itself. That's why it makes a kind of subversive sense that a punk music fest teeming with anarchists and other urban anti-establishment types is planned for the patriotic Fourth of July. The all-day Mess Fest will take over the Mills Ave. strip (Uncle Lou's, Will's Pub, Peacock Room and Cloud 9) and come at you fast and furious in back-to-back 15-minute sets of crust, powerviolence, pop-punk, hardcore and just about every other kind of "core" you can think of. But the best part? "Booty Bass Afterhours." Oh hell yeah. The lineup includes a murderers' row of top area heavy-hitters as well as a handful of out-of-state bands. Judging from the wildness of the punk and metal stages at the recent Orange You Glad Music Festival, who knows what will be smashed when these guys have an entire fest to themselves? – Bao Le-Huu