Rock Band

THESE DAYS, it's hard to swing a Fender Stratocaster guitar without hitting a classic-rock "cover" band. But it's safe to assume you've never seen an act like Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra , which could be considered the mother of all classic-rock tribute units. "That would certainly be an apt description," said Sal Clemente , musical director, vocalist and co-founder of the group that tonight kicks out the jams at the Atlantic City Hilton. Apt, because the Boston-based URO uses the talents of 13 - count 'em, 13 - singers, backed by five musicians, as it offers faithful renditions of rock anthems by such titans as the Beatles, David Bowie, the Who and Queen.

Before he drove down to the Spectrum to see Green Day from his home town of Macungie, in Lehigh County, Derek Hensinger knew that on previous tour stops Billie Joe Armstrong had been plucking a guitar player out of the crowd. So during the band's first encore Tuesday night, after Armstrong had finished with "American Idiot" and asked the crowd, "Are you ready for something really special?" Hensinger was ready. "I g.ot here at 2 o'clock," said the 22-year-old guitarist and singer, who besides being a major Green Day fan plays in his own rock band, Bang Diesel.

Movie star Kevin Bacon and his composer brother Michael were in a recording studio near Old City yesterday, rocking out to help save the Mummers Parade. The Philadelphia natives, who formed a rock band 15 years ago, were remixing "New Year's Day," the title track from their sixth album. And their backup band? Representatives from the Mummers Association's 16 string bands, who were adding their trademark saxophones, banjos, accordions, and glockenspiels to the mix. Proceeds from the new single will benefit the Mummers, who are struggling to maintain the city's 108-year-old tradition of strutting up Broad Street on New Year's Day. The chorus of "New Year's Day" goes: Here we stand at your door Like we did the year before Give us whiskey, give us gin Open up and let us in Last year, the city, strapped with a $1 billion deficit, suspended the prize money (more than $200,000)

Why is Anvil, the storied Canadian heavy-metal band that's been in business for three decades, playing an almost empty dungeonlike club in Prague, when a band of its stature should be packing venues that hold a thousand people or more? That question is asked in Sacha Gervasi's superb rockumentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, by a British lawyer who's an avid Anvil fan. And drummer Robb Reiner does his best to answer succinctly. "I can answer that in one word," he says. "Er, two words.

Were he still with us, Puritan poet and Paradise Lost author John Milton would have turned 400 this month. So, naturally, Daniel Robinson and his bandmates are throwing a party. "When we named the band after him," says the front man for Milton & the Devils Party, who will play upstairs at World Cafe Live on Saturday in support of their sophomore CD of stinging jangle-pop, How Wicked We've Become, "we committed ourselves to celebrating the milestones in his life. " And why, pray tell, would you name a rock band after English literature's premier blind blank versifier?

POSITION: Long snapper HEIGHT: 6-0 WEIGHT: 250 AGE: 28 BIRTHDATE: July 21, 1980 HOMETOWN: Garden Grove, Calif. COLLEGE: Texas-El Paso YEARS PRO: 6 HOW ACQUIRED: Unrestricted free agent in 2006 FAVORITE PRO ATHLETE: "Hank Baskett. No, [former Seattle Mariner] Jay Buhner. I grew up in Seattle and used to love watching him play. " DESCRIBE PHILLY FANS: "From what I've seen of them, they're great. They go to the games, they scream, they sport their gear.

Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric didn't rock out on stage during their three-hour show at Jen and Dave's house in Moorestown last weekend.... That was because there was no stage. Instead, there were two microphone stands and a couple of amps set up beneath the wood-beam ceiling in Jen Hilinski and Dave Khanlian's living room, where a full house of 50 or so in-the-know fans sat on folding chairs, sure that they were in on something special. That they were. "I'm just imagining somebody driving by," said Rigby, as the sharp-eyed indie songwriter and her pop-punk cult-hero husband bashed through Eric's "Take the Cash (K.A.

IT'S THAT special time of year again when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announces its nominees and music fans the world over go . . . Huh? That's not rock and roll. Metallica we'll give you. Same as the Stooges. War combined a rock sound with some '70s funk so they qualify. Run-DMC had a big hit with Aerosmith so their nomination makes some sense. Jeff Beck? He's a near-legendary rock guitarist. But Wanda Jackson? Bobby Womack? Little Anthony and the Imperials?

Max Bernstein had a band, the Actual, with a catchy song called "This Is the Worst Day of My Life," a slot on the Warped Tour, and a gig opening for heavy hitters Velvet Revolver on a national tour. What he lacked was a sense of purpose. "Somebody once asked me, 'Why are you in a band?' " says the Los Angeles singer and guitarist, who will bring his new Internet-distributed agit-rock outfit, Max & the Marginalized, to the Trocadero tomorrow and the Reef in Wilmington on Monday.