By Charlene Arsenault 

• Ralph's, a date, The Actions: For the first time since the mid-'80s, The Actions (pictured below) are playing on a stage, reuniting for a show at Ralph's this Friday, June 8. The garage band began like most — underground and through friends of friends.

It was the spring of 1982, Artie Sneiderman was working at the Xit 13 club on Millbury Street, first as a bartender and then as a doorman (the original doorman, he says, was a punch-drunk prizefighter who couldn't figure out how to make change). A big fan of The Odds, Sneiderman knew that their bassist, Steve Aquino, really wanted to play the guitar. He also knew of Mike Michaud, who was in a band called The Prefab Messiahs, which had formed at Clark University, first using an electronic drum machine. Tony Serrato was in the successful Nebulas, and eventually replaced the drum machine with some real drums in The Messiahs. Sneiderman also hung out until the sun came up with the inner circle at the Xit, including soundman Tom Moore. "We'd be spinning records and sing along with some of them," says Sneiderman. "I remember specifically ‘Tore Me Down' by The Flamin' Groovies. Sometimes we'd work on the vocals just for the fun of it. So that's how it really started. Tom got Tony and Steve on board and then played bass for us for about a week and quit," says Sneiderman, "and then Steve's brother Paul joined us and learned to play on the job and became almost too good for us. We started getting a healthy following around town. We broke up in 1985 for the usual kinds of reasons."

None of the band had seen or heard from Serrato in a good 10 years, when this past March, he came calling about a possible reunion. "To our surprise," says Sneiderman, "we all thought it was a good idea. The show at Ralph's — and the following night in Boston — are very likely the last we'll be doing due to overriding commitments."

The Actions open the show, followed by UK's Seretone and special guests. It starts at 10:30 p.m.

• It's not rocking, but it's organic — and difficult: This stuff is beyond the solo in "Good Lovin'." On Thursday and Friday this week, the preliminary round of The Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition of Kaningrad, Russia, is vibrating the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Assumption College. This North American round determines who heads to the international competition in the fall; two of the five performers this week will make it. "The reason there are so few people competing for this is the demands are extremely high," says James David Christie, distinguished artist-in-residence at Holy Cross and organist for The Boston Symphony, as well as the president of the jury for the competition. "The amount of repertoire is immense. This is classical organ music ranging from early Baroque through the 20th century. You will see that these people are very experienced." Directed by Frank Corbin, college organist and director of chapel music at Assumption, the competition brings in two players on Thursday at 1 and 4 p.m. and three players on Friday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. It's free to check it out. Call 508-767-7175 or visit www.organcompetition.ru or www.assumption.edu for more information.

Club notes: On Thursday, Castine's on the bill with Mullethead at The Lucky Dog; and The Deftones headline The Palladium. On Friday, Craig's packing Tammany Hall; Sean Ryan sings at The Galway Bay; Andy Cummings sings at PJ's New England Bar and Grill; The Wandas help open for Ventt at The Lucky Dog; The Free Radicals rock Irish Times; Stovall Brown hits Gilrein's; the fantastic Cercie Miller Quartet returns to The Acton Jazz Café; Millhouse rocks the ADC Complex in Southbridge. On Saturday, Dead Horse Hill plays at the bottom of Dead Horse Hill — at The Galway Bay; Soul Movement bares it all at Tammany; Bill McCarthy's singing some sweet tunes with his acoustic at The Blackstone Tap; Jason James brings the bar to its knees at Greendale's; and The Joshua Tree returns to The Lucky Dog Music Hall.

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