Binghamton's Voodoo Lounge keeps easing the pain of losing Magic City Music Hall.

When the Rockademia Tour hits the Lounge stage Saturday, it'llspotlight a quintet of fast-rising Southern Tier bands - hailing fromBinghamton to Auburn - that'll certify regional rock/metal alive andwell.

Pick your headliner. There's Ithaca's Ayurveda, GreaterBinghamton's Try.Fail.Repeat., Corning-Ithaca's Armageddon Monks andSelf Made Self, and Auburn's Stone Soul Foundation.

The tourunites "pretty much the cream of the crop in unsigned hard rock forcentral New York," said TFR singer Mike Hunter. "It's a fairly unusualthing for rock bands to band together like this on their own, but themusic industry is pretty tough these days, so we figured we stood abetter chance if we stuck together."

After a pair ofStaind-echoing EPs, TFR's closing in on a new studio outing - as isAyurveda, with plans to package more of their spiritual alloy on discamid "hectic" touring.

Self Made Self's new CD,a concept album, will be out by the fall. The metal-crunching Monks areworking on a "two-fer" - one acoustic, one plugged in. And Stone SoulFoundation also has a disc in the pipeline.

All that new workoffers an extra draw for the fan bases Saturday. And for newbies, thebands' standards are reason enough to not be late.