Cross-country clubbing

Bar hopping festivals keep popping up these days, bringing dozens of bands to a few venues where grown-up kids can zigzag around town like it’s Halloween in attempts to catch all their favorites. The Digital Club Network has taken that idea a step further with its Digital Club Festival. From July 22 to 25, one can watch Throwing Muses and Steve Earle at Lupu’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, R.I., Aimee Mann at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, Calif., Yo La Tengo and Richard Thompson at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J., Patti Smith at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga., Bumpus and Tamara Bedrickey at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and more than a dozen other well-known acts at small clubs around the country known as jumping-off points for up-and-coming artists. Sound impossible? Well, each performance is being presented live, streaming in real-time on the festival Web site, www.digitalclubnetwork.com. Say goodbye to $4 bottles of water and overflowing portable toilets.