*Now that the band has found its new lead singer, INXS will bring its Switched On Tour to Mohegan Sun Arena on Thursday, February 16. I think the band is hoping to remind people why INXS was long considered one of the best live acts on the concert circuit during the 80s and early 90s, before the death of lead singer Michael Hutchence, now that the television show Rock Star: INXS has produced new lead singer J.D. Fortune.

  Tickets for that show, priced at $25 and $35, are going on sale Friday, October 28, at 10 am through all TicketMaster vendors and the arena’s box office. Marty Casey & The Lovehammers will open (Casey was the runner-up on the “reality” show/competition).

  *Also going on sale this weekend are tickets for TIM McGRAW at Mohegan Sun Arena. This show will be in Uncasville for two nights, December 3-4. McGraw will be backed by his band, The Dancehall Doctors, and the opening set will be played by Hot Apple Pie.

  Tickets are $75 and $95 and will be going on sale at 10 am Saturday, October 29, also through the arena’s box office and TicketMaster.

  *VH-1’s “Best Week Ever” will jump from the tube to Hartford next month, when The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts’ homegrown stand-up comedy series (their description, not mine) hosts Best Week Ever Live! on Friday, November 4. Showtime is 8:30.

  Stand-up comics Jessi Klein, Paul Scheer, Christian Finnegan and a fourth comic to be announced will bring a live version of the weekly telecast to the stage. The live show will be presented similar to the television show, but edgier. The comics will dish the goods about current events, sharing opinions that can’t be aired on TV. Best Week Ever Live! will be hosted by WTIC-FM afternoon DJ Damon Scott.

  Tickets are $15 and $22, and available by calling 860-987-5900 or visiting www.Bushnell.org.

  *The following week, also at The Bushnell, pop star ASHLEE SIMPSON will headline. Tickets for the Friday, November 11, show just went on sale and are $32.50 and $42.50; call the box office or visit the theater’s website for details and orders.

  Opening for Simpson will be the Texas-based band BAREFOOT.

  *Premier Music Hall, at 6 Delay Street in Danbury (in the former Colorado Brewery location, and the short-lived Pure Country), has been pulling in some interesting shows lately.

  Upcoming shows include LAKE TROUT, with BENZOS opening, on Friday, November 11; SCOOTER JENNINGS on Saturday, November 12; CHARLIE DANIELS BAND on Friday, November 18; JASON ALDEAN on Sunday, November 20; THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND on Friday, November 25; YNGWIE MALMSTEEN on Friday, December 2; and STATIC-X, with Ill Nino and Opiate for the Masses, on Friday, December 9.

  (Trucks’ band, by the way, will also be in the state a week earlier — at Mohegan Sun Arena on November 18.)

  All of these shows are all ages. The restaurant and lounge for the music hall opens at 5 on show nights. Visit InTicketing.com or call 866-384-3060 for tickets.

    *Monday evening’s big event at The Webster Theater will be BUCKETHEAD, who is on the road to promote and celebrate his Buckethead & Friends release Enter The Chicken.

  One week into his Disney World To Disneyland Tour (kicked off October 21 in Orlando, Fla., and will finish on November 22 at House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif.), the axeman will be joined in Hartford by bass player Dan Monit and drummer Pinchface in performing various Buckethead favorites and instrumental versions of tracks from Enter The Chicken.

  This is an all-ages show and all tickets are $15.

  Until next week I’ll be seeing you... on the road.

 Questions and comments should be sent to Shannon Hicks c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown CT 06470, or shannon@thebee.com, or call the office at 426-3141. Shows listed at club locations are for ages 21 and over unless specified.

 

UPCOMING SHOWS

OCTOBER 28 — Off The Hook at Carl Anthony’s, Monroe (Halloween party); Duke Robillard at The Acoustic Café, Bridgeport;

October 29 — Hat City Blues Band at Redding Roadhouse; Bret Michaels at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den, Uncasville; The Breakfast and Rane at The Webster Theater, Hartford, Otherwise and Corkscrew opening (all ages); Dr Mudd at Tuxedo Junction; Group Therapy at The Acoustic Café; Odetta at Towne Crier Café, with special guest Buzz Turner;

October 30 — Aerosmith with Lenny Kravitz at Mohegan Sun Arena (also November 1); The Cosmic Jibaros’ Halloween Show at The Acoustic Café;

October 31 — Buckethead & Friends at The Webster Theater

NOVEMBER 1 — Aerosmith with Lenny Kravitz at Mohegan Sun Arena (also October 30); Audioslave and Seether at The Dodge Music Theatre, Hartford, 30 Seconds to Mars opening; King’s X at The Webster Theater, Hartford;

November 3 — The Yellow Umbrella Tour at The Webster Theater, featuring Duncan Sheik, Sarah Bettens, David Poe and Christine Baze;

November 4 — The Nerds at Toad’s Place, New Haven; Trisha Yearwood at Foxwoods Casino’s Fox Theatre, Ledyard; Off The Hook at Carol Anthony’s, Monroe;

November 5 — Bob Weir & Ratdog at Foxwoods Casino’s Fox Theatre; Off The Hook at Bravo, Fairfield;

November 6 — Trisha Yearwood at The Palace Theater, Waterbury;

November 10 — Alan Jackson at Mohegan Sun Arena, with Sara Evans and The Wrights (also November 11);

November 11 — Alan Jackson at Mohegan Sun Arena, with Sara Evans and The Wrights opening (also Nov 10); VH-1’s Stripped Across America Tour at The Webster Theater (acoustic sets by Dokken, Firehouse, Jani Lane, Stephen Pearcy and Kip Winger); Ashlee Simpson at The Bushnell, Hartford, Off The Hook at Vazzy’s Osteria, Monroe; Lake Trout at Premier Music Hall, Danbury, Benzos opening;

November 12 — Scooter Jennings at Premier Music Hall; Hat City Blues Band at 59 Bank, New Milford; “Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute on Ice” at The Arena at Harbor Yard, Bridgeport (performance by EW&F and figure skating by Olympic medallists and competitors); Off The Hook at Bravo Restaurant & Bar, Fairfield; Jeff Pitchell & Peter Tork at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den; Johnny Gill & Bell Biv Devoe at Foxwoods Casino’s Fox Theatre; Hot Hot Heat, The Red Walls and We Are Scientists at The Webster Theater.