*Tickets will be on sale at 4 pm this afternoon (Friday) for a March 31 show by EVANESCENCE at Dodge Music Center. There will be a limited number of general admission pit tickets for this indoor show. All tickets are $35; you’ll need to specify that you want a pit ticket when you purchase tickets this weekend.

Tickets will be available online at LiveNation.com and from all TicketMaster outlets. The Dodge Music Center will not be open for ticket sales.

Chevelle and Finger Eleven will both offer opening sets.

*Also going on sale this weekend will be tickets for GWEN STEFANI, who will bring her Sweet Escape Tour to Mohegan Sun Arena on Monday, May 21. The show will feature special guests Akon and Lady Sovereign.

Tickets are $67.50 and $87.50 and will be going on sale Saturday, February 10, at 10 am, through all TicketMaster vendors. Remaining tickets will also be put on sale Sunday morning through the arena’s box office.

*JOHN VOKET’s Shining On for the CURE Tour will continue next weekend, when John performs at Proud Mary’s, the lounge at The Inn at Newtown. The concert is part of John’s second annual series of fund- and awareness-raising shows for Newtown’s 2007 Relay For Life. This year’s Relay will be the overnight of June 9-10 at Newtown High School, and John’s goal is to “help folks get their hands on luminaries that will line the Relay track to honor those fighting the good fight, and to remember those who are no longer with us,” he said in a recent email.

There is no admission charge, but each month’s show will include requests for donations. Each $10 donation will cover the cost of one luminary, which will join hundreds of others to line the track at the high school on June 9 and will be inscribed with the name of a loved one of acquaintance of your choice.

Next weekend’s show is scheduled for Friday, February 16, from 8:30 until 11:30 pm. Additional shows in the 2007 Shining On the for CURE Tour will be on April 20 and a date in June still to be set, also at Proud Mary’s. Future shows are also being planned for March and May at Mocha Coffee House in Sandy Hook. Details will be shared once I receive them.

John also has an unrelated (meaning non-Relay fundraiser) show at Proud Mary’s coming up. He will be headlining on Saturday, Saturday, March 3, also running 8:30 to 11:30.

*PATTI SMITH and her band, recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will headline on the stage at Toad’s Place next month. The band will be in New Haven to play an all ages show on Friday, March 23.

Also next month BLACK 47 will return for its annual St Patrick’s Day show, a day early. The band will be playing an all ages show on March 16.

Recent additions to the schedule at Toad’s Place include a March 2 show by HANSON, open to all ages; a March 7 show by BUCKCHERRY, also all ages; and NORMA JEAN, on April 10, all ages.

American Idol contestant BRENNA GETHERS will join BOMB SQUAD for its next New Haven show, scheduled for March 22. This will also be an all ages event.

*B.B. KING will be performing at Stamford’s Palace Theatre on Sunday, February 25. Johnny Duke and The Aces will be opening this show.

Tickets are available for $60, $65 and $70, and can be purchased by calling the Stamford Center for the Arts box office, 203-325-4466; going online to StamfordCenterForTheArts.org; or visiting the box office of either SCA’s Palace Theatre, at 61 Atlantic Street, or Rich Forum, 307 Atlantic Street, both in Stamford.

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

FEBRUARY 9 — W.A.S.P. at The Webster Theater, Hartford; Darik & The Funbags at Toad’s Place, New Haven; Isaac Hayes at Mohegan Sun’s Cabaret Theatre, Uncasville (nightly through February 11);

February 10 — The Pink Floyd Experience at The Palace Theater, Waterbury; Isaac Hayes at Mohegan Sun’s Cabaret Theatre (also February 11); Dropkick Murphys at UConn’s Jorgensen Center, Storrs, Big D & The Kids Table opening;

February 11 — Isaac Hayes at Mohegan Sun’s Cabaret Theatre;

February 13 — Rusted Root at The Webster Theater, Hartford (all ages);

February 15 — Robert Randolph and The Family Band at The Webster Theater; Sonic Youth at Toad’s Place (all ages);

February 16 — John Voket at Proud Mary’s (Relay For Life fundraiser); Mastodon at Toad’s Place, Converge and Priestess opening (all ages);

February 17 — Hat City Blues Band at The Georgetown Saloon;

February 18 — Joe Bonamassa at Toad’s Place (all ages);

February 19 — The Beach Boys at Mohegan Sun Arena;

February 23 — Patti Smith & Her Band at Toad’s Place (all ages); Sevendust, Bloodsimple and Diecast at The Webster Theater, Hartford;

February 24 — My Chemical Romance at Dodge Music Center, Hartford, Rise Against opening; Alexa Ray Joel at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den; Hat City Blues Band at Jimmy’s Seaside, Stamford;

February 25 — B.B. King at The Palace Theater, Stamford, with special guests Johnny Duke and The Aces;

February 28 — The Lemonheads at Toad’s Place.