Here comes the weekend!

Sacramento's music scene looks to be pretty busy this next week, from club shows to ticket on-sales for some of the biggest names in the world.

Tickets on sale include those for Coldplay's summer tour, which is scheduled for the Sleep Train Amphitheatre on July 14. Tickets go on sale Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

Another is Bloc Party's April 21 show at Freeborn Hall in Davis, going on sale this Friday morning at 10 a.m.

Another big name tour going on sale will not hit Sacramento - at least it hasn't been announced - but it is a show that will please Sacramento's classic rock-hungry concert-going audience: Eric Clapton's duo tour with Steve Winwood. The two were band mates in the 1969 "supergroup," Blind Faith, and songs from that band's one album, including Winwood's stoner classic, "Can't Find My Way Home" and Clapton's prayer-like "Presence of the Lord," will be highlights of the show.Tickets for the June 29 show at Oakland's Oracle Arena, will go on sale Monday, March 2.

Also on sale this Saturday, tickets to see the biggest-selling artist of 2008, Lil Wayne, who will play the HP Pavilion in San Jose on March 27.

Speaking of best-selling artists, U2's last album sold almost 10 million copies worldwide. The quartet's first album in nearly five years, No Line on the Horizon, drops on Tuesday.

More down to earth, a couple of hip-hop classics will be playing Sacramento this week. First up is Kool Keith, once of the Ultramagnetic MCs in the late '80s, will be playing Harlow’s tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 25), but if you're up for someone more contemporary, you can't do better than the lyrical flow and deep wit of Lyrics Born, who will play Harlow's on Saturday, headlining a five-hour show of hip hop and rock acts, mostly from around this area.

Alt.rock fans will want to catch Portugal. The Man. at Harlow's Thursday night, while lovers of old school country blues rock stalwarts Little Feat will probably enjoy the stripped down acoustic duo of the current Feat's main guitarists, Paul Barrare and Fred Tackett. The duo will be playing Harlow's on Sunday night.

Throw in last night's A.C. Newman show and it's clear that Harlow's is having quite a week, as one look at their sign (above) will confirm.

Other shows: Jon McLaughlin and the Rocket 88 will play the Hard Rock Café in downtown Sacramento on Sunday, and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir will raise their voices on Friday at the Guild Theatre in Oak Park.

Elsewhere, a Smiths cover band called This Charming Band will play the Blue Lamp on Friday and a band called Everest will play Old Ironsides on Monday evening.

And if you're just looking for a laugh, there are two options: The Smothers Brothers are playing the Cache Creek Casino on Saturday, and Dave Attell will bring his barbed wit to the Punch Line, also Saturday night.

Catching up...

Jeez. a month since I last posted. I'm most on Facebook now, and SacramentoPress.com, but I felt the need to post here...it is, after all, my original online home.

I'm posting because I want to note what Julie said this morning: I'm on fire. I have eight different gigs this week - I am part of what I just heard called "the Gig Economy" the other day, love that - and I wanted to note them, just get 'em all down.

My main gig, of course, is Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com, and I'm writing and editing daily for that (like, seven days a week). Beyond that, this week I just finished a promotional piece for the Mondavi Center, and will have a long-ago-written piece I did for SMUD's website finally come on line (I think).

More importantly, I'll be hosting Insight on 90.9 FM today at 2 p.m. Still just love that gig, it's the MOST fun.

Well, the MOST fun is playing music (I think), which I'll be doing twice this week: Wednesday night at Luna's with Jackson Griffith, doing the round-robin singer/songwriter thing that got me the Insight gig in the first place. Thanks for having me, Jackson. I'll be playing mostly my songs, which I've not done in some time. But since I'm thinking that I'm ready to record my second (once-a-decade) album, I need to get my chops back.

And on Saturday, even though it's not my show, I'm VERY jazzed to be a part of the "Songs about Presidents" show at Marilyn's on K, with a bunch of local songwriters, including Christian Kiefer and Matty Gerkin, who wrote many of the songs for the epic "Of Great and Mortal Men" CD that came out last fall. I'm singing Presidents Grant and Buchanan, and MCing the show. Richard Marsh and Kate Gaffney will also be playing. It's going to be as big as its subjects.

What else? KFBK tomorrow night before the show (ah, cross-promotion, I love it) doing my weekly thing that I've been pretty slack about. Also, Dan Weintraub of the Bee asked me to write a bit about SacramentoPress.com for this Sunday's "Conversation" in Forum.

And I am doing my regular reporting for Bloomberg Financial News in New York, though sadly - OH, SO SADLY - I am losing that gig at the end of the month, a victim (like many others, even at Bloomberg) of the sucking economy. But that gig kept me afloat and I am very grateful to have had it. And Bloomberg wants me to keep freelancing, I'm just losing my retainer. Whatever. ONWARD!

OK, that's it. For anyone still reading - WHY? - thank you very much. And come down to Luna's and Marilyn's, they're going to be good shows!

Just remembered another thing: I'm speaking to Steve Maviglio's class at Sac state tomorrow morning. This is ridiculous.