Drake performs June 11 at Comcast Theatre in Hartford.

Canadian singer and rapper Drake hits Hartford’s Comcast Theatre June 11, on the tail-end of his 27-city North American “Club Paradise” amphitheater tour. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 23, at 10 a.m. and while there’s no word yet on price, they’ll be available here.  J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and French Montana round out the bill.

Drake, who got his start as an actor on the Canadian teen soap “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (which has almost nothing in common with “Star Trek: The Next Generation”), last year released “Take Care” (review), the highly successful follow-up to his highly successful 2010 debut, “Thank Me Later.”

He’s steadily moved his way up to bigger Connecticut venues, starting with Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford in 2010 (review), and the XL Center in Hartford last December (review), neither of which was particularly memorable. Comcast Theatre will be his biggest play yet.

Members of Kiss and Motley Crue announced their summer tour at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on March 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

For those of you who want to paint your faces like kabuki demons and shout at the devil — and you know who you are — you’re in luck: Kiss and Mötley Crüe are co-headlining what they’re simply calling “The Tour,” which wraps up Sept. 23 at Comcast Theatre in Hartford. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 23, at 10 a.m. for $151 for a VIP Package; $90.50 and $50.50 for reserved seats; and $30 for the lawn (or four lawn tickets for $108), via www.livenation.com.

Face painting seems rather less likely when Crosby, Stills & Nash performs June 16 at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford; tickets go on sale March 30 at 10 a.m. for $76, $56 and $46 via www.livenation.com.

Cake plays May 9 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury; tickets go on sale Saturday, March 24, at 11 a.m. for $50, $40 and $35 via www.palacetheaterct.org.

Ben Harper plays an acoustic show Oct. 7 at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton; tickets go on sale Friday, March 23, at 10 a.m. for $45 and $35. Tickets are available via www.nbotickets.com.

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Manchester singer Brian Jarvis returns March 20 with "Beautifully Broken," his first album in four years.

All those years Brian Jarvis has spent honing his craft on the local scene pay off on  “Beautifully Broken” (Soundwave), the Manchester singer and songwriter’s first LP in four years.

This is the album on which Jarvis steps out from the shadow of his influences with a sound all his own. He wrote the 11 songs on “Beautifully Broken” amid personal turmoil over the past few years: his father died of cancer, and he quit his job to pursue music full time.

Such a leap requires requires passion and commitment, and these songs show it, along with the ache of such a deeply felt loss. The result is the most personal music he’s written so far, on wistful pop tunes seeded with catchy melodic hooks fleshed out by his self-titled band.

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Blitzen Trapper performs Big Star's "Feel" with members of R.E.M., including Peter Buck, second from left. (Photo by Eric R. Danton)

AUSTIN, Texas — With some 2,000 acts performing just about every style of music imaginable, South by Southwest can be whatever kind of festival you want.

This year I wanted authenticity.

Authenticity in music a thorny concept, however, in that what’s real and what’s authentic are often two different things. No less an authority than Bruce Springsteen dismissed the idea altogether during his SXSW keynote speech on March 15.

“We live in a post-authentic world,” Springsteen said. “Today, authenticity is a house of mirrors. It’s all just what you’re bringing when the lights go down.”

That is authenticity, though. Springsteen has long-since transcended his blue-collar roots, as his detractors love pointing out every time that fatcat Jersey millionaire writes a song sympathetic to the working class. But they’re missing the point: Even if Springsteen no longer has much in common with the characters he sings about, there’s no doubting the emotional authenticity of his songs, nor the conviction with which he performs them.

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The Flaming Lips release a special album for Record Store Day.

Record Store Day is coming, and the Flaming Lips apparently want to win.

The Oklahoma band is releasing a Record Day Exclusive album featuring contributions from an eclectic array of guests, including Bon Iver, Erykah Badu, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Yoko Ono, Ke$ha and Biz Markie. Makes you wonder who else is in Wayne Coyne’s contacts.

The album, “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends,” will be pressed on two high-quality, multi-colored vinyl LPs sleeved in separate custom jackets and bagged together. The band is also releasing a split-7-inch record with heavy metal band Mastodon.

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They must be getting along: Crosby, Stills & Nash perform June 16 at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford. Tickets go on sale March 30 at 10 a.m. for $76, $56 and $46 via www.livenation.com.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash became one of the most iconic folk-leaning groups of the classic-rock era when they joined forces in 1968. The group (occasionally also featuring Neil Young, though not on this tour) has released eight studio albums over the years, including 1970′s “Déjà Vu,” the band’s biggest seller on the strength of tunes including “Teach Your Children,” “Our House,” “Helpless” and a version of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock.”

Musicians touring with Crosby, Stills & Nash: Todd Caldwell (organ), Shane Fontayne (guitar), Steve DiStanislao (drums), Kevin McCormick (bass), and James Raymond (keyboards).

The band will be donating $1 from each ticket sold on the U.S. tour to charity, though a press release didn’t specify which charity. In addition, special benefit seats will be available for purchase through the Guacamole Fund and, of course, VIP packages are available at www.crosbystillsnash.com.

It’s the trio’s first visit to Connecticut since opening for Tom Petty in Hartford in 2010.

Cake performs May 9 in Waterbury. (Photo by Tim Jackson)

Cake, one of the most idiosyncratic bands to garner mainstream attention in the ’90s, hits the road for a spring tour that stops May 9 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury. Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 24, at 11 a.m. for $50, $40 and $35, via www.palacetheaterct.org.

The band, formed in 1991 by singer-guitarist John McCrea, became known for songs like “The Distance” and “Never There,” deadpan tunes laced with bright, crunchy guitar, trumpet and vibraslap. The group has released six full-length studio albums, including last year’s “Showroom of Compassion,” which was as the lowest-selling album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

“Showroom of Compassion” was the first album the band had released independently of a label since its first album, 1992′s “Motorcade of Generosity.”

“We looked around us and saw the state the music business was in, so the more control we could have over the music, the better,” McCrea told me last year. “We originally released our first album on our own independent label, which was picked up by another independent label, which was bought by a bigger label, and then that bigger label was closed down by an even bigger label. We’ve seen the Monty Python corporate pirate thing happen in our lives.”

Wesleyan alumna Santigold performs Friday, March 16, at Spin magazine's Spinn@Stubbs party.

AUSTIN, Texas — After far too long an absence, electro-rock powerhouse Santigold is back in full force at this year’s South by Southwest festival.

The singer, a Wesleyan alumna, releases her first album in four years in May, and she mixed new songs with tunes from her 2008 debut during a performance Friday at Spin magazine’s annual Spin@Stubbs day party.

She was in vivid form.

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Former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer performs Friday, March 16, at SXSW.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Occupy movement came face-to-face with South by Southwest Friday night, brought together by guitarist and singer Tom Morello and countercultural rock ‘n’ roll icon Wayne Kramer of the MC5 in a showcase they dubbed “Occupy SXSW.”

Morello performed as the Nightwatchman, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist’s often-polemical protest outlet. He burned through a set of fierce, pointed songs before leading the crowd in the small (and sweltering) club Swan Dive into the street, where a group of a couple hundred Occupy protestors had gathered after a march from the state capitol building.

Once outside, he led the crowd in a singalong of “This Land is Your Land,” then performed another tune using the “human microphone” technique of having the crowd amplify him by repeating back his phrases.

A handful of police looked on, and while Morello at one point seemed concerned the cops were ready to shut him down, the officers were unperturbed.

“I like Rage,” one joked. “If he was playing some Rage, we’d let him go a little longer.”

It is Austin, after all.

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Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform Thursday, March 15, at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

AUSTIN, Texas — Talk about versatility: Bruce Springsteen can make a stadium show feel as intimate as a house concert, and he can make an intimate theater show feel as huge and epic as a stadium.

He did the latter Thursday night at South by Southwest, giving a Springsteen-length performance packed with special guests in the snug (for him) Moody Theatre, home of “Austin City Limits.”

And what guests. Springsteen was joined on stage variously by reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, Animals leader Eric Burdon, guitarist Tom Morello, Rhode Island band the Low Anthem, Texas favorites Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely, and members of the Arcade Fire.

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