*The Newtown Coffee House returns this weekend, and this time around will be hosting a performance by the Connecticut band THE BROKE & HUNGRY BLUES BAND. The coffee house is a monthly event presented on the second Saturday of the month at Newtown Congregational Church House, 41-A Main Street (park behind Edmond Town Hall or the recently-expanded Newtown Savings Bank).

Doors open Saturday night at 7:30 pm and the evening will get started with one hour of open mic. The music should begin around 8:30 pm. Admission is $5 per person (free for age 12 and under), which includes the live entertainment and your fill of coffee/soft drinks and home-baked goodies.

*Speaking of the live music scene in Newtown, this weekend at Starbucks will be the return of TOM DOYLE, MOIRA KELLY, MARGIE MANNION and BILL DEVLIN, who will be back with the Irish music presentation that has really taken off down there. Last month, according to Tom, the joint was pretty much standing-room-only. Performances are generally 7 to 9 pm, and there is no admission charge. The refreshments are up to you.

*SANTANA is the latest performer announced for the 2000 summer season at The Meadows Music Theatre. The biggest Grammy-winning artist this year will be in Hartford on Sunday, August 6. Showtime is 7:30 pm. Tickets for this concert are going on sale Saturday, March 11, at 10 am, through tickets.com (formerly ProTix); telephone for tickets.com is 860/422-0000.

If her handlers stop treating her with kid gloves, MACY GRAY will be opening the show. Miss Gray was recently scheduled for a show at The Webster, also in Hartford, but a last-minute announcement of exhaustion postponed that show indefinitely. Hopefully Gray will be up to performing in Connecticut after all this summer, and that she doesn’t tire herself out lugging around the two Brit Awards she picked up last week. The young singer was honored with a pair of Brits, the British equivalent of the American Grammy, taking home Best International Newcomer and Best International Female. Between Gray and Santana, the Hartford show should be an award-winner all around.

Finally this week while in the Meadows vein, word has leaked out that for the first time since the amphitheatre opened in July 1995, a JIMMY BUFFETT concert is apparently not in the cards for the King Parrothead’s fans this year in Connecticut. Apparently Buffett’s Margaritaville Tequila Tour will revert to performing a number of dates at The Tweeter Center (formerly Great Woods) in Mansfield, Mass., skipping Hartford altogether.

This year’s summer tour is named after the entertainer’s latest business venture, which was launched in January. Buffett’s of tequila is already on the market in Florida and California, and is expected to be available nationwide by spring.

*Tickets are already available for a couple of shows at the state’s casinos. REO SPEEDWAGON will be at Foxwoods’ Fox Theatre next weekend. Tickets for the March 19 show in Ledyard are $38.50 and $49.50 a pop; contact TicketMaster for those.

And STYX will be in Uncasville at Mohegan Sun’s theatre on April 8 to support its latest efforts, last year’s release, Brave New World, and Encore Collection, which was already released this year. Styx tickets are available through tickets.com or by contacting Mohegan’s box office directly, 888/332-5600.

Returning to Foxwoods for just a minute, the tickets for BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY, who will be in Ledyard on April 29, are going on sale Thursday, March 19. Those are $27.50 and $38.50 each, from TicketMaster or the Foxwoods box office, 800/200-2882.

*PETER STUART, from Dog’s Eye View, will be opening next week’s PAULA COLE show at Toad’s Place. Cole returns to the New Haven club on March 16, and tickets are still available.

*Big-time promoter JIM KOPLIK announced last week that the box office at Hartford Civic Center will no longer be open for first-day sales when new concerts go on sale. This is obviously something Koplik has been thinking about for some time, and it was the blatant and obnoxious scalping that went on a few weeks ago when the Hartford dates for BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN went on sale that was the last proverbial straw. The new ticket policy was put into effect last week, when RICKY MARTIN tickets went on sale March 3. The tickets sold out on Friday, but had any been remaining, the box office would have been offering them beginning Saturday morning.

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

Questions and comments should be sent to Shannon Hicks, c/o Bee Publishing Co., 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown 06470, or shannon@thebee.com. Include a phone number for confirmation, please. If you don’t have a stamp or a piece of paper or a writing utensil that works, give me a call! The phone number at the office is 426-3141. Shows listed on the calendar at club locations are for ages 21 and over unless specified.

 

UPCOMING CONCERTS

MARCH 10 — The Wallbangers at Tuxedo Junction, Danbury; Blues Night Out at Luigi’s Nitelife Café, Danbury; Murphy’s Law at Toad’s Place (all ages), New Haven;

March 11 — The Broke & Hungry Blues Band at Newtown Coffee House, Newtown; Tom Doyle, Moira Kelly, Margie Mannion & Bill Devlin at Starbucks, Newtown; Big Orange Cone at Tuxedo Junction; Crossroads at Luigi’s Nitelife Café; Type O Negative and Coal Chamber at The Webster Theatre (all ages), Full Devil Jacket and Deadlights opening;

March 12 — Tipperary Knights at Toad’s Place (***early/afternoon show, traditional post-New Haven St Patrick’s Day Parade Show); Dave Mason at The Webster Theatre;

March 13 — Run-DMC at Toad’s Place (21 & over, free admission);

March 14 — Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Toad’s Place (all ages); Suicide Machines at The Webster Theatre (all ages), The Pilfers and Snuff opening;

March 16 — Paula Cole at Toad’s Place (all ages), Peter Stuart opening; Positive Cause at Luigi’s Nitelife Café;

March 17 — The Zoo at Tuxedo Junction; Loose Groove and Adva at Laszlo’s Arts Café; Kittie at Toad’s Place (all ages); Omine at Luigi’s Nitelife Café; Incubus at The Webster Theatre (all ages), Ultraspank opening;

March 18 — Vincent Malacarne at Starbucks (Newtown); Darik & The Funbags at Tuxedo Junction; Blue in the Face at Luigi’s Nitelife Café; The Clancy Tradition at Towne Crier Café, Pawling, NY;

March 19 — BR5-49 at Toad’s Place, The Souvenirs and The Honeydews opening;

March 20 — Buckwheat Zydeco at Towne Crier Café, Pawling, N.Y.

March 23 — The Clancy Brothers at Toad’s Place, The Reilley Clan opening; Phil Forbes & Sparkle Band at Luigi’s Nitelife Café;

March 24 — Mighty Purple at Toad’s Place (all ages, CD release party); The Nerds at Tuxedo Junction; Mojomatics at Luigi’s Nitelife Café; Fat at The Webster Theatre (all ages);

March 25 — Moppin’ Sauce at Fat Daddy’s, Watertown; Amnesty Underground and Outspoken at Laszlo’s Arts Café; Peat Moss & The Fertilizers at Tuxedo Junction; Nasty Habit at Luigi’s Nitelife Café;

March 26 — The Jibe at Luigi’s Nitelife Café; Roomful of Blues at Towne Crier Café;

March 30 — Anthem at Luigi’s Nitelife Café;

March 31 — The Benjamins at Tuxedo Junction; Slackjaw at Laszlo’s Arts Café, with two openers TBA; Shakedown at Toad’s Place (all ages); Spontaneous Combustion at Luigi’s Nitelife Cafe.

APRIL 1 — Toybox at Tuxedo Junction, Danbury; Aztek Trip at The Webster Theatre, Hartford (all ages), Grey Cell Green opening;

April 2 — Pork Tornado at Toad’s Place, New Haven (featuring John Fishman of Phish; all ages show);

April 4 — Shannon Curfman at Toad’s Place (all ages);

April 6 — Tower of Power and Average White Band at Toad’s Place, New Haven; Phil Lesh & Friends at the Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford;

April 8 — Dave DeAngelis & Friends at Newtown Coffee House, Newtown;

April 12 — Creed at New Haven Coliseum, Sevendust and UPO opening; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at Hartford Civic Center;

April 14 — The Radiators at Toad’s Place;

April 16 — moe at Toad’s Place (all ages);

April 27 — Dick Dale at Toad’s Place;

April 28 —Popa Chubby at Towne Crier Café, Pawling, NY.