Best Bets/Hot Tickets

Best Bets/Hot Tickets
FRIDAY
* Building a musical festival around a single genre is futile to management of Nyabinghi, the nightclub at 1229 Salt Springs Road, Youngstown. Thus, "Futility Fest" was born. This is where people will discover all kinds of new bands for themselves. Music will begin at 7 p.m. with Mezzanine, and a new band will take the stage every hour through 1 a.m., when Grand Ulena will be headliner. Music continues at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. In all, 28 bands will perform throughout the weekend, including heavy rock band Totimoshi of Oakland, Calif. (at 5 p.m. Saturday).
* It's on-sale day for "A Musical Christmas Carol," the annual holiday production by Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera at Byham Theater. Tickets are $22 to $38, half-price for children ages 3 to 14. Call (412) 456-6666 or see the Web site www.pittsburghCLO.org.
* Buy tickets in the morning to spend Halloween night in Cleveland with Ratdog, led by former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, at 8 p.m. in Agora Theatre, 5000 Euclid Ave.; or at CMJ College Music Tour, featuring Hey Mercedes, Verbena, Damone, Squad Five-O and Marjorie Fair, 7:30 p.m. at Odeon Concert Club, 1295 Old River Road. Call Ticketmaster.
* Local connections are plentiful in Carnation City Players' production of "The Fantasticks," opening at Firehouse Theater, 450 E. Market St., Alliance. Director Al McKinnon of Warren also stars as Henry, and brother Dan McKinnon of West Farmington is the show's music director. Other actors are YSU student Josh Lewis of Leetonia as Matt and Paige Kasten of Canfield as Louisa. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 19. Call (330) 821-8712 to make reservations.
SATURDAY
* Rise and shine to buy tickets at 10 a.m. for Bette Midler's "Kiss My Brass" concert tour, which will stop Jan. 5 at Gund Arena, Cleveland. Prices range from $43 to $153. Ticketmaster is the source.
* Homemade foods will be available at the 28th Apple Butter Stir at Deerfield American Legion Grounds, 1357 state Route 14, Deerfield. Pancake breakfasts will be served beginning at 7 a.m., and an outdoor kitchen will open at 10:30 to sell bean soup, beef stew, bread, hot sausage and more. Go in the morning for an arts and crafts show and flea market, or in the afternoon for entertainment by Ernie Johnson Square Dancers, a community chorus, accordion players and more.
* Rock guitarist Zakk Wylde, formerly of Ozzy Osbourne's band and now with Black Label Society, will present his first guitar to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland at 1 p.m. He'll stick around to sign autographs of his band's new CD, "The Blessed Hellride," for those who buy it in the museum's FYE store. The rock hall will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
SUNDAY
* It's like the United Nations of Music. The third annual World Festival will be from noon to 4 on the main stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Performers will be Sounds of Brazil; Ritmo y Raza; Dance Afrika Dance; and others representing 12 countries in all.
NEXT WEEK
* "Urinetown: The Musical," the Broadway show on its first national tour, will be performed from Nov. 25 to 30 at Benedum Center, 719 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh. Tickets will go on sale Monday; call (412) 456-6666 or check out the Web site www.pgharts.org.
* Guitarist Duane Eddy -- the first to give rock music some twang -- will lead a master class at 7 p.m. next Thursday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Eddy, a 1994 Hall of Fame inductee, used the reverberating technique in 1957 to reflect the sounds of souped-up hot rods and the Wild West. Tickets are $10.
AHEAD
* Peace Action of Youngstown is sponsoring a concert by guitarist Preston Reed at 8 p.m. Oct. 28 at The Cellar, 162 S. Bridge St., Struthers. Tickets are available through The Cellar's Web site (www.thecellarrocks.com) or by calling Peace Action at (330) 747-5404.
* Cleveland-born singer Sonny Geraci will perform a medley of songs by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Buddy Holly and The Beatles at a dinner show Nov. 8 at The Embassy on Youngstown-Poland Road, Struthers. Geraci has a few of his own hits to sing, too. There's "Time Won't Let Me," from his days in the Top 40 band The Outsiders; the ballad "Precious & amp; Few"; and "Rock and Roll Heaven," which he recorded with the band Climax. The opening act will be Ronnie Navarra performing "Elvis My Way." Tickets are $39.95. Call Ciao Promotions at (330) 757-2779.
* "Blast!" the Broadway show that was inspired by drum and bugle corps, marches into Cleveland for performances from Dec. 2 to 7 in Palace Theatre, Playhouse Square. Get tickets through Tickets.com.
* Advance tickets are $15 for a Thanksgiving Eve bash featuring music by The Fabulous Flashbacks at 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex, off Belmont Avenue, Liberty. Wait to buy tickets at the door that night, and you'll pay $20. Call the MetroPlex at (330) 759-0606 or B & amp;B Backstage box office at (330) 758-1557.