The 40th annual Bumbershoot festival will bring the usual army of chart-topping performers, cult bands, comedians, street performers, writers, poster artists and more to Seattle Center from Saturday though Labor Day.

Dylan, Drake, Hole, Neko Case and Mary J. Blige are among the big shots that’ll be causing a stir on the main stage at Memorial Stadium this year. You can find a full schedule here.

But new this year is tiered ticket pricing. Festival promoter One Reel has given local music fans the option of paying full price – $40 in advance per day, $50 at the gate – for all the sights and sounds they can cram into their festival experience. Or they can buy economy tickets, which grant access to everything but the main stage for $22 per day in advance, $30 day of.

And really, it’s a no-brainer; save your ducats, people!
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Many local fans caught Built to Spill opening for Kings of Leon earlier this summer at the Gorge Amphitheatre. And soon Idaho’s alt-rock heroes will be back with a headlining tour of their own, which will wind down Nov. 19 and 20 at Seattle’s Showbox at the Market, label Warner Brothers announced.

Boise’s Le Fleur will open. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of each show. You can find more details here.

The tour – in support of last year’s “There Is No Enemy” album – …

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Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is on a book tour that will drop by Timberland Library, 313 Eighth Ave., SE in Olympia, on Sept. 3. He’ll be there with collaborators Zachary Lipez and Stacy Wakefield to promote their book “Please Take Me off the Guest List.”

In Oly, Zinner will play music while Lipez – author, bartender and self-described skirt chaser – reads selections he wrote for the book and alongside projections of Zinner’s photographs from on the road with Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Wakefield edited and designed the book and will …

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There are relatively few places in the Northwest for getting your vintage pinball and old-school arcade fix on. Seattle has Shorty’s, Portland has Ground Kontrol (see video at bottom of this post) and soon Tacoma will have Dorky’s Barcade.

Dorky’s owners Les Bond and Caroline Dennewith are awaiting liquor license approval and putting the finishing touches on their forthcoming arcade, bar and grill (specialty, grilled cheese) which will soon open at 754 Pacific Ave., formerly home to Brick City Project.
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Northwest power-pop faves, the Posies, will wrap their forthcoming fall tour on Dec. 11 at Seattle’s Showbox on the Market. The band just announced dates for a co-headlined tour with Brendan Benson that will kick off on Nov. 5 in Milwaukee. Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow will pull double duty by performing during Benson’s sets. And Seattle pop pranksters, Aqueduct, will also add support.

The Posies are going out in support the Posies forthcoming new album “Blood/Candy.” You can listen to its lead track “Licenses to Hide” here. …

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Today, organizers announced the addition of singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, to the inaugural City Arts Fest, which will take place from Oct. 20 to 23 at Benaroya Hall, the Showboxes, Neumo’s and other Seattle venues.

The lineup is already packed with hipster favorites, the likes of Outkast’s Big Boi, She & Him, Gogol Bordello and Blue Scholars (full list here.) Tickets for individual shows go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and you can find info about buying a $60 wristband – which guarantees no addition cover charges – on this page. …

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Tacoma.fm will begin broadcasting Victory Music’s weekly open mic from the Antique Sandwich Co., beginning at 7 p.m. on Sept. 7, the local music website announced Sunday. The webcast of the open mic – previously broadcast by Clover Park’s KVTI-FM – will be on Tacoma.fm from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays following the debut.

It was the year’s most anxiously awaited pop happening Saturday night when more than 20,000 “little monsters” converged on the Tacoma Dome to witness the spectacle of Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour.

“Little monsters” being the 24-year-old pop phenomenon’s pet name for her followers, many of which wholeheartedly embraced her message of tolerance and individuality with flamboyant, sometimes gender-bending fashion – face paint, vividly hued wigs, aluminum cans used as curlers, corsets and fishnet stockings (photo gallery here.)
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Lady Gaga wrapped up about an hour ago at the Tacoma Dome. Opening act Semi Precious Weapons is scheduled to go on right about now at the official after party at Jazzbones. And you never know who else might show up, right? Meanwhile, here’s Gaga’s set list, and you can check out a photo gallery posted by staffer Lui Kit Wong here.

Lady Gaga Monster Ball set list
Tacoma Dome
Aug. 21, 2010

Intro
Dance in the Dark
Glitter and Grease
Just Dance

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If you’re among the legions of Lady Gaga‘s Little Monsters going to see her at the Tacoma Dome tonight, you need to know about this parking alert.

Much of the Dome parking has been lost to construction of the LeMay car museum, so there will be only limited $20 cash parking in the Tacoma Dome lots.

The Dome website advises: “Arrive early!”

In addition to parking at the Dome, you can park downtown and take the Link light rail to the Dome. The

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