Summer Tour Guide

The Raconteurs
July 16th-September 30th
Tickets: $25-$38
Opener: Kelley Stoltz
"It's unfortunate that we didn't have the privilege to go out and play small bars for years with this band," says Raconteurs co-frontman Jack White. Instead, after a mere five club gigs in the spring, the White Stripes leader's new group -- whose other members include singer-songwriter Brendan Benson, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence -- are stepping up to a full-fledged theater tour. "I guess we'll have to turn up our amps," says Benson. The foursome's shows -- which rock way harder than its debut, Broken Boy Soldiers -- don't feel like the work of a new band. "The last thing I want to do is play songs like they are on the record," says White. "I think what we do best is improvise -- we've been studying each other's music for a long time, so we started developing that intuition." Live, the Raconteurs will play most of their album as well as some covers (previous choices include David Bowie and Love tunes). The band is writing new songs, too, but don't expect to hear many of those: Says White, "It would feel like throwing them away, because of the Internet."

Foo Fighters
July 10th-august 30th
Tickets: $33-$59
Openers: Timmy Curran, Frank Black
Normally, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl doesn't get his ears cleaned before a tour. "I keep the wax so I don't have to wear earplugs," he says. "But with the acoustic tour, I should be able to hear what's going on, rather than just screaming my balls off in a drunken rage." For the first-ever "Afoostic" tour, the band -- bolstered by guitarist Pat Smear (a former Foo), keyboardist Rami Jaffee (a Wallflower), violinist Petra Haden and percussionist Drew Hester -- rehearsed for nearly two months, mastering the cuts from the mellow half of 2005's In Your Honor as well as rearranging classic Foo rockers. "It's hard to get the vibe right," says Grohl. "For a band known for its sense of humor, it's tough making the transition from fart jokes to something beautiful, atmospheric and dark." Don't miss the Pixies' Frank Black, who'll be opening the second leg. "In 1991, Nirvana was on a festival tour in Europe, and Frank Black was doing acoustic sets all by himself in front of 30,000 people," says Grohl. "It was unreal. This is a dream come true."

Rock & Roll Roadshows

Ozzfest 2006
June 29th-august 13th
Tickets: $20-$135
Lineup: Ozzy Osbourne, System Of A Down, Disturbed and many more
Ozzy Osbourne will play just ten of Ozzfest's twenty-seven dates. The rest of the tour will feature System of a Down in the hallowed headlining slot. "There's a little more pressure on us now," says SOAD guitarist Daron Malakian. "Those are big shoes to fill." For Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows, who attended the festival as a fan in 2000, rocking Ozzfest is a dream come true. "It was such a far reach to ever think we'd play something like this," says Shadows, who plans to bring along his Harley, some workout equipment and lots of canned tuna. "Catering is really good, but it'll get you fat really fast."

Vans Warped Tour
Through August 13th
Tickets: $24-$35
Lineup: AFI, Joan Jett, Thursday, Buzzcocks and many more
"I can only imagine it's gonna be a punk-rock-circus sort of vibe," says Joan Jett, who will perform with her Blackhearts on the twelfth annual Warped Tour. "I'm really looking forward to it!" One Warped performer who's psyched that Jett will be around? AFI guitarist Jade Puget. "She's very cute still," he says, adding that his band can't wait to play cuts from its new disc, Decemberunderground. Also on Warped's eight stages: more than 100 bands, such as veteran punk rockers Buzzcocks and NOFX, teen-friendly screamo acts like Thursday and Underoath, and pop punkers Motion City Soundtrack.