California | musician | Shania Twain | Seattle | Fresno

The summer concert season is only a sound check away. Here's a guide to the best shows of 2004.
Hanging at the beach. Backyard barbecues. A two-week, cross-country, kids-dog-Xanax drive to Grandma's. That's summer, right? Not if you're a musician. When the real world turns to leisure, musicians finally get a taste of what it's like to have a job - sort of. With CD sales in an interminable slouch, the traditional summer concert season has assumed importance as a major revenue stream for artists. While this hasn't yet led to a decrease in ticket prices - those reports you heard about $250 Simon & Garfunkel ducats last year were for real - it does mean a few thousand busloads of live music will be coming to stages near you throughout the summer of 2004. Here's the cream of the crop. (Key dates suggest approximate weeks and tours are often extended.)

SHANIA TWAIN
CURRENT TOURING WINDOW: June 17-July 10

KEY CITIES: Seattle, Washington (June 18); Fresno, California (June 22); Orlando, Florida (July 6)

CHECK: www.shania-twain.com
Only one in five guys in a Chevy truck has the guts to sing "Man, I Feel Like a Woman." But not one of the five would surf past "Forever and For Always," maybe the hottest video of 2003. Fans have another few weeks to see the still-reigning sexpot of twang in the skin.

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NO DOUBT/BLINK 182

CURRENT TOURING WINDOW: June 16-26 (likely to be extended)

KEY CITIES: San Francisco, California (June 19); Phoenix, Arizona (June 23); Chula Vista, California (June 24)

CHECK: www.nodoubt.com