Recently, glitch-noise auteur Kid 606 reimagined Kathleen Hanna as a circa '93 riot grrrl disco queen with a bootleg remix of Bikini Kill's classic anthem "Rebel Girl." And though she wasn't quite that far ahead of the curve, Hanna foreshadowed the current synth/electropunk revival by a couple years when she taught herself to program drum machines and samplers for her post-Bikini Kill solo album as Julie Ruin. With her trio Le Tigre, she's embarked on a course of new-wavy bubblegum agitprop that's several steps ahead of the current electroclash moment. The group just released a remix disc, and they hit Easthampton Town Hall (413-527-9800) tonight (August 29) and the Roxy (617-931-2000) in Boston on Friday.

The Rolling Stones kick off their Licks World Tour with gigs on Tuesday at the FleetCenter in Boston, next Thursday, September 5, at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro (pay no attention to your ticket stub, which will tell you the concert's at CMGI Field) and next Sunday, September 8, at the Orpheum back in Boston. All three gigs have been sold out for months (a few seats may be released at the last minute to foil scalpers; call 617-931-2000 for all three venues). But the upshot is that for the first time in recent memory, there's a Stones show in Boston you can get tickets for at your leisure, since the band are returning to the FleetCenter on January 12 of next year.

Still no word on who's replacing Dave Grohl, but Queens of the Stone Age roll into town on Sunday at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston and Tuesday at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence, with . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Burning Brides opening.

The usual proliferation of Labor Day festivals is in evidence. At Ninigret Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island, the annual Rhythm & Roots Fest (888-855-6940) collects a host of Cajun and zydeco stars Friday through Sunday, including Balfa Toujours, Delbert McClinton, Candye Kane & the Swingin' Armadillos, the Derailers, Steve Riley, the Radiators, the (formerly Sub-) Dudes, and 21-year-old wunderkind André Thierry. And jam-band faves Strangefolk stage their seventh annual Garden of Eden Festival at Haystack Mountain (802-86-FLYNN) in Wilmington, Vermont, with performances by Particle, Raq, Addison Groove Project, and more.

Is Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" this war's "Okie from Muskogee"? The song, you may recall, was deemed too impolite for ABC's televised July 4 celebration. However you may feel about the indelicacy of the lyric ("You'll be sorry you messed with the US of A/'Cause we'll put a boot in yer ass, it's the American way"), you have to admit that Toby has succinctly codified the Bush administration's foreign-policy strategy, as well as its limitations. After all, if you're gonna put yer foot up someone's ass, you're gonna get a little shit on yer shoes. Besides, what are #1 Nashville-processed country superstars for if not a little jingoism during wartime? Keith's at Champlain Valley Expo (802-878-5545) in Essex Junction, Vermont, on Saturday, and at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Sunday.