E-Mail This Article to a Friend Swing state Pearl Jam warms up for "Vote for Change" with a show at the FleetCenter, plus Whoopi on tour and more

Blue-state rock

It sucks to be taken for granted, don’t it? For those of us living in a Democratic stronghold that happens to be home to the challenger, there seemed zero chance that Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., et al. would divert time from their busy swing-state schedule to rock for our votes. But if there’s a band who’re not afraid to preach to the converted, it’s Pearl Jam. And so to warm up for their "Vote for Change," Eddie and the Vedders have booked a one-off FleetCenter gig for September 28, with fellow regime-change advocates Death Cab for Cutie, directly preceding the October 1 kickoff in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Mike McCready even made nice kissy-kissy noises in a Clear Channel–distributed press release. ("Boston is one of our all-time favorite cities," yada yada.) Dude: it’s safe, you can break out the Bush mask again. Tickets, cheap at $35 and $45, go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.; call (617) 931-2000. Also, this just in: R.E.M.’s Web site says the band are hitting the FleetCenter on October 29 — just in time for the election, though it doesn’t appear to be part of their official "Vote for Change" slate, for which they’ll attack the Midwest with Springsteen, John Fogerty, and Bright Eyes. Stay tuned for on-sale info.

Whoops

It ain’t as if Slim Fast were paying the bills anymore, so Whoopi Goldberg’s hitting the road. Ditched by the thin-skinned diet-fad giant after her routine at a Kerry fundraiser drew the predictable cries of "foul" from the other side of the aisle (nobody has printed the offending remarks, but suffice to say she called a Bush a bush), Goldberg is headed for the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, on September 24 for what’s sure to be an evening of equal-opportunity stand-up. (It got lost in the hoopla, but she pissed off the Dems that same night by calling John Edwards a "boy.") Tickets are $35 to $75; call (800) 447-7400.

Dinosaur junior

Diplodocus, or Diplo for short, is best known as one half of the Philadelphia DJ duo Hollertronix, whose white-label mash-up/mix-tape opus Never Scared showed American hipsters how to cross-fade from punk to crunk faster than you can say Missy-meets-the-Clash. He’s followed up that disc with a string of stellar underground releases — his remix of RJD2’s last album became more highly sought after than the original, and a crate-digging trip to Brazil produced Favela on Blast. But he’s just now putting out a proper (read: legal) debut, Florida, on Ninja Tune. A mostly instrumental effort that draws on dancehall, psych-rock, electro-era disco rap, and the odd techno and IDM flourish, it’s a tour de force of progressive beatmaking prowess. In his first national tour, he’s hooking up with RJD2 for a string of dates that kicks off September 16 in Portland and hits the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, on September 17; call (617) 864-EAST.

Back in Balanchine

If you can’t make it out to catch the company at Jacob’s Pillow this weekend, fear not: there’s less than two months to go before Boston Ballet resumes operations at the Wang Theatre. The season will open with a repertory program, "Balanchine Martins Balanchine," in which the master’s Rubies and Divertimento No. 15 bookend a world premiere — still without a title, but set to Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’s 1996 violin concerto Tala Gaisma ("Distant Light") — by Mr. B’s New York City Ballet artistic-director successor, Peter Martins. The program runs October 21 through 24 at the Wang, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, and single tickets go on sale September 13; call (800) 447-7400.