For those of you with a car this weekend, alternative indie band R.E.M. is coming to Boston for one night on their barn-burning tour of the U.S., showing off their newest album, "Bad Day." R.E.M., the trio composed of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills, set out on the road to fame in a van headed across the country, playing in support of a radio-free Europe. Over the last two decades they have assumed a place atop the pantheon of rock and pop music with an array of popular hits and, more importantly, a reputation for musical integrity and unique vision. (Sat., The Tweeter Center, Mansfield. Tickets $28 and up. Visit www.ticketmaster.com for more information.)

Big Rock Show! is a concert that showcases three off-the-wall bands of unique talents: Spanish for Hitchhiking, The Wobblies and The Weisstronauts. Spanish for Hitchhiking offers dark lyrics set to pop chords and upbeat musicianship, sounding similar to Weezer from a decade ago. The Wobblies are lounge surf punk-attire and sound alike. The Weisstronauts, on the other hand, are more of a metal band, with heavier, experimental pop riffs that will be familiar to White Stripes fans. All three bands have one thing in common: a tendency toward self-jesting humor (inherent in the show's very title). This show will please anybody struggling to rebuild a taste in music that ran dry when the rains of Seattle ceased to fall upon a barren grunge scene. (Thurs., 9:30 p.m., Eagles Club, Northampton. Tickets $5, must be 21 to enter.)

Brian Webb, a rising singer/songwriter from Boston, ventures down into the Pioneer Valley this week for a performance at Mount Holyoke College. Webb's press release riffs about his various musical influences: "Imagine if Jackson Brown (looks and talent all-inclusive) had been born in the mid-seventies, raised with his father's radio tuned to Lionel Ritchie, Billy Joel and Genesis, and then gone through fervid Sarah McLachlan and Ani DiFranco phases … add a dose of southern charm (with just a trace of an accent) and you have a framework for Brian Webb." If you're wondering what exactly this entails, they expound "Catchy pop hooks? Mournful love (lost) songs? Soulful gospel rock? Stirring vocals? Sense of humor? He's got 'em, and a compelling stage presence to boot." (Thurs., Blanchard Campus Center, Mount Holyoke College. Tickets $5, (413) 538-2045.)

I love Sharon Stone. Not because she's a great actress, nor because she makes great movies. Lord knows she hasn't had a decent outing since 1995's "Casino," and even that was one of the weaker works in the Scorsese oeuvre. And judging from derisive critical consensus, "Cold Creek Manor" is another rotten apple in the noxious barrel. But few celebrities give ballsier interviews, and certainly no one in recent memory has flashed their beaver with as much zeal as she did in "Basic Instinct," Paul Verhoeven's trashy 1992 thriller. Stone plays a woman who may or may not have murdered her lover, and who handily seduces the case's detective (a slimy Michael Douglas) with one smooth uncrossing of her legs. Is it PC? You make the call. Female empowerment at its most dubious, baby.