Five class acts, all on Monday

There are nights in the Inland Northwest where there isn’t much going on. Then there are nights like Monday.

Five top-notch touring bands at three Spokane-area venues. Two of the bands are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The other three are multiple Grammy winners. The musical styles include jazz and classical, rock, punk and new wave. Something, literally, for everyone. On a Monday even!

So for this “manic Monday,” we round up these five world-class acts.

Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers

(Bing Crosby Theater, call TicketsWest for tickets)

This three-time Grammy winner plays pop, rock, jazz, bluegrass and classical. He’s scored two platinum albums, and a top five jazz album (2007’s “Camp Meeting”).

When not playing with his bands the Range and now Noisemakers, Hornsby sat in on more than 100 shows with the Grateful Dead, and was part of the Dead retirement concert earlier this month in Chicago. He has collaborated with Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russel, Ricky Skaggs, Wayne Shorter, Bela Fleck and the late Charlie Haden. His 2004 album “Halcyon Days” featured guest shots from Sting, Elton John and Eric Clapton.

His first single, “The Way It Is,” hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. He scored three other No. 1 songs, “Across the River” (1990, Mainstream Rock), “The Valley Road (1988, Mainstream Rock and Adult Contemporary), and Mandolin Rain (1987, Adult Contemporary).

Blondie

(Northern Quest, with Melissa Etheridge and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Call the casino for tickets.)

The pioneering punk/new wave band is a 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee whose third album, “Parallel Lines,” sold more than 20 million copies. The single “Call Me,” from the film “American Gigolo,” topped the U.S. singles chart for six weeks in 1980. The album “Autoamerican,” sent two singles to the top of the charts, “The Tide is High” and “Rapture,” which was the first song featuring rap to hit No. 1.

They have two Grammy nominations and in 2014 the group won the NME Godlike Genius Award from the British music magazine New Music Express.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

(Northern Quest. Call the casino for tickets.)

Joan Jett first reached a level of fame with the Runaways, the L.A. all-girl punk band behind the hit “Cherry Bomb.” But it’s with her next band, the Blackhearts, that she found her biggest success. The band hit No. 1 in 1982 with “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” (an anthem to this day), and scored hits with “Crimson and Clover,” “Bad Reputation” and “Do You Want to Touch Me.”

She’s dabbled in acting, most notably costarring with Michael J. Fox in “Light of Day,” and in episodes of TV shows ranging from “Ellen” to “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

The Blackhearts played on Broadway, and Jett collaborated with Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg on a cover of the Cole Porter song “Let’s Do It” for the “Tank Girl” soundtrack. She’s toured with Green Day, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, the Who, and jammed with Krist Novoseleic and Dave Grohl for Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

She’s been revered as a feminist icon, and Jett and the Blackhearts got their own rock hall of fame induction earlier this year.

Melissa Etheridge

(Northern Quest. Call the casino for tickets.)

This singer-songwriter- guitarist has two Grammy Awards (from 15 nominations) and an Oscar. She’s been honored by Canada’s Juno Awards, ASCAP, GLAAD, and she has a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

Her biggest hits songs include “I’m the Only One,” “Come to my Window,” “Your Little Secret,” “I Want to Come Over.”

“This is M.E.,” he 2014 release, hit No. 21 on the Billboard 200, and 2012’s “4th Street Feeling” went to No. 18 on the same chart. Her album “Yes I Am” peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, but stayed on the chart for 2 ½ years and sold more than 6 million copies. Her commercial breakthrough, it was released eight months after she came out. (See interview on page C3.)

Harry Connick Jr.

(INB Performing Arts Center. Call TicketsWest for tickets.)

This son of New Orleans burst onto the national scene with his work on the soundtrack to “When Harry Met Sally,” but he was already well known in jazz circles for his frequent gigs in the Crescent City’s legendary clubs.

He has two Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards, and is a judge on Fox’s “American Idol.” An occasional actor, he had a recurring role on the TV sitcom “Will & Grace,” did four episodes of “Law & Order: SVU,” and even an episode of “Cheers.” He’s got 22 film credits to his name, from his debut, 1990’s “Memphis Belle,” to last year’s “Dolphin Tale 2,” with stops in between “Hope Floats” and “The Iron Giant.”

A child prodigy, Connick put out his first record, “Dixieland,” at age 10, when he was studying piano with New Orleans jazz legends James Booker and Ellis Marsalis. He founded a Mardi Gras krewe, the Krewe of Orpheus, and helped spearhead recovery efforts for his hometown in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.