Need proof that the holiday season is in full swing?
Just swing by KeyArena on Saturday, where Trans-Siberian Orchestra will play a pair of shows, both sponsored by the Hallmark Channel.
The annual visit will find the group bringing its steroidal take on traditional Christmas music to the venue for shows at 4 and 8 p.m. Nov. 28.
Led by seasoned hard rock producer Paul O’Neill and featuring an orchestra as support, the holiday act got its start in 1996 with the album “Christmas Eve and Other Stories.” Since then, it has released another half-dozen albums, taking its music on the road virtually every November and December.
Tickets are $34 to $72 at ticketmaster.com or 800-745-3000.
Granted, not all of the acts headed to Seattle in the coming days will be fun for the whole family.
The hard rock act Puscifier, led by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, is back on the road, set to play the Paramount Theatre at 8 p.m. Dec. 3.
The band is touring after releasing “Money Shot” in October. Like past discs, the album featured the group’s take on profane and grinding metal. The band’s music is less atmospheric and slightly more poppy than the work of Tool, but also more gleefully R-rated.
Tickets are $41.25 to $91.25 at stgpresents.org or 877-784-4849.
Rootsy blues guitarist Warren Haynes, meanwhile, will bring his band to the Moore Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2.
Haynes cut his teeth working with members of the Allman Brothers Band and writing music for Garth Brooks before releasing his own debut, “Tales of Ordinary Madness,” in 1993.
Since then, he’s won a loyal following for his gritty and tuneful take on guitar-fueled country and blues, a sound still featured on his latest album, this July’s “Ashes and Dust.”
Tickets are $30 to $40 at stgpresents.org or 877-784-4849.
Dweezil Zappa also will head to Seattle, honoring the work of his father, Frank Zappa, with a show at Neptune Theatre at 8 p.m. Dec. 1.
The concert will find Dweezil playing his father’s 1975 album, “One Size Fits All,” in its entirety. The show also marks the 10th anniversary of the so-called “Zappa Plays Zappa” shows, which for the past decade have found Dweezil keeping the spacey and iconoclastic rock of his father alive.
Tickets are $38.50 to $75 at stgpresents.org or 877-784-4849.
A pair of shows also will roll through the Showbox SoDo, with Refused playing the venue first at 8 p.m. Nov. 28.
The Swedish hardcore band made waves last century with a series of hard-edged albums, peaking in 1998 with “The Shape of Punk to Come.” The group then broke up, only to reform this decade, playing a series of shows together, and then, finally, releasing a new album this June, “Freedom.”
Tickets are $29.50 at showboxonline.com or 888-929-7849.
Then, at 9 p.m. Dec. 2, rapper Dom Kennedy will hit the SoDo.
The independent-minded Los Angeles emcee is touring now after the June release of “By Dom Kennedy,” his third studio album and second in a row to debut in the top 25 on the Billboard 200.
Tickets are $27.50 at showboxonline.com or 888-929-7849.
And finally, Caspar Babypants will play a mid-morning show at the Neptune Theatre, drawing families at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 28.
A children’s music act, Caspar Babypants is led by Chris Ballew, the Seattle alt-pop singer who hit it big in the 1990s with his act, the Presidents of the United States of America.
Tickets are $4.50 at stgpresents.org or 877-784-4849.
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