That’s right: ska-punkers Less Than Jake will open for Bon Jovi.

The band joins the arena tour for its second show, at the National Car Rental Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on November 5.

LTJ’s Vinnie understands the band’s fans may be shocked over that pairing.

“That’s right…shocked. I a.m,” he said. But he adds that the outing with the ‘80s corporate-rockers won’t cut the band off from its core fans. “For those … who don’t see the coolness of ‘80s nostalgia in this, we’ll also be doing lots of punk shows in between the Bon Jovi dates.” Those dates have not yet been announced.

“But for those who like the R-O-C-K, this is gonna be the weirdest, craziest, and coolest thing we’ve ever done,” Vinnie said.

Until the Bon Jovi trek is ready to roll out, Less Than Jake will headline a club tour of Japan and then head to Europe for 20 dates with MxPx. They’ll wrap up that leg October 31 at the Astoria in London before heading back to the States for the Bon Jovi gigs.

LTJ will use the tour to back up their fifth major-label album, Borders and Boundaries, set to hit record stores October 24 on the Fat Wreck Chords label.

The Gainesville, Fla., band with the Pez fixation formed in 1992 and has toured almost non-stop over the years, and got plenty of exposure when they hooked up with theVans Warped Tour and Ska Against Racism outings in 1999.

LTJ has more than 30 singles, EPs and compilations on more than a dozen different labels, and released their first full-length disc, PezCore, in 1996 on a small ska label. The album sparked interest from the major labels, and Losing Streak was released by Capitol the same year. Their second major-label disk, Hello Rockview, was released in October 1998.