Just a Few More Minutes

Music recommendations aplenty: Blue Man Group's The Complex is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. It's accessible, but its sound is completely unique and the theme of alienation (and overcoming it) adds terrific texture to an album that, as the British say, "takes the piss" out of rock music cliches (while ultimately embracing them, of course).

Concertwise, Great Big Sea's in Raleigh on my birthday, September 24. They fill 20,000-seat arenas in Canada and are almost criminally anonymous in the Southeast. They sold out the Lincoln Theatre in March, here's hoping they do it again. The next week, Seven Nations and The Young Dubliners are hitting Cat's Cradle on October 2. 7N hasn't been here since February, and I suspect they and the Dubs will blow the roof off the place. Finally, October 11 brings the Tannahill Weavers to the Carrboro Artscenter -- best upbeat traditional Scottish music anywhere.