Sometimes you want to be part of a frenzied mob going nuts; but sometimes you'd rather be in a crowded room where everybody just shuts up and listens. I've been fortunate enough to have both experiences in recent nights -- the former at Saturday night's Avett Brothers show, and the latter with She & Him Monday night.

That wasn't anything I expected. Cat's Cradle was jam-packed to the point that it was almost impossible to find a vantage point that was both good and comfortable, and the chattery crowd paid scant attention to opening-act Freakwater. But once the headliners got going, everybody quieted down at all the right times. I was holding my breath wating for some yahoo to holler and screw up "You Really Got a Hold on Me," on which Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's voices descended to a quiet murmur. But lo and behold, everybody maintained absolute silence until the end.

Nice going, gang.

ADDENDUM (3/9/10): Video for "In the Sun."

Just in, another good R&B show coming our way: Queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige will play yon shed in Raleigh on Sept. 21. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the usual spots.

Got a large load of Lego blocks and waaaaaaaay too much time on your hands? Why not use your surplus Legos to recreate various and sundry iconic album covers?

Then you can get back to extending your album covers. 

(From Idolator). 

Various benefit-type things are in the works for our man Cy Rawls, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. And here's a way you can participate and represent, the Cy Rawls T-shirt -- a steal at just 20 inflation-decimated U.S. dollars. Join the Cy Rawls posse, and grab one while the grabbing's good.

In the warm afterglow of Saturday night's Avett Brothers concert in Cary, I posted a review that likened the scene to a long-ago Bruce Springsteen show -- which might have been just a tad hyperbolic on my part. But Springsteen himself might not disagree, because it turns out he's an Avett Brothers fan, too. Below is from a followup e-mail exchange with Avetts manager Dolph Ramseur, posted with his permission. If nothing else, this is a very positive harbinger for the future, because a Boss endorsement can definitely pay career dividends.

Seth Avett wrote the liner notes for Nicole Atkins' release, which is out on Columbia. Nicole is from New Jersey and knows Bruce Springsteen. She was over at his house last year and he mentioned that he loved the liner notes to her record. She said that Seth Avett wrote them, and he asked, "Is that one of the Avett Brothers?" He had heard some songs from "Emotionalism" on satellite radio and went to an indie record store and purchased a copy. He told her he really liked "Emotionalism."

Seeing the Avett Brothers around here right now feels like what it must have been like to see Bruce Springsteen on the Jersey Shore in the early '70s, pre-breakthrough. Which is actually more of a comment on the audience than the band. Saturday night, the Avetts rode the momentum from lots of cool recent developments into Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre, drawing a sold-out-to-the-gills crowd that was primed to explode.

That's just what happened at the moment the band came onstage -- a massive roar that sounded like multiples more people than the 7,000 in attendance. It was one of the most electric scenes I've witnessed all year.

Alas, the first few songs were kind of adventures-in-tuning trainwrecky, with some puzzling gear malfunctions. But by the third song, a rocked-up "Die Die Die," the band hit its stride and everything (including the audience sing-alongs that are a part of every Avetts show) picked right up. Between the perfect weather and the delirious crowd and a band seizing its moment, it really felt like the planets lining up.

Friday morning , N&O reporter Mandy Locke was at the Wake County Courthouse with the grim task of covering the ongoing Cooper murder-case saga. She called to say that out-of-state TV crews were also there, but to cover a different case -- a hearing for Latino singer Jenni Rivera, charged with assault for allegedy hitting a man in the head with a microphone in Raleigh last month.

I must confess I'd never even heard of Rivera. But in certain parallel pop-culture universes, "La Diva de la Banda" is as big as big gets -- big enough for a mundane court hearing to attract national media attention, even though Rivera herself was not in attendance.

"Oh yeah, she's huge," said Univision reporter Carina Garcia, who had flown in from New York to cover the hearing. While we talked on the sidewalk outside the courthouse, more than one passer-by asked if Garcia and her cameraman were there for the Cooper case. "No, here for Jenni Rivera," she answered, drawing mystified looks that said, Who?

The case itself is Raleigh's oddest celebrity dust-up since last year's Uncle Kracker unpleasantness. You can read more particulars about the Rivera case here (written by me, although I didn't get a byline). At Friday's hearing, the case was continued to Sept. 19. Down the road, there will probably be civil action over this. The alleged victim has already hired an attorney.

When we first announced our Jonas Brothers contest, asking readers to write in why they should review the wildly popular tween trio's upcoming Raleigh concert for the paper, I thought reader response would be modest. Our prize was but a single pair of tickets and the solicitation didn't get prominent play. Entries were due just four days later, so I figured on 40 or 50 entries from the immediate vicinity.

Instead, 10 times that many people entered. More than 400 entries came in before deadline (plus a bunch more afterward), from all over America and beyond. Not just Canada, but Darfur, Australia, Malayisia. Some of the entries were funny, some were moving, some deeply disturbing and at least one had me wondering if I ought to alert Child Protective Services. The overwhelming majority had a tone just short of hysterical. Whatever you think of their music -- and I'd hardly call myself a fan -- the Jonas Brothers' fan fervor is impressive.

In any event, we have our winner: 16-year-old Katia Martinez of Cary. You can read her winning submission, plus the runners-up and honorable-mentions in Friday's What's Up section. The winner's review of Wednesday night's concert will run in the paper on Sunday, Aug. 3.

And before anyone else asks, no, we don't have any more tickets (or backstage passes) to give away.

Yes, it's a cryptic name. But even if you've not heard the duo's record, you've probably seen her on a movie or television screen. Click through for more on her, as well as him.

Or check the interview in Friday's paper.

This weekend, feed your inner geek and throw some coin Cy Rawls' way by checking out the latest A/V Geeks program, "S is for Sissy" (featuring "Soapy the Germ Fighter," "Fears of Children" and other disturbing period pieces). It's 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh; suggestion donation is $5, and because proceeds go to Rawls (a onetime member of the A/V Geek posse) nobody is gonna squawk if you want to kick in more than that.