Oliver Gant isn't even in kindergarten yet, but he sure does have friends in high places. Young Oliver has been battling sacrococcygeal teratoma for the past year, so the local music and arts communities have been pitching in with a series of benefit shows to help out his family. The latest is "Racing the Cure," featuring an upper-echelon slice of the regional music scene playing multiple venues in downtown Raleigh on March 23. This might be the only time you'll ever see the Avett Brothers in a club around here where they're not headlining.

Tickets are $25 and allow entrance to all three clubs. They go on sale at noon today (Wednesday) at etix.com.

Kings
8:15-8:45 -- Jack the Radio
9-9:40pm -- Schooner
10-10:40 -- Filthybird
11-11:40 -- The Old Ceremony
midnight-12:25am -- Avett Brothers
12:30am -- Ivan Rosebud & JYU

Tir Na Nog
8:15-8:45pm -- Hooking Up
9-9:45 -- Hammer No More the Fingers
10-10:45 -- Whatever Brains
11-11:45 -- Lonnie Walker
midnight -- Annuals

Pour House
8:15-8:45pm -- Gross Ghost
9-9:45 -- Spider Bags
10-10:45 -- Patty Hurst Shifter
11-11:45 -- Birds of Avalon
midnight -- The Love Language

Toward the end of Superchunk's Saturday evening Hopscotch set, Mac McCaughan stopped singing during "Digging For Something" and started talking. He said that Superchunk had never played Raleigh much over the years, but he'd come to a lot of shows here -- mostly at clubs that no longer exist, including the Brewery and Fallout Shelter. And as he looked out over the throngs in front of the City Plaza stage, McCaughan opined that it was mighty cool to have some punk rock happening outdoors in downtown Raleigh.

I'll say. From all appearances, Hopscotch's second edition could not have gone better. The weather was great, the vibes better (everyone seemed to be on their best behavior, on both sides of the stage) and the programming first-rate. South By Southwest is the gold standard for festivals like this, but I would say I saw more bands I really liked at Hopscotch than at South By Southwest this year.

Superchunk was a highlight, opening for Flaming Lips with an hour-long set that seamlessly integrated songs from the current album "Majesty Shredding" with older songs going back two decades. So were the Lips, with a psychedelic spectacle that turned City Plaza into the world's freakiest high-tech rumpus room. And earlier Saturday, I saw fine performances by Hammer No More the Fingers, Shirlette & the Dynamite Brothers and Youth Lagoon at a day party outside the Lincoln Theatre. I would have seen more, but I was beat after the Lips and called it an early night.

So after a highly successful year two, now comes the tricky part for Hopscotch's management: How do they manage growth in a way that makes the festival better, improving on (or at least keeping) the good things about the experience? Word of mouth about this year will be overwhelmingly positive, which means a lot more people descending on Raleigh for next year's event. That certainly has its upside, because growing the festival will allow Hopscotch to get better. But unchecked growth can also render a festival a gridlocked, unmanageable mess, something that South By Southwest seems perilously close to becoming.

We'll see. But for now, all that needs saying is: Well done.

I'm still catching up on stuff that happened while I was on vacation, and here's another pretty cool thing that turned up -- Ten North Carolina Bands You Should Hear Right Now, as compiled by the Brooklyn blog earfarm. The countdown includes Megafaun and Hammer No More the Fingers; and look who they've got at No. 1, a band that just happens to be playing Saturday at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh.

As you're probably aware, we've taken some hard hits in the News & Observer newsroom over the past year, with some of our best, brightest and most capable people leaving the paper. I've been sad to see them all go -- but especially photographer Jason Arthurs, who departed back in April. Jason has been a key player in making our Eight Great Local Acts feature an annual local-music highlight, with spectacular photos and multi-media footage. "Great Eight" has been a true labor of love for a lot of us, but especially Jason. And given how much of his own time he used to put into it, I honestly don't know how we're going to manage a 2010 edition without him.

One silver lining, however, is that Jason is still working his visual mojo in the local music scene. For example, he did the teaser video for "Hear Here: The Triangle" (Terpsikhore Records), an upcoming compilation of new tracks from 18 local acts, with plenty of past and present Great Eight acts including Lonnie Walker, Inflowential, Rosebuds and Hammer No More the Fingers.

Check out Jason's video handiwork here; and look for "Hear Here" to be released with a pair of release shows, Aug. 29 at Carrboro's Cat's Cradle and Oct. 3 at the Pour House in Raleigh.

Sadly, local super-fan Cy Rawls is no longer with us after passing away from a brain tumor in October. But bands are paying tribute to his memory (and, not coincidentally, raising money to cover medical costs he left behind) with CyTunes, which goes online Friday at midnight. For a quick Cy primer, check this lovely remembrance by his friend Kerry Cantwell (and some national coverage from Pitchfork).

Red Collar, Dirty Little Heaters, Birds of Avalon, Hammer No More the Fingers, Superchunk and I Was Totally Destroying It are among the contributing music to the cause. There's also a free show/launch party tonight at Chapel Hill's Local 506 with Magic Babies, the Rosebuds-Schooner-Sames supergroup Flute Flies and more.

You just never know when an unexpected work of strange performance art is going to break out at an indie-rock show. That's more or less what happened Friday night at Raleigh's Pour House, when a mysterious (and very inebriated) young woman I'll call Red highjacked a performance by the Provoclivities. As you can see from this picture, her red dress was conservative enough; but her, um, dance moves...not so much. Throughout the set, she slinked and gyrated suggestively in front of and occasionally even on the stage -- sometimes alone, sometimes with a partner. It was amusing, if also a little creepy, to watch different people's reactions to her approaches; nobody knew quite what to make of her.

Despite the distraction, the Proclivities played great, especially guitar god Chris Boerner (tone for tone, the best sound-effects guitarist I've heard in a while) and rock-steady drummer Matt McCaughan. But since he had the microphone, it fell to frontman Matt Douglas to deal with Ms. Red. Even though he let her take a bow onstage toward the end, he seemed bemused by her presence.

When I asked Douglas afterward if they had hired her to provide dancing accompaniment for the evening -- the Proclivities' latest album has a song called "Red-Faced Girl," after all -- he said they had never seen her berore. So I approached Red directly and asked who she was.

"I," she slurred dramatically, "am an enigma." Then she added something about living in Scotland and visiting a girlfriend here, before delivering a manifesto.

"I'm here to make women aware of their bodies -- and to make men want to grab them," she declared, then sashayed across the room.

Red was escorted to the Pour House's upstairs area away from the stage at the beginning of Hammer No More the Fingers' closing set. But she was back down front by the end, rubbing up against folks who mostly (but not universally) seemed rather unthrilled with her. As far as I know, however, the evening ended without incident.

(Photo courtesy of Rich McLaughlin.)

ADDENDUM (12/1/08): Scientific proof!