This just in: Doc Watson's show at Raleigh's NC Museum of Art has been postponed to 3 p.m. Sunday, on account of an increasingly ominous weather forecast for Saturday night. Looks like it will be raining heavily Saturday, so organizers have bumped the show to the next day.

I got a few blocks down the street from my house Saturday night before realizing I'd forgotten my earplugs. And I almost didn't go back to get them. I was going to see They Might Be Giants at the NC Museum of Art, so how loud could it be?

Plenty, as it turned out, and I was very glad I turned around to go get those earplugs. The days when the duo of John Linnell and John Flansburgh would play at toy-instrument volumes are long gone. Between the full-band lineup they've sported for more than a decade and the fact that they have a children's-music alter ego to indulge their cutesy side (they also played a soldout kids show Saturday afternoon), TMBG's grownup side is pretty loud and proud.

"This is kind of a rock dream for us," Flansburgh said between songs at one point. While I'm sure he meant that ironically, it fit nevertheless. Even "Birdhouse in Your Soul," the second song in the set, packed a snarl that almost took me aback. But it was still effective, and quirkiness did ultimately rule the evening. They offered up "The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma" as a scientifically correct answer to "The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas"; rocked up "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" even more than "Birdhouse"; and paid tribute to the art-museum venue with "Meet James Ensor," about the Belgian painter -- complete with confetti-cannon salute. 'Twas cool.

They Might Be Giants are playing in Raleigh on Saturday, in both their kids-music and adult-music guises. For lots more spiel (past as well as present), about their split personalities, budding sports empire and general all-around quirkiness, click on through.

Tonight brings a downright spectacular pairing to Raleigh's NC Museum of Art, two wonderful acts guaranteed to get your mojo workin'. I've done interviews with both in the not-too-distant past; so you can read up on Bettye LaVette and Marcia Ball.

We've got more to report from the NC Museum of Art summer concert series, after yesterday's Bettye LaVette news. Confirmed for July 18 is Dan Zanes, originally a member of the Del Fuegos but lately a highly acclaimed star in the world of children's music. Ticket details to come. 

New to the NC Museum of Art concert schedule, according to Pollstar listings: sassy soul goddess Bettye LaVette on July 10, in a killer pairing with bayou country pianist Marcia Ball. Should be a great one.

The rest of the NCMA's concert schedule so far consists of Pink Martini on June 6; Hubert Sumlin with Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin on Aug. 8; and Doc Watson on Sept. 26.

The weather outside might be frightful, but next summer's shows are already popping up for the Triangle's big warm-weather venues. Raleigh's Time-Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek has its first show of 2009 on the calendar, country icon George Strait on May 16, according to his online tour schedule. No surprise that it's a country show, since Walnut Creek has been more of a country venue than a rock one for years now.

Over at the NC Museum of Art, meanwhile, two concerts are already on the schedule, according to Pollstar listings -- Pink Martini on June 6, and the venerable Doc Watson on Sept. 26.

Click through for a bunch more verbiage on John Hiatt than the blurb that's in Friday's paper.