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

The last time I saw sometime Triangle resident Thad Cockrell play in Raleigh, he prefaced one song by saying it had been written as "a song every girl wishes someone would write about her." That was "Beauty Has a Name," which I still think could be a gigantic hit if it wound up playing over the end credits of the right movie. If you've never heard it, take a listen at Cockrell's Myspace.

Cockrell co-write "Beauty Has a Name" with singer/songwriter Matthew Ryan, who has recorded a markedly different version of the song. Where Cockrell's full-band take is lush pop that soars on waves of exuberance, Ryan's version is quiet and subdued. Guess you could say that Cockrell's "Beauty Has a Name"  evokes sunny mornings full of promise, while Ryan's version is steeped in late-night pensiveness. Check it out.

Ryan will be at Raleigh's Pour House on June 27. Cockrell's next show around these parts is Aug. 20 at American Tobacco in Durham.

Friday night was one of those nights when it feels like a privilege to live around these parts. In one club on downtown Raleigh's Blount Street, you had the second annual Raleigh Undercover tribute-act festival going on; and just a few doors down, you had two of the best bands in this or any other town.

As to the latter, that was Megafaun and Rosebuds, who were both in fantastic form. Rosebuds were playing their first hometown show since an overseas tour that included dates in China, and the work has tightened them up to well-oiled-machine status. And Megafaun was as wonderful as always, showing an admirable willingness to jack with their own songs to see where it takes 'em. "The Fade," transposed from jingle-jangle pure-pop to a steady rolling groove that loped along, was particularly cool.

Meanwhile, Raleigh Undercover was likewise a ton of fun, with George Harrison (by Tomahawks), Velvet Underground (The Old Ceremony) and David Bowie among those covered Friday night. Bright Young Things' rendition of glam-period Bowie was truly spectacular, perfectly conjured down to the last detail. I felt bad for The Old Ceremony, having to follow that, but they acquitted themselves well. Both shows were packed, with great energy up and down the street, and not just because all the smokers had to stand outside to get their nicotine fix (yay for the new no-smoking law!).

Lucky you, this is happening again Saturday night at both clubs -- the final night of Raleigh Undercover, plus another Rosebuds/Megafaun show (with Hammer No More the Fingers also sweetening the bill). The latter is sold out, but it might be possible to charm your way in if you hang around and show a little patience. Besides, Raleigh Undercover is only five bucks, which means you've got a perfect backup plan in place.

So head on down. It's worth braving the cold.

If you missed country-rock singer Thad Cockrell's show at Raleigh's Pour House over Thanksgiving weekend, it's going to be a while before he plays around these parts again. That's because Cockrell is moving back to Nashville, concluding an 18-month sojourn in the Triangle that began when he moved back here in the summer of 2008. Once here, he put the finishing touches on his latest album "To Be Loved" -- a truly fantastic record that melds Cockrell's skill at country, pop and spirituals into an idiosyncratic package.

Now that "To Be Loved" is out, most of Cockrell's upcoming projects are happening in Nashville. So it made sense for him to relocate back to the 615 area code, and he's leaving the first week of January. But I'm gonna miss that boy. Hope he comes back soon.

Given the fact that he released a double-disc album last year, you might think that Charlotte love man Benji Hughes is constantly dashing off songs. But he actually doesn't write all that often.

"Some people write every day, just churm out a lot of material," Hughes said in a recent phone chat. "I kind of wait and let the batteries recharge, let some time go by and wait for something to come to me. I'd like to believe that my next set of songs will be as romantic as [the last album], but I don't know yet. I guess somebody else might have to hear it and tell me what they think. Who knows, it might be my most romantic batch yet. Then I'll really be in trouble."

For more yackin' and details about his Saturday show at Chapel Hill's Local 506, see the story in Friday's paper. And if you miss his show this weekend, he'll be back in the Triangle on Jan. 24 to perform at Raleigh's Pour House.

Drivin' N' Cryin' has put out a dozen records over the past quarter-century, but there's no question about what the group's signature song is. Go to one of their shows, and "Straight to Hell" will be the song everybody is yelling for.

"I used to get sick of it," DNC frontman Kevn Kinney said in a recent phone chat. "Now I do different versions -- quiet, or with a story in the middle. I like it so I don't mind singing it. The fact that people yell for it, that's a great problem to have. Could be worse, they could be shouting for something I hate. It's nice and easy, three chords, with room for guests up the ying-yang. Last night, I didn't even sing it. The crowd did the whole thing. I hate that on live albums, like the Kinks letting the crowd sing 'Lola.' I want to hear Ray [Davies] sing that, not Cleveland. But it was cool."

"Straight to Hell" also features prominently in what Kinney calls "our funniest show ever," which happened in the early 1990s in Columbus, Ohio -- a classic case of a band being rendered redundant by its own song.

"They'd sold like 10 tickets," Kinney said. "So the owner says, 'How about I cut the guarantee from $4,000 to $1,000 and we make it a free show, get some people in here?' Sure, I said, why not? So he makes it free -- and nobody comes! Still. But that's not even the bad part. There was this bar next door and it was packed, must have been 400 people in there. And we walk in and there's a cover band doing 'Straight to Hell,' everybody singing along."

For more, including details on the band's two-night stand at Raleigh's Pour House this weekend, see the interview in Friday's paper.

For years, I've been going to the Pour House nightclub in Raleigh, saying howdy to Jac Cain -- and then standing back and snickering at his steady stream of wisecracks, delivered as he attempts to make whoever is onstage sonically presentable (often a tall, tall order). He's such a fixture at the Pour House that it's always odd to see him elsewhere, such as behind the board Saturday night at Cat's Cradle to mix sound for Arrogance. Anyway, I wanted to do a story about a night in the life of a nightclub soundman, and Cain seemed like just the guy to profile. It's in Sunday's paper, so take a look.

Lining up at the record store on a Monday night to buy an album as the clock strikes midnight is a thing of the past. But here's the next permutation -- a free listening party for the hotly anticipated new Animal Collective album, which happens Monday night at the Pour House in Raleigh. Old Bricks, Mr. Goodtimes and a new, still-unnamed "Mysterious Band" will play, and the Animal Collective LP will be unveiled at midnight. You can even buy a vinyl copy of the album, which comes with an MP3 download card.

Check the spiffy new WKNC blog for further details.

Have yourself a merry Little Christmas, and let Arrogance be your soundtrack. But just remember that holiday festivities don't end with opening presents, eating too much turkey and picking fights with loved ones. Bounce on down to the Pour House in downtown Raleigh Thursday night for local rock legend Terry Anderson's ninth annual Christmas/birthday throwdown.

Yes, Anderson was born on Christmas day 53 years ago, as was his late great bandmate David Enloe (who passed away last year). Anderson's OAK Team will be playing, along with Chip Robinson & the Heavy Beat Outfit.

(Thanks, Stuart and Bob.)

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!