As party tricks go, this is pretty great: 60 years of rock history as told by 100 famous guitar riffs from Chuck Berry to St. Vincent, played out over about the length of an average Phish song. Alex Chadwick renders them all instantly recognizable, and he even changes tunings on the fly as he goes. There are a few head-scratchers -- "Pictures of Matchstick Men" is Status Quo, not Camper Can Beethoven (although the latter did cover it) -- and I'd quibble with some of the selections. Still, anybody who can segue from "Blitzkrieg Bop" to "Barracuda" without missing a beat is a genius. And it's all one take, no edits.

Here are a couple of late additions to the upcoming show schedule, both worth making time for. First, the great singer/songwriter Gillian Welch plays at Cat's Cradle next Tuesday (yes, six days from now). Tickets go on sale at noon Thursday.

Then on Wednesday, April 28, St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark, of Sufjan Stevens and Polyphonic Spree fame) plays UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall with local favorites The Love Language opening. UNC began giving out free tickets to students this week, but public tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday.

And in other show-schedule news, Concord's Avett Brothers STILL don't have a Triangle performance booked -- but they're playing Merlefest on May 2. It's being billed as their "only spring/summer North Carolina appearance in 2010." Which means they won't be here until fall at the earliest. Great...