Carrboro
Minus the Bear
Cat’s CradleSeattle quintet Minus the Bear have mastered an unusual blend of knotty and pretty. Chewy math rock rhythms and windy arrangements are counterbalanced by rich, atmospheric sonics, accompanied by a peculiarly Northwestern rainy-day torpor. Think Mount Rainier, with its beauty both shrouded and subtly augmented by the clouds around its peak. Their alluring melodic sensibility recalls the demure charms of early Modest Mouse and Death Cab twisted about a prog-like aesthetic. “Into the Mirror”the first track from the band’s new album, due next yearoverflows with renewed promise. Twin Tigers and Maple Stave open. Pay $18-$20 at 9 p.m. See www.catscradle.com. Chris Parker
Carrboro
Intimacies
The ArtsCenterMichael Kearns kicks off the 20th anniversary tour of his one-man show intimacies with a brand-new edition focusing on World AIDS Day. Kearns channels a variety of characters, ranging from a homeless man to a Catholic priest to a black female street hooker. The production runs tonight and tomorrow and starts at 8 p.m. It’s produced in association with UNC’s “Solo Takes On: A Festival of One-Person Performance,” presented by the Department of Communication Studies. Tickets are $15 or $10 for students. See www.artscenterlive.org. Zack Smith
Raleigh
Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles
Memorial Auditorium, Progress Energy CenterThere are tribute bands and then there is RAIN, The Beatles’ nearly impeccable tribute band. Their sets are divided into five formative eras for The Beatlesthe 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (bring your own screams), the 1965 Shea Stadium concert, the Sgt. Pepper era, “All You Need Is Love” and flower power, and then “The End” and Abbey Road. The costumes, props and backdrops match each epoch of their astonishingly productive seven-year recording career. For a sneak peek of their mimesis, be sure to YouTube RAIN’s videosBeatles fanatics can attest to the uncanny musical fidelity. The hits begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, with 2 p.m. gigs Saturday and Sunday as well. Tickets are $25 to $65. See www.broadwayseriessouth.com and www.raintribute.com. Belem Destefani
Durham
Steve Miller Band
Durham Performing Arts CenterPerhaps that line item titled “Legacy Rock Acts” in your budget for this calendar year still has some juice? Maybe you passed on Leonard Cohen, Roger Daltrey, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne and Loggins & Messina? Still feel the need to revisit some dusty old grooves? A little like Branson, a lot like VH1 Classic, DPAC has you covered: The big Durham room’s last ’70s salute of its first full year features Steve Miller, a former Texas janitor who immersed himself in late ’60s San Francisco psychedelia, releasing seven albums you’d be safe calling commercial failures before arriving with The Joker in 1973. That album streamlined the astral elements of Miller’s early work (seriously, his debut, the way-outbound Children of the Future, will send you into orbit), and he’s been riding its middling blues-pop bounce ever since. Whereas his band had once sounded like doing drugs, Miller was suddenly content to sing silly jokes about the thingsand chuckle all the way to the bank nearly four decades later. Pretty sure George Carlin had a joke about this… Tickets for the 8 p.m. gig are $48-$88. Visit www.dpacnc.com. Grayson Currin
