Durham
Gender Blur II: Runway Revolution
Steel BlueBased on last year’s popular Gender Blur, the nonprofit performance group Awakening C.H.A.N.G.E. (Cultivating Humanity And Nurturing Greater Equality) highlights pioneers and change-makers through history, such as Mandy Carter and Mangus Hirshfield, albeit with a gender-bending twist. In addition to the runway show, the performance will include everything from spoken word to photography. The goal is an evening that tackles tough issues of “racism, sexism, violence, environmentalism, homophobia, transphobia, mental illness, forgotten historical struggles, hope and strength.” Tickets are $7-$10. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the show starts at 9. For more information, visit www.clubsteelblue.com and www.awakeningchange.org. Zack Smith
Carrboro
Transactors Improv: Business Show
The ArtsCenterIt’s very hard to say what will happen at a Transactors Improv show because the events are set in motion by audience suggestions. This particular performance tackles the world of work and business, so it’s possible that we’ll see recession humor, with sketches related to being unemployed or companies going out of business. Or, quite possibly, being grateful to have a job. Hmm … this is depressing. Has the economy recovered yet? Tickets for the 8 p.m. performance are $14, or $12 for friends and $7 for students. For more information, call 929-2787 ext. 201 or visit www.artscenterlive.org and www.transactors.org. Zack Smith
Durham
Peter’s Pajama Party
The Regulator BookshopThe line between kids’ music and indie rock grows thinner as local Luego musician Peter Holsapplewho previously anchored the dBs and the Continental Drifters and played with R.E.M., Hootie and the Blowfish and Sugarland begins a new twice-monthly event at the Regulator, where he’ll share books, stories and, of course, plenty of songs. It’s a great way to open your kid’s imagination without the searing mental pain that comes from one of those Dreamworks CGI films with wisecracking animals. Pajamas are encouraged. The free event starts at 7 p.m.; for more information, call 286-2700 or visit www.regulatorbookshop.com. Zack Smith
Chapel Hill
Shards, Rocket Cottage, Prostitute Hostage
NightlightThree Raleigh bands roll into the fairer counterpart to the west with plans to cover Nightlight in their scuzz: Shards is three-quarters of a reconfigured Whatever Brains, the latter band’s guitarist and back-up vocalist William Evans moving to the microphone to half-bark, half-slur, like Pipe capturing the Black Flag. Despite the viscosity of Matt Watson’s simply distorted guitar, the quartet charges forward, more spartan and efficient than elegant and self-impressed. Opener Prostitute Hostage makes its premiere tonight; their feedback-laced, riff-based tunes charge beneath Jodi Donkel’s chameleon voice, alternately drifting through disaffection or slashing through no satisfaction. Rocket Cottage is one of the Triangle’s strangest beasts: a trio of dudes who’ve been around long enough to know better, they twist through Bevis Frond-like psychedelics (with cowbell!), lurch and moan like This Heat and strangle guitar tones like the bastard children of sax man James Chance. Tickets are $5 for the 10 p.m. show. Visit www.nightlightclub.com. Grayson Currin
