Durham
Mike Epps and Friends
Durham Performing Arts CenterThose of us who attended Mike Epps’ last show at Goodnights in Raleigh got an uproarious set, and now the Friday star is back in the Triangle with a new tour promoting up and coming talent. The set includes Capone (“The Gangsta of Comedy”), Shawty Shawty (“The Rock Star of Comedy”) and Lil JJ, the star of Nickelodeon’s Just Jordan (“The Prince of Comedy”). Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show range from $39.50-$47.50. For more information, visit www.dpacnc.com. Zack Smith
Chapel Hill
Uncommon Garden Tour
Timberlyne Shopping Center (shuttle location)Seven years in the making, the Uncommon Garden is a massive undertaking by local artist Rik Hermanson. The privately owned garden will be open to the public for one day only as part of a special fundraising effort for The ArtsCenter, taking you on a magical mystery tour through a landscape of sculptures, secret rooms, tori gates, performance areas, snakes, dragons and more. Tickets are $25; the tour is not recommended for children under 12. Rain date is May 9. For more information, visit www.uncommongardentour.com. Zack Smith
Trianglewide
Free Comic Book Day
Bookstores near youTo coincide with Wolverine‘s theatrical release (see Friday) comes the annual Free Comic Book Day, where publishers offer special sample books to lure new readers. Some of this year’s hottest books include: Avengers, by Marvel Comics superstars Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung; Disney/ Pixar’s Cars, a prequel to the film from Boom! Studios; Blackest Night #0, a prologue to DC’s latest budget-busting crossover, this one starring Green Lantern; Resurrection #0, a prologue to Oni Press’s post-alien-invasion series from Marc Guggenheim, creator of TV’s Eli Stone; DC’s Kids Mega Sampler, featuring selections from the company’s excellent all-ages line; Nancy & Melvin Monster from Drawn & Quarterly, offering sample reprints of John Stanley’s comic book interpretations of the comic strip and horror comics; Owly and Friends, a great all-ages compendium from Top Shelf; The Stuff of Legend, a visually spectacular fantasy from Th3Rd World Studios; a reprint of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, and for pure camp value, William Shatner Presents, featuring an adaptation of the Tek War novels Shatner “wrote.” Zack Smith
Chapel Hill
Kevin Devine
Local 506Soft-hearted and strong-minded, Brooklyn’s Kevin Devine puts his careful voice to his equally careful poetry, using vivid imagery to make listeners take his memories as their own. Consider “a billion bees trapped in my chest”: Left bare against guitar, Devine’s quiver makes his words even more fragile. Tonight, his Goddamn Band joins him, lending weight and energy to songs that comment on society, spirituality, politics and romance. Sure, he whiffs occasionallymost anyone will with that sort of wide-ranging ambitionbut it helps that Brother’s Blood, released Tuesday, is Devine’s most musically diverse collection yet, tossing synth-heavy jangles and smoky lounge whispers into the mix of acoustic strums and screaming rockers. Indie poppers Miniature Tigers and Brian Bonz & The Dot Hongs are on the tour. Local support comes from the solo Americana of Boxbomb’s Ryan Gustafson. Pay $10-$12 for the 8 p.m. show. Spencer Griffith
Raleigh
Mic Harrison and Kenny Roby
Sadlack’sThis show reunites a couple of alums from E-Squared, the label started in the mid-’90s by Steve Earle and the late Jack Emerson. As co-leader of the V-roys (E-Squared’s first act), Mic Harrison contributed burly power-pop songs with a Tennessee twang, fare that would earn him a post-V-roys invite to join Superdrag. And under Roby’s command, 6 String Drag mixed the medicine show soul of The Band with several moods of Doug Sahm and Elvis Costello, making the band’s High Hat one of E-Squared’s best parties. The music starts at 5 p.m. A proverbial hat will be passed. Rick Cornell
