Carrboro
Dervish
The ArtsCenterIn spite of, or because of, their 20 years in the rearview mirror, Dervish continues to perform high-quality traditional Irish music. The sextet fills the bottom with the ringing chords of the bouzouki, leading to songs that dispel any myth of Irish fog hanging around the band’s home of County Sligo on the northwest coast of Ireland. Flute and fiddle mirror each other, racing to a breathless finish on instrumental numbers. Mandola (a deeper mandolin) and accordion round out the sound, just as Cathy Jordan’s spry vocals jump amid and above it all. While St. Patrick’s Day remains yet weeks away, this performance kicks off The ArtsCenter’s 4th annual Celtic Concert Series. Pay $22–$24 at 8:30 p.m. See www.artscenterlive.org. Andrew Ritchey
Durham
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Nasher Museum of ArtIn reaction to the increasing violence and sexual frankness of American movies, the Motion Picture Association of America began its movie rating system in 1968. Based on the group’s judgment, a film could easily turn from a profitable moneymaker with an R rating to a unseen flop with an NC-17. So who are these people who count F-words and exposed nipples? According Kirby Dick’s documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated, it’s not ordinary parents with young children, as the ratings board’s founder Jack Valenti boasted, but undertrained, often childless people with barely any media literacy or knowledge of child development. In fact, this Sundance favorite revealed that the board is far more lenient toward violence than sex, won’t suggest helpful edits to independent filmmakers but will do so for studio films and has an interesting voting system: If there’s a tie vote of the eight-member board, the chairman casts the deciding vote, which means he or she gets to vote twice. The free screening is at 7 p.m. Visit www.nasher.duke.edu. Belem Destefani
Raleigh
Keller Williams
Lincoln TheatreIf you didn’t know better, you’d probably confuse Keller Williams with a stagehand as he walks from instrument to instrument, playing a little ditty on each device, his hair flopping all along. But, unlike a roadie, he’s not performing a sound check. He’s riffing, recording and looping drums, guitars and a bass with an Echoplex Digital Pro, which allows him to pull the strings on every aspect of his sound. He’s a 21st-century one-man band. The often barefoot Williams can cover anything from Stevie Wonder to Nirvana in between his own songs about port-o-potties, the fate of the environment and trips to Grateful Dead shows gone awry. The music, which ranges from bluegrass to electronic, is sporadic, often leaving repetitive lapses between words. But it’s well worth the admission, if only to see what Williams can do with all his high-tech toys. Pay $20 in advance or $25 at 8 p.m. See www.lincolntheatre.com. Joe Schwartz
Raleigh
Chris Bohjalian
Quail Ridge Books & MusicIn 1998, Chris Bohjalian’s Midwives made it into Oprah’s Book Club. He’s cranked out five best sellers since then, and he’s in town to promote his latest, Secrets of Eden. In a small town in Vermont, minister Stephen Drew tries to find some sort of spiritual guidance after one of his parishioners is murdered by her husbandwho then shoots himself. However, we soon discover that the Rev. Drew’s relationship with the dead woman was anything but pastoral. Fans of sex, religion and murder line up for Bohjalian’s reading and signing at 7:30 p.m.; see www.quailridgebooks.com. Bohjalian visits the Regulator Bookshop March 5 at 7 p.m.; see www.regulatorbookshop.com. Belem Destefani
