Back to listings   The Big Ticket Theater Galore This weekend and the next sees the opening of more plays than you can shake a stick at. We just couldn't choose which deserved this space most. So check out the calendar for all the details. The Streamliners What do you say you and I go on the town and swing, baby, yeah! Friday, Jan. 31, 5:30 p.m. KMA Alive After Five. $6, 17 and under free. Todd Rundgren If you don't know who this is, you need to look here. Saturday, Feb. 1, 8 p.m. Tennessee Theatre. $25 plus $4 service charge. (656-4444) Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra The KSO's own trumpeter Cathy Leach plays Johann Baptist Georg Neruda's Trumpet Concerto in E Flat. Saturday, Feb. 1, 8 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 2, 3 p.m. Bijou Theater. $16 and $23. (291-3310 or 656-4444) KFAR Hip Hop Benefit Show With Lord Shabazz & Thesis Christ, Fluid Engineerz, and Solid Earth (Ill Shaman and Satoshi), to benefit First Amendment Radio. Sunday, Feb. 2, 9 p.m. Blue Cats. $5. The Roots with Cody Chesnutt, Dynamic of Fluid Engineerz, and Demented Soundz The Roots put the rock 'n' roll in hip hop while their friend Cody puts the hip hop in rock 'n' roll; with some local hip hop acts opening. Thursday, Feb. 6, 8 p.m. Tennessee Theatre. $25. (656-4444) Eliot Sloan of Blessid Union of Souls—Acoustic, with Chase Pattison For those seeking a vaguely Christian 1995 flashback. Friday, Feb. 7, 9pm. Blue Cats. $10/$12. Les Percussions de Guinee Dancers, folklorists, and instrumentalists on drums, flute, balafon and kora. Friday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m. Tennessee Theatre. $20.50, $15.50 for students. (656-4444) La Boheme Knoxville Opera performs the tale of love in the face of poverty. Friday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, 2:30 p.m. Civic Auditorium. $15-$65, $1 service charge. (291-3310) Oak Ridge Symphony Performing three No. 4s, from three Bs: Beethoven's Concerto for Piano, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto and Brahms' Symphony. Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m. Oak Ridge High School auditorium. $18, $16/seniors, $6/students with ID, under 18 free. (483-5569) Steve Kaufman Three-time National Flatpick Guitar Champion. He owns the place, too. Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m. Palace Theater. $12/$15. The Magic of Swing Street Jazz all-stars recreate the Big Apple circa 1934-1950. Sunday, Feb. 9, 5:30 p.m. Fairbanks Roasting Room. $25. Old Harp Festival A day-long festival of discussions and performance of this unique a cappella singing style. Sunday, Feb. 9, 9:45 a.m. Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Free. (573-0445) Bill Cosby A benefit for the theater. Sunday, Feb. 9, 3pm and 7pm. Tennessee Theatre. Individual seats only: $50, $75 and $100. Pair of seats: $200 each, $100 of which is tax-deductible. (673-9613, 656-4444)

Gypsy Hands Tribal Belly Dancing For the last few months, several bold young women in liberal assortments of shapes and sizes have been showing up in surprising places, writhing by candlelight to sitar and tabla music. Gypsy Hands Tribal Belly Dancing has the makings of a subversive underground Movement. When we saw them at another downtown establishment a few weeks ago, about 150 spectators crowded in to watch: old and young, male and female, speechless and slackjawed. But it was clear the dancers were having as much fun as anyone in the room; they're doing it more for their own pleasure than for any sultan's. They're not professionals, and we're not sure any of them hail from a country where they're required to wear a veil. What they are is plenty for us: they're the assertive members of a sort of urban-guerrilla bellydancing cooperative, and they're inviting you to join regardless of your shape or gender. Sign up, or come and gawk: either way, it may be the best cure for January. (Jack Neely) GYPSY HANDS TRIBAL BELLY DANCING * FRIDAY, JAN. 31 * 9 P.M. * BRAZO MARKET SQUARE * FREE * 524-7982 KFAR Hip Hop Benefit Show Anyone who thinks anarchy can't work should tune into Knoxville's First Amendment Radio, a small low-wattage radio station at 90.9 FM. A group of music lovers and free speech advocates have created a place where people can make their opinions known and play the music that mass media ignores. How long it will last is anybody's guess, but for now it's a great way to shake up Knoxville's stale radio market and offer an example of what a community radio station could be. Perhaps those who have benefited most from the radio's existence are this city's hip-hop lovers. Knoxville boasts a surprising number of great artists: the stellar DJ Satoshi, the fierce hip hop group Fluid Engineerz, and the phenomenal lyricist Ill Shaman. Go see what they have to offer. All proceeds will go toward the purchase of a better transmitter. (Joe Tarr) KFAR HIP HOP BENEFIT SHOW * WITH LORD SHABAZZ & THESIS CHRIST, FLUID ENGINEERZ, SOLID EARTH (WITH ILL SHAMAN AND SATOSHI) * SUNDAY, FEB. 2 * 8 P.M. * BLUE CATS * $5 The Dave Brubeck Quartet Pianist, composer, and bandleader Dave Brubeck is akin to a living volume of the encyclopedia of jazz. And at 82, he's one of the few remaining connections to the music's mid-century hey-day, a link to the likes of Davis and Coltrane, Bird and Ellington, and Monk. While most of his aforementioned contemporaries were given to the intensity and frenetic pacing of bebop jazz, Brubeck was a leading proponent of so-called West Coast Cool Jazz, a laid-back incarnation of the music that relied more on composition and arrangement than the frenzied improvisation of its New York-based counterpart. Today, he remains relevant as well as revered, one of the last living giants of 20th century American music. (Mike Gibson) THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET * SUNDAY, FEB. 2 * 7:30 P.M. * TENNESSEE THEATRE * $35.50 AND $25.50 PLUS SERVICE CHARGES * 656-4444