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The Big Ticket

Gypsy
Singing strippers and a control freak stage mother. July 25 thru Aug. 25, Oak Ridge Playhouse. 8 p.m.

Grainger County Tomato Festival
Find out exactly how much celebration this red fruit deserves. July 25-27, Rutledge Middle School. All day long. Free.

Tennessee Trombonery
Award-winning players from UT. July 25, 8 p.m. Palace Theater in Maryville. $10 advance, $12 at the door.

Townsend Indian Festival
Experience the Native American culture of East Tennessee. July 26, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Townsend Visitors Center. Free.

Larry Garner
Blues guitarist who gets more props in Europe. July 30, 8 p.m. Brackins Blues Bar in downtown Maryville. $10.

Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
Energetic bluegrass vocalist who made a radio hit of Gillian Welch's "Red Clay Halo." July 30, 9 p.m. BarleyÍs Taproom. $2.

Junior Brown with Lizzie West and Chris King
Sharp-dressed player of the guit-steel. July 31, 6-10 p.m. Sundown in the City. Donations encouraged.

Natti Love Joys
The hottest reggae band in the South. Aug. 1, 5:30 p.m. Knoxville Museum of ArtÍs Alive After Five. $6 general admission, $3 KMA members, students with ID.

Central Falls
Adam Vida, drummer for the hip indie band US Maple, straps on a guitar and steps up to the microphone to showcase his own songwriting talents. He's joined by his brother, Ben, from Town & Country, along with two members of Edith Frost's band and a couple of other Windy City musicians. The songs are subdued and sparse, using space the way US Maple uses noise. But the melodies are there, although they might take a while to wiggle their way into your head. On the group's sophomore release, Love And Easy Living, Vida proves he's a capable songwriter. His voice is perhaps a bit too soft and meek to express all of his sentiments well or grab your attention. But the dreaminess of the instrumentation wins the day. Opener the Old Ironsides is worth the price of admission alone and could be the last show with keyboardist Jesse Yarborough. (Joe Tarrs)
CENTRAL FALLS WITH THE OLD IRONSIDES * FRIDAY, JULY 25, 9 P.M. * THE PILOT LIGHT * $5

Grayarea
I used to have a friend who listened to dance music in his car, which drove me crazy during our aimless drives across town. I thought dance music belonged in the dance club with dancing people, but Blaine, being completely insane, wanted loud, relentless beats in his ears at all times. Maybe he's out there, somewhere, listening to Grayarea right now. This trio of high school buds from Chicago is being called "the fastest-moving up-and-comer in dance music today." If you don't keep up with such rankings, you probably have no idea what this means. Neither do I. What I do know is that Grayarea makes dance music that is actually booty-shaking and fairly interesting. It makes me feel like that arm-waving, pink-hatted girl in the Mitsubishi commercial (well, as much as possible while positioned in a cubicle-bound desk chair). My visits to the dance club are infrequent lately, but Grayarea's tunes are more creative and less mind-numbing than a lot of the stuff played at Fiction when I was there last. With samples of dialogue from movies and other sources, Grayarea's mixes have a hip-hop vibe added to swirling, ambient background layers. As a refreshing twist on electronica, which can be mind-numbingly monotonous, the tracks change rhythm to build up and back down again, giving dancers a chance to alter their moves and listeners in any venue a break from the same old beat. (Paige M. Travis)
GRAYAREA W/ REGIONAL DJS MANIC D, DAN WEEKS, MIC 1, STRATUS, AXIS MUNDI, PSYONIC, SHORTY TRIPP * THURSDAY, JULY 24, 9 P.M. - 6 A.M. * ELECTRIC BALLROOM * $10

Grainger County Tomato Festival
Started in 1993 to promote the juicy delicacy that's come to be known far and wide as the Grainger County Tomato, the festival has grown over the years into a spirited exhibit of East Tennessee culture. Events last all day, with some folks getting dressed up for beauty pageants, while others don white T-shirts for the Tomato Wars. Those who have signed up early will compete in softball tournaments, car shows and the Pick of the Bushel Dog Show. Proud pooches will go home with the honor of Big Boy (for the largest), Cherry (for the smallest) or Roma (for the ugliest). To make sure you catch the events that intrigue you the most, check out the festival schedule online at www.graingercountytomatofestival.com. Or just take off for Rutledge to see what pleasant surprises you can find. Daily features include the Fine Art and Cultural Heritage Exhibition, which features craft demonstrations, book signings and other stuff for show and sale. If you can stop by at mealtime, tasty foods await you. But, whatever you do, don't go home without a handful or bushel of ripe, red tomatoes. Whether they're being judged, tasted or thrown at opponents, they're the star of the weekend-long show. (P.M.T.)
11TH ANNUAL GRAINGER COUNTY TOMATO FESTIVAL * SATURDAY, JULY 25 THRU SUNDAY, JULY 27, APPROXIMATELY 9 A.M. TO 9 P.M. * RUTLEDGE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND OTHER NEARBY LOCATIONS * FREE