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The Big Ticket

Cordero
We are not kidding that this is a great band. Go. See. Dance. Thursday, Sept. 18, 10 p.m. Pilot Light. $5

R.B. Morris
If you don't already know why he's so great, this is your night to find out. Friday, Sept. 19, 9 p.m. ThInQ Tank. Free.

Dixie Dirt
They didn't move to Athens to give you another chance to see what the fuss is about. Friday, Sept. 19, 10 p.m. Pilot Light. $5.

Round and Round the Garden
Alan Ayckbourn's familial comedy. Opens Friday, Sept. 19, 8 p.m. Theatre Central. Continues thru Oct. 18. $10 general, $5 students.

Appalachian Ballet Company's "Dance Thru Time"
This area's best young dancers strut their stuff. Thursday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. & Sunday, Sept. 28, 3 p.m. Pellissippi State's Performing Arts Center. $12 general, $7 students/seniors.

Edwin McCain with Will Hoge
A few thousand people in an Old City parking lot can't be wrong. Thursday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m. Sundown in the City. Donations requested.

Proof
The Lab Theatre is a black box space adjacent to the Clarence Brown Theatre, used by a variety of acting companies associated with, or with permission from, the University. The student group All Campus Theater has performed its frequently smart, wild and/or controversial shows there—Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Corpus Christi, and Betty's Summer Vacation come to mind. By virtue of this history, the space has a reputation for startling, moving and progressive theater. The Clarence Brown Studio Series will begin in the space Sept. 17 with the premiere of Proof, the Knoxville debut of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play.
Four actors—Deanna McGovern, Leigh Monet Hruby, Steven Biggs and Justin Rubenstein (who gave an incendiary performance as Judas in ACT's Corpus Christi)—present the story of a family. Catherine, a woman who has taken care of her mentally unstable mathematician father during the final years of his life. After he dies, she, her sister and the father's former student Hal find something of mathematical importance in his notebooks. The discovery brings up the connections between genius and madness, long-standing family tensions and Catherine's fears of going crazy like her dad.
As Art addressed how aesthetics affect friendship, and Arcadia mixed physics and romance, Proof weaves together questions of where creativity comes from and how we're supposed to use it. In the hands of director Bruce Speas, who helmed the CBT's wonderful production of Art, the small-stage play should have large-play impact. (Paige M. Travis)
PROOF * THURSDAY, SEPT. 18 THRU SUNDAY, SEPT. 21 * CLARENCE BROWN LAB THEATRE * FREE

Trailer Bride
Trailer Bride must like Knoxville. Of course, they are kinda our neighbors. The North Carolina-based band visits our burg during most of its tours, playing to crowds in the cozy darkness of the Pilot Light. This time in town the group will work their mountain gothic magic from the small stage of the ThInQ Tank. Lead singer, lyricist, guitarist and saw player Melissa Swingle smiles more in person than in the promotional photos Bloodshot Records sends out. And, backed by a powerfully talented band, she channels an Appalachian spirit that rings true in a timeless way. Her lyrics are thoughtful and her voice a bit haunted. To hear Trailer Bride is to be lulled into a twangy hypnotic state that might cause uncontrolled swaying or stomping, depending on the song's tempo (or your temperament). If that spirit is inside you, let it out. (P.M.T)
TRAILER BRIDE * SATURDAY, SEPT. 20, 10 P.M. * THINQ TANK * FREE.

Victor Wooten
Bass players are usually the Forgotten Axemen, the guys who stand in the back of the band quietly thumbing thick strings while their flashier six-string brethren garner all the pub and all the Lub. Not so with Victor Wooten, laureled low-end leviathan of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones fame. His five-string forays with the Flecktones and on his own solo releases are technically stunning, harmonically inventive mini-masterworks of eruptive creativity, showcasing a command of the instrument so thorough as to be beyond the ken of virtually any other electric stylist working today. Wooten's virtuosity is not given over to esoterica however; despite his chops, he always maintains an impeccable sense of song and groove, and his music is beloved of jazz aficionados and the Patchouli set alike. Touring with brothers Reggie (guitar) and Joseph (keyboards), Wooten reportedly integrates a few magic tricks into his act, including an onstage levitation. But the real levitating takes place whenever he plays, lifting himself and his audience miles above any ordinary listening experience. (Mike Gibson)
VICTOR WOOTEN * WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24, 8 P.M. * BLUE CATS * $18 ADVANCE, $20 DOOR