CONFEDERACY OF DANCES, winner of the 1999 Big Easy Classical Arts Award for Best Modern Dance Production, presents Pieces, its fifth annual production, on Friday and Saturday at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St., 528-3805). Billed as "a sampling of experimental dance and music on the cutting edge of the New Orleans dance scene," Confederacy of Dances is produced by Big Hair Productions Inc., a nonprofit production company dedicated to producing collaborative dance, music and visual arts events. "It is not one dance troupe," explains Big Hair Productions president Gabrielle Pickard, who acts as marketing director, project coordinator and main organizer of Confederacy of Dances productions. "It's a banding together of local artists with diverse dance backgrounds to form one cohesive production. The show is very community-oriented." Pieces will feature works and dancing by seven choreographers -- Nicole Boyd, Anne Burr, J. Hammons, Jeanne Jaubert, Eddy Villalta, Kettye Voltz and Pickard -- as well as three live bands: Potpie, the Jonathan Freilich Trio, and Permagrin. Some of the 22 dancers will appear in several dances, creating what Pickard calls an "incestuous" element to the production. Each choreographer is responsible for creating a rehearsal schedule and locating a rehearsal space for his or her piece. The dances aren't rehearsed in their proper order for the show until the final week. Many of the dancers are involved in dance projects outside of the Confederacy. Fellow Confederacy dancer/choreographer Jeanne Jaubert founded Happensdance in 1999, a duo or trio of dancers who work with one or two choreographers per performance. "I think it's just good that more people are interested in presenting dance in New Orleans," Pickard says. "It's just very cool." Sponsors for the Confederacy of Dances production include The Hearing Research Institute, The Gumbo Shop, Stagelight Louisiana, The New Orleans Music Exchange, Brew Haha and WTUL 91.5 FM. The performances begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.50 for the general public, $12.50 for CAC members, artists and seniors. For more information, call 528-3800. -- Heidi Braden

Polyphonic Spree 10 p.m. Monday, June 2 The Howlin' Wolf, 828 S. Peters St., 522-WOLF While countless "the" bands revive the antagonism of the 1960s small rock combo, Dallas-based outfit Polyphonic Spree prefers the more idyllic side of the era. Begun by Tripping Daisy leader Tim DeLaughter, the 25-member group includes a 10-voice choir and a full score of instruments from the rock and classical arenas, including guitar, bass, percussion, French horn and harp. Wearing long white choir robes, the players rock out to extended, uplifting songs. The act comes off like a cross between Schoolhouse Rock and the Beatles' more psychedelic material, with its sing-along style setup, epic timbre palette, and theoretically simple compositions. Surprisingly, Polyphonic Spree is a staple on this year's rock festival circuit, enjoying much buzzed-about slots at high-profile events including Coachella, Field Day and Bonnaroo stateside, and, in Europe, Glastonbury, Roskilde, Leeds and Reading. Corn Mo and Patrick Park open. Tickets $12. -- Diettinger

ReBirth Brass Band 20th Anniversary Celebration 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, May 30-31 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-8477Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-8477 The Dirty Dozen opened the door, but the ReBirth Brass Band also helped lay the foundation for the contemporary brass band scene in New Orleans. The brother team of Philip Frazier on tuba and Keith Frazier on bass drum has been ReBirth's musical and visionary anchor now for two decades, holding down the bottom everywhere from Treme second lines to bandstands in Africa and Japan. And everywhere they go, ReBirth pumps new life into standards such as "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Lil' Liza Jane," references inspirations as diverse as Marvin Gaye and TLC, and contributes its own anthems such as "Feel Like Funkin' It Up" and "Do Whatcha Wanna." This pair of 20th anniversary shows will feature original member Kermit Ruffins joining the band on Friday, and the Wild Magnolias upping the ante on Saturday. Both nights will be recorded and filmed for future release on CD and DVD. Admission $10. -- Scott Jordan

The Human Animal: Ceramic sculpture by Sam McCarty Through June 5 d.o.c.s. gallery, 709 Camp St., 524-3936 d.o.c.s. gallery, 709 Camp St., 524-3936 Sam McCarty demands a lot from the clay that goes into his sensually formed ceramics. "My work seeks to nurture a sense of community with the natural environment, to partake of its calmness and balance, to share the spontaneous and essential energy of its forms." As if that were not enough, he also demands that it express "the emotional core of the human animal, the sanctity of solitude, the single mindedness of intense passion ... ." Upping the ante even further, he says he also wants it to suggest the "large forces that guide the course and the destiny of matter in the universe." Sounds like a tall order, but McCarty makes skillful use of those forms that appear and reappear, turning up in the largest as well as the smallest things that the human eye can see. -- D. Eric Bookhardt

Komenka's 24th Annual Spring Concert Series 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 31 and 3 p.m. Sunday, June 1 Roussel Performance Hall, Loyola University, 529-4676 Komenka, a local ethnic song and dance ensemble, is a highly energetic troupe that dons traditional costumes of various countries and performs dances authentic to those regions. All shows in the group's spring concert series will include dances from Appalachia, Greece, Israel, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, the Ukraine and more. Only the Saturday shows will feature dance and music from Acadiana, and unique to the Sunday show is the Bharata Natyam Dance of India. Elaborate and colorful costumes enhance the dances punctuated with heel stomping, hops on toes in boots, high and low kicks, and occasional yelps from both men and women. General-admission tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door; $7 in advance, $9 at the door for seniors, students and children. -- Braden

Strike Out Stroke 5 p.m. Saturday, May 31 Zephyr Field, 6000 Airline Drive, Metairie, 456-7224 When local columnist, editor and bon vivant Ronnie Virgets suffered a stroke last fall, he spent months in bed- and wheelchair-bound recovery in the VA Hospital downtown. It was a time of intense introspection poetically chronicled with typical Virgets insight and flair in a Gambit Weekly cover story ("Perdido," Jan. 21). Ultimately, however, Virgets' story is one of triumph and hope, a message he parlays into an appearance as "Judge Heartless" in the American Heart Association's Strike Out Stroke event that runs with the Zephyrs' game against the Iowa Cubs. Virgets will sentence local citizens' "crimes against the heart" in an awareness and fundraising event as part of May's designation as National Stroke Month. (Stroke is the third leading cause of death in America). Thirteen-year-old Ellie Textor of Metairie, also a stroke survivor, will throw out the first pitch. Virgets' court convenes at 5 p.m. outside the stadium; game time is 7 p.m. with other Strike Out Stroke events held throughout. -- Frank Etheridge

The Melvins, Tomahawk, Dalek 9 p.m. Saturday, May 31 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Though they've never come close to scoring a hit, everyone knows the Melvins as Kurt Cobain's formative inspiration for playing music. Melvins bassist Kevin Rutmanis is pulling double-duty on this show, also playing with Tomahawk, a supergroup featuring former Helmet drummer John Stanier, jazz-punk guitar virtuoso Dwayne Dennison of The Jesus Lizard, and Mr. Bungle/Faith No More's vocalist Mike Patton. Patton runs the Ipecac label, home to all these musical bastards who fit in nowhere. But opening act Dalek is definitely hip-hop. He's a real MC with smart, provocative rhymes in the brow-furrowed tradition of Chuck D, KRS and Mos Def, though sometimes you can barely hear him over his partner dropping wartime beats. Then there's his DJ chewing on the needle of his turntables (seriously), which he runs through guitar pedals and effects to create artful, dynamic and murderous clouds of noise. This is the kind of music that inspires hip-hop fans to hear the genre pushed to its breaking point as rap's forefathers intended. Tickets $18.50 -- Michael Patrick Welch

Cynthia Owen CD-release party 7 p.m. Sunday, June 1 Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., 581-5812 A more cynical theater-goer might have done a bit of head-scratching after watching Cynthia Owen tackle the much younger role of Sally Bowles in the recent JPAS production of Cabaret. But dig a little deeper, listen to Owen's spitfire singing, and watch her full-bore physicality, and you get the picture: Cynthia Owen is one of those timeless entities of New Orleans theater. She is not so much a performer as a force of nature. Singer, actress, director, choreographer, teacher -- the multiple Big Easy Entertainment Award winner's energy knows few boundaries. That's probably why she's pushing them once more with her debut CD, Light and Love. Owen has worked with several of this city's top musicians while performing several musical revues at Le Chat Noir, so this will be a great opportunity to hear how she's focused her material into an album's worth of inspiration. She will be joined by Tom Hook on piano and Wendell Brunious on trumpet. Free admission, but reservations required. -- David Lee Simmons

Prince Paul 9 p.m. Sunday, June 1 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Few figures in hip-hop can boast a career as long and influential as Prince Paul's. The DJ, rapper and producer has had a hand in many stages of hip-hop development since his tenure as a DJ with seminal rap group Stetsasonic. He was partially responsible for the revolutionary backing tracks on De La Soul's 1989 album Three Feet High and Rising, and throughout the '90s, Paul stayed perched on the ultra-progressive edge of hip-hop recording, creating such notable concept albums as 1999's A Prince Among Thieves, an allegorical indictment of the hip-hop record industry. That same year, he formed Handsome Boy Modeling School with visionary producer Dan the Automator for the genre-busting album So Š How¹s Your Girl?. His latest, Politics of the Business, released May 6, carries on the tradition of poking fun at the industry with tongue-in-cheek cameos by such hip-hop giants as Ice-T and Chuck D. West Coast hip-hoppers Aceyalone and Ugly Duckling join the Prince. Tickets $13. -- Diettinger

Mad Sin 10 p.m. Friday, May 30 Dixie Taverne, 3340 Canal St., 822-8268 Psychobilly is a particularly peculiar movement in rock history, but it's also one of the most entertaining. When a kitschy rockabilly revival fused with punk rock in the '80s underground, the marriage spawned such iconoclastic figures as the Cramps, Mojo Nixon and, more recently, the Rev. Horton Heat. By 1988, gelled and mohawked German punkabilly rockers Mad Sin had joined in the fun, and its latest U.S tour hits Canal Street this Friday. The show is a stop on an extensive trek to celebrate the release of its latest album, Survival of the Sickest, due out June 24. The album boasts 16 tracks of what they now call "hellbilly." After a decade and a half of warring with various record companies, the group can still evoke memories of the Sex Pistols and Deliverance in the same few measures, and their live show remains unflinching. Local rockabilly band the Belvederes open. Admission $5. -- Cristina Diettinger