Admission is a $10 suggested donation; patrons renewing or buying Zeitgeist membership (ranging from $30 to $150) are admitted free all three nights. -- Frank Etheridge and David Lee Simmons

• Henry Rollins
• 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21
• House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE

Ever since 1981, when he jumped onstage uninvited to perform with Black Flag, Henry Rollins has been making his own rules in the entertainment business. In addition to the dozens of albums he's made with the Rollins Band, he's dipped his iconoclastic hands into the fringes of several other media, including screen acting (Johnny Mnemonic, Jack Frost, Lost Highway), writing (a slew of books and a column in Details magazine), and record labels (his current venture, 2.13.61, is named for his birth date.) An eternal activist, Rollins' latest series of tours and media projects benefited the West Memphis Three, the teenagers whose controversial murder trial was the subject of the film Paradise Lost. Now on a tour titled "Shock and Awe My Ass" Rollins attacks the current political landscape through spoken word. Now in his 40s, the mind-speaker shows no signs of slowing. His popularity has waxed and waned, but his intensity has never wavered. Tickets $20. -- Cristina Diettinger

• Joshua Paxton
• 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 21
• Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696

Originally hailing from outside Cincinnati (hey, it's funky there, too) Joshua Paxton came to New Orleans in the 1990s to study jazz piano at UNO. He got his master's based on his work analyzing and playing James Booker solos. He also cut his chops playing with a wide variety of bands, from Michael Ray's Cosmic Krewe and Leigh Harris to the soul-grungesters the Afghan Whigs. He's back from his new home of San Francisco for a week to complete a solo piano record and play Snug Harbor. Besides having great jazz chops, Paxton can play Booker and Longhair better than almost anyone on the planet, and he's been pushing that music forward in innovative ways. Paxton will be joined by his partners-in-crime Dave Ellington on organ and hard-working Doug Belote on drums. Tickets $10. -- David Kunian

• Beethoven and Blue Jeans
• 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22; 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24
• Orpheum Theatre, 127 University Place, 523-6530

In its first installment of the annual Beethoven and Blue Jeans concert series, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra offers the program "Rachmaninoff and Beethoven," highlighting works by the two great composers. Under the direction of conductor David Alan Miller, the concert stars Hee Sung Joo, winner of the 2002 New Orleans International Piano Competition. A native of Seoul, South Korea, this international touring artist currently seeking her musical arts doctorate at the University of Hartford will perform as part of a program that includes Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concert No. 2," Samuel Barber's "First Essay" and Ludwig von Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7." Tickets range from $13-$62. For more info, visit www.lpomusic.com. -- Etheridge

• Crowns
• 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 23-24; 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25; through Feb. 15
• Anthony Bean Community Theatre, 1333 S. Carrollton Ave., 862-PLAY

Anthony Bean is back in action as he and his company open the 2004 season with Regina Taylor's musical, which employs a rather simple, yet elaborate metaphor. As Bean describes it, hats are everywhere in Crowns, a conduit for examining black history and identity from the perspective of an African-American woman visiting the South with her aunt when her brother is murdered in their home in Brooklyn. The cast features Pat McGuire-Hill, Gail Glapion, Leo Jones and Donna King; Leo Jones provides the choreography and Jerimi Crump the musical direction. Taylor's play is based on the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Tickets $18 general admission, $16 students/seniors. -- David Lee Simmons

• The Fever
• 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 23-24; 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25; through Feb. 8
• The Fine Arts Center, The Club, 3916 Baronne St., 914-8861

"I certainly couldn't make even a lowly bourgeois living writing plays," playwright and sometime actor Wallace Shawn says in a recent New York Times interview. "My plays have been strange from the beginning, and they never got unstrange." So here's to some strange Shawn theater courtesy of a stranger to local theater: Big TaDa Productions, a collaboration between Bryan Jeffrey Graham and Michelle Doan Warner. In the one-person show, Warner stars as a character who takes the audience through a tour de force while ruminating classism, privilege and "her place in the world." All of which is befitting the man Joseph Papp once called "a dangerous writer." Shawn has long been considered as cynical about liberalism as he is liberal himself with such works as Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Designated Mourner. Tickets $10 general admission, $5 students (two-for-one tickets can be reserved). Call or email tickets@bigtada.com. -- Simmons

• Betsy McGovern
• 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24
• First Unitarian Universalist Church, 5212 S. Claiborne Ave., 866-9010

Vocalist Betsy McGovern started her musical career nearly two decades ago when she offered an hour of music to a church auction. Saturday night, she's back in church, celebrating the release of her new solo album, Revival of the Heart. The album is in line with McGovern's live performances, a mix of traditional Irish music with dashes of contemporary styles, including the blues. Her voice earned the attention of Paul McCartney during a French Quarter gig in the summer of 2002, and she has played all over the country, including the prestigious Milwaukee Irish Fest, often with the group the Poor Clares with long-time bandmate Justin Murphy. The new album was produced by Gerry O'Bierne of Dublin, Ireland, and features Murphy along with local players such as Michael Skinkus, David Ellington and Theresa Andersson. Tickets to this CD-release concert are $10 general admission, $8 for students, and a reception will follow. -- Etheridge

• Rebecca Barry's Jackson 5 Tribute
• 10 p.m. and midnight Saturday, Jan. 24
• Funky Butt, 741 N. Rampart St., 558-0782

There was a time when Michael Jackson was only known for fronting a band comprised of his brothers playing some of the brightest, funkiest pop music ever. Remember "I Want You Back," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Dancing Machine?" Sax player Rebecca Barry is putting together a band to return to those far more innocent days in her tribute to the Jackson 5 at the Funky Butt. Barry started out playing jazz, but now has added funk and rhythm and blues to her repertoire. Her vocals were strained when she first started, but they have improved immensely. Her musical cronies include drummer Kevin O'Day, bassist Edwin Livingston and pianist Victor Atkins. This band promises to get real funky -- '70s style -- at the Funky Butt. Admission $7. -- Kunian

• Truckstop Honeymoon CD-release party
• 10 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25
• d.b.a., 618 Frenchmen St., 942-3731

Since there are no hills in New Orleans, Ninth Ward banjo guru Mike West calls his music "levee-billy," and his latest incarnation, Truckstop Honeymoon, is a fitting amendment to his down-home canon. After West sat in with street musician Katie Euliss at The Spotted Cat, the two banjo-slingers banded together to tour North America and Europe, marrying in New Orleans after one year. They named their act on the way back from a gig in Lafayette on their wedding night, when the road-weary couple slept in their car at the Tiger Truckstop near Atchafalaya Swamp. The duo's self-titled debut marries the simplicity of country living with the idiosyncrasies of downtown New Orleans life. With few tracks topping three minutes, the record is a rash of hillbilly sing-alongs, Ninth Ward style, including wild rave-ups about love ("Crazier Than You"), spirituality ("Jesus Ain't Done Jack,") and politics ("U.S. Foreign Policy"). No cover. -- Diettinger

• Birdspace: A Post-Audubon Artists Aviary
• Through March 21
• Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528-3806

They have always been with us. In the sky, in the trees, in myths and dreams, birds have also appeared in art for as long as it has existed -- but never before has a major group show focused on the role of birds in recent contemporary art. Curator David Rubin says Birdspace "investigates the prevalence of birds and bird culture in contemporary art since the early 1990s, while also revealing how far artists have evolved in their use of bird imagery since the days of John James Audubon." With work from leading American contemporary artists, topics include "Mortality, Loss, Remembrance and Transformation," as well as "Identity and Autobiography" and "The Humanity of All Living Things." Beyond all that, Birdspace is quite simply a stunning, trail-blazing show, an example of the Contemporary Arts Center at its best. -- D. Eric Bookhardt