Every Friday, we highlight three great shows from local performing artists that you can see this coming weekend.

 

Be Loud ’14 Festival
Friday, August 8th at 7:30PM, and Saturday, August 9th at 2PM and 8PM at Cat’s Cradle

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It’s a great cause. Obviously. The Be Loud! Sophie Foundation does incredible work for teens with cancer and their families at UNC hospitals. And so you can attend this weekend’s Be Loud! Festival knowing that your ticket money will go towards one of the area’s best charities.

But even if the cause weren’t great – good lord, the music! The Cat’s Cradle will host three packed-house concerts on Friday and Saturday, and the headliners both nights are Chapel Hill legends The Pressure Boys. These jubilant ska-rockers owned the Hill in the early 80s, and have reunited just once since breaking up in 1988. This might be your only chance to see them play live! They’ll be joined by three other reuniting 80s standouts, Raleigh pop heroes The Connells, Winston-Salem’s Let’s Active (who haven’t played together in 25 years!), and Chapel Hill hardcore band A Number of Things. And that’s not even mentioning rockabilly king Dex Romweber, or the Saturday afternoon festival featuring more terrific acts and food trucks. If you grew up loving music in the Triangle in the 80s, your youth is back on stage this weekend only. And it’s all for a great cause.

 

Carrboro A Cappella Night
Saturday, August 9th at 7PM at The ArtsCenter

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These have been banner years for collegiate a cappella. The vocal-only bands are ubiquitous on campuses, but in the last few years (thanks to The Sing-Off and Pitch Perfect) their style has spread into the national musical consciousness.

One unexpected offshoot of the collegiate a cappella revival is that all those kids who sang together in college started to remember how much they enjoyed it. So adult a cappella groups began popping up around the country, as these former singers got back into the game.

The Triangle’s Cognitive Resonance is one such group, inspired by The Sing-Off to return to the music they love. And this Saturday night at The ArtsCenter, they’ll play host to Atlanta sister group Catatonic for an evening of instrument-free harmony. If you love a cappella, sing a cappella, or just want a college throwback, this is the concert for you.

 

Paperhand Puppet Intervention: The Painted Bird
Friday, August 8th, Saturday, August 9th and Sunday, August 10th at 7PM at The Forest Theatre

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The Forest Theatre is tucked into the woods behind the UNC campus, and if you came upon it by accident, you might think you’d discovered a relic of some lost (artistically-inclined) civilization. It’s nearly a century old, and built into the hillside like they did back when they invented theater in Athens.

Maybe because it feels as old as the woods, the Forest is the perfect home for Paperhand’s annual pageant. Those giant puppets and larger-than-life masks feel natural here, with their scale matching the rocks and trees around them. This year’s show in particular matches its setting: The Painted Bird tells the story of wild animals uniting to save their home. And with shows each of the next five weekends, you have plenty of chances to submerge yourself in the augmented natural world of Paperhand. 

 

For more on these and other great activities, visit our full event calendar, or click here to sign up for our newsletter and get “Ten Things To Do In Chapelboro This Weekend” delivered every Thursday to your email inbox.