WEDNESDAY 18

All right, this is a blues riff in A; watch for the changes and try to keep up!: It Might Get Loud opens Wednesday at the Nickelodeon Theatre.

Wednesdays are for getting loud! Three guitar heroes converge in It Might Get Loud, and when guitar heroes The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White get together, it’s the culmination of a thrilling personal tour of three exceptional electric guitarists’ careers that’s equally appealing to musicians and rock enthusiasts alike. Variety calls the film “Musically and visually sumptuous”; Entertainment Weekly says it’s a “marvelous rock doc that manages to be wistful, tasty and jam-kicking at the same time”; and the Baltimore Sun says “You’ll never see a more tactile expression of the intimacy between artists and their instruments.” Convinced yet? The Nickelodeon Theatre screens It Might Get Loud at 3, 6 and 8 p.m.; call 254-3433 or visit nickelodeon.org for more information.

Wednesdays are for getting really loud! This, reader, will definitely try your eardrums: Vaunted Japanese noise-rock band Melt Banana plays the New Brookland Tavern tonight; the music section has more on page 58.

Wednesdays are for aviation! Flight, presented by the University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance, is an original play written by university professors Steven Pearson and Robyn Hunt that explores the thrill and daring of the first female aviators. It opens tonight at the university’s Center for Performance Experiment in the Hamilton Gymnasium on the corner of Pendleton and Pickens; curtain rises at 8 p.m., and admission is $10. Call 799-9353 for more information.

Wednesdays are for speaking out against genocide! By all accounts, Bishop Alexis Bilindabagabo should be dead. After all, Bilindabagabo was outspoken and a Tutsi, the minority tribe targeted in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that killed more than 1 million people. But Bilindabagabo survived, and he comes to the Capital City today to deliver a talk entitled Genocide and Reconciliation in Rwanda: A Survivor’s Perspective of Hope at the South Carolina State Museum at 7 p.m. Admission is free; call 665-9745 for more information.


THURSDAY 19

Thursdays are for lights in the Vista! Vista Lights illuminates The Vista tonight; see our special insert section for more.

Thursdays are for pundits! Conservatives, be aware (and liberals, be warned): Glenn Beck will be signing copies of his latest book, Arguing with Idiots, at the Books-A-Million store at The Village at Sandhill tonight; Beck will be signing from 6 to 7 p.m., but signup starts Wednesday at 5 p.m. Call 788-4349 for more information or to get on the list.

Thursdays are for ghost stories! The Language of Angels, opening tonight at the University of South Carolina Lab Theatre, sounds like a horror movie: A young girl mysteriously disappears in a cave in North Carolina; her friends try to bury their horrible secret; one by one, they meet their tragic end. Spooky, no? Curtain rises at 8 p.m.; tickets are $5. Call 777-9353 for more information.

Thursdays are for pop stars from South Carolina! Edwin McCain plays the Newberry Opera House at 8 p.m.; admission is $35. Call 276-6264 or visit newberryoperahouse.com for more information.


FRIDAY 20

Fridays are for dancing! The Columbia Conservatory of Dance pays tribute to former Columbia City Ballet principle dancer and instructor Serge Lavoie at Drayton Hall at 7:30 p.m.; proceeds from the dance benefit the American Heart Association, and the performance features several of Lavoie’s former students, including current City Ballet principle dancer Regina Willoughby. Speaking of noted local dancers, Martha Brim leads the Columbia College Dance Company in its Fall Faculty Concert in the Cottingham Theatre; the ensemble cast also features Columbia College dance alumna Erin Bailey. The bad news: Both dances start at 7:30 p.m. The good news: The Columbia College dance performance runs Saturday as well. Call 760-2925 or 786-3850, respectively, for more information.

Fridays are for pants-off dance-offs! WUSC-FM hosts a dance party at the New Brookland Tavern tonight; proceeds benefit the station’s ongoing fundraising efforts. Keep classic college radio alive: Doors open at 9 p.m., and admission is $3. Call 791-4413 or visit newbrooklandtavern.com for more information.


SATURDAY 21

Saturdays are for sweaty dudes beating the crap out of other sweaty dudes! Tonight’s a historic night, indeed, reader, as the Radisson Hotel on Bush River Road hosts the South Carolina’s first legally sanctioned mixed martial arts event, with local MMA fighter Kelly Anundson topping the fight card. More than human dogfighting, as it’s been maligned, mixed martial arts is as much a sweet science as boxing, mixing technical prowess with all the intensity of a back-alley brawl. Speaking of the sweet science, there’s also a boxing undercard on the bill, meaning you, thrifty consumer, get twice the ass-kicking for the price. The first bell rings at 7 p.m.; ticket prices run from $25 to $55, with each ticket level getting you closer to the carnage. Call 413-7129 or visit palmettoboxing.com for more information.

Saturdays are for sweaty chicks beating the crap out of other sweaty chicks! The Columbia QuadSquad takes on the Soul City Sirens in the flat-track fracas known as Cornucopia of Pain at the Jamil Temple at 6:30 p.m. Because nothing says Thanksgiving than a roller derby beatdown. Admission is $12 (or $10 in advance); call 348-8861 or visit columbiaquadsquad.com for more information.
 

Ooh! Pretty!: The Riverbanks Zoo’s Lights Before Christmas extravaganza opens Saturday.

Saturdays are for sweating horses beating the crap out of other sweaty horses! OK, not really. But if you’re itchin’ to hobnob with high society — or if you’ve got a penchant for putting money on the ponies — toss on your sport coat and head out to Camden for this year’s Colonial Cup horse races. Gates to the Springdale Race Course open at 9 a.m., with the races beginning at 12:30 p.m. (Added bonus: Jazzy rock outfit Ten Toes Up before the first race, in between each race and after the last race is over.) General admission tickets can be purchased for $25 at the gates. (Be warned: The cost doesn’t include parking or the mandatory mint julep.) We’re kidding about the gambling, but not about the sport coat: There’s a dress code mandating a sport coat slacks for the gents and fashionable fall skirts for the ladies. Call 432-6513 or visit carolina-cup.org for more information on tickets, races and that pesky dress code.

Saturdays are for tripping the light(s) fantastic! Call Eight Days crazy, but we know the Christmas season is right around the corner when the Riverbanks Zoo opens its annual Lights Before Christmas extravaganza. So it’s with the giggling glee that the promise of gallons of egg nog provides that we inform you that today is the first day to see said lights, which illuminate the zoo from 6 to 9 p.m. Riverbanks members receive one free visit to Lights Before Christmas; general admission is $8 for adults and $6 for children ages 3 to 12. Call 779-8717 or visit riverbanks.org for more information.

Saturdays are for local authors done good! Author Janna McMahan, whose Snow Angels recently made the New York Times and USA Today best-seller lists, reads from and signs copies of her best-selling works at 1:30 p.m. at Ed’s Editions. Call 791-8002 for more information.


SUNDAY 22

Sundays are for free music! The Palmetto Concert Band performs its fall recital at the Koger Center at 4 p.m.; admission is free. Call 777-4280 for more information.


MONDAY 23

Mondays are for trombones! One of Eight Days’ favorite words, whether it’s an actual word or not, is “tromboner,” so it is with giggling, girlish glee that we inform you that the most talented of the University of South Carolina School of Music’s tromboners perform as part of USC’s Fall Trombone Night at the School of Music Recital Hall. The performance is free and begins at 7:30 p.m. Call 777-4336 for more information.


TUESDAY 24

Tuesdays are for jam rock! Up-and-coming local jam rockers Concrete Jumpsuit play The Elbow Room at 8 p.m.; admission is $3. Visit myspace.com/theelbowroomsc for more information.


WEDNESDAY 25

Wednesdays, too, are for tripping the light(s) fantastic! Saluda Shoals Park opens its holiday light spectacular, Holiday Lights on the River, tonight; like certain South Carolina Bank and Trust locations, Holiday Lights is drive-through only, featuring over 300 displays on a two-mile loop. Eight Days wonders: Can’t we wait until after Thanksgiving to open these things? We digress: Admission is $10 per car; call 772-1228 or visit
icrc.net for more information.