"I Am the Cheese"
String Cheese Incident
Electric Factory
421 N. Seventh Street
November 1
8 p.m., $23/$25 day of show
(215) 627-1332
Mmmmm... String cheeese... Yummy... But processed, slick and rubbery the band is not. Improvisational musical geniuses with an indie, trippy and always enthusiastic following it is. The String Cheese Incident creates a unique blend of mandolin, violin, guitar, bass, piano and God-knows-whatever-other-instrument they can fit on stage. Accordingly, their musical genre isn't quite definable, as they blend bluegrass, rock, jazz and, well, you can probably fill in the last blank and still hit the mark. Radio stations never know what's good out there these days. Suffice it to say that you won't catch these young'uns on the air and will have to shell out some of your parents' hard-earned dough to hear them in full force. Structured songs aren't the norm--endless jams are--but the second-hand high will help you get through the show, even if the music won't.
Win Ben Stein's Wife and Kids
Mask & Wig
Iron Gate Theatre
37th and Chestnut streets
Through November 3
7 & 9:30 p.m., $8
Tix sold on Locust Walk
C'mon, you know them, you love them, and it's always funny to see guys dressed up as women. Some are more convincing than others, and it's scary how some of them are actually prettier than the real females on campus. I doubt that the builders of the church expected to have cross-dressing college boys prancing around onstage. Such sacrilege! And I'm sure they're damn proud of it...
Natural Gifts
Academy of Music
260 S. Broad Street
Through November 3
8 p.m., $25-$100
(215) 893-1900
So you were nine years old and your chalk-wielding fourth grade teacher forced your class to go to the orchestra where you sat bored to tears because the people playing the violins weren't Smurfs. Well, now you're a grown up, or at least attempting to prove to your parents that you are, and it's time to accept the fact that the Smurfs were a cartoon. Gargamel and his mangy cat won't come after you or your chest-bearing little friends.
