FRIDAY, FEB. 25, 2011 >>>

1. There's a reason everyone's talking about the Peabody Waldorf - and it starts with the kick-ass all-ages shows. Tonight. catch Loch Lomond, Elk & Boar and Big Sur & Hail. For the Weekly Volcano's comprehensive live local music listings, click here.

2. In a brilliant move, the Broadway Center will transform its Theatre on the Square into an old-fashioned social hall tonight, setting up Jeffrey Broussard & the Creole Cowboys on the stage above a cleared-out dance floor. Yup, the seats will be replaced with sweaty, happy dancers. To make the dancers even happier, the Barefoot Collective pros will provide free zydeco dance lessons an hour before the show. Expect the music to be an infectious rhythm that will be more rubbery syncopation than predictable stomp.

3. Rick Springfield will do what he does best at the Little Creek Casino tonight. This time we're serious.

4. Border Songs, the novel that won Jim Lynch the 2010 Washington State Book Award (not to mention the coveted Best Writer status in our recent Best of Olympia edition!), has now been adapted into a stage play by local playwright Bryan Willis. This version - which opens tonight - was produced through Saint Martin's University Theatre Department but was commissioned by Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, which will remount the play there in September. It's about a rookie border control agent, Brandon Vanderkool, who's more in love with birds than his job.

5. Peter Tietjan's Follow the Kites is just one of many riches that the 253Heart Festival will provide over the weekend - with opening festivities tonight. Other notable acts, taking to local stages like The Harmon Tap Room, The Hub, The Hub Events Space and Doyle's Public House over the weekend, include EvergreenOne, Quincy "Q-Dot" Henry, Apache Chief, Roman Holiday, Perry Acker, SweetKiss Momma, Evan Purcell, Jim Basnight, the Dignitaries, the Artichoke Project, Doug Mackey, Jeff Angell, etc, etc, etc. It'll be awesome.