Batten down the hatches! The musical force of nature known as Great Big Sea rolls into the Michigan Theater on Wednesday night.

FLINT, Michigan -- Hot-cha-cha! It was easy to imagine a prohibition-era speakeasy as Vertigo Theatrics opened its eleventh season at Flint's Masonic Temple on Thursday with a sensational dinner theater production of "Chicago, The Musical."

Jeff Schrier | Saginaw News FileIn this 2007 photo, Ann Arbor resident Harumi Omitsu, a member of the Miyabi Ensemble, plays a Koto (a Japanese harp) during her group's performance at the Japan Festival of Saginaw held at the Japanese Tea House & Garden, 527 Ezra Rust Drive in Saginaw.

"We're offering seven games that Japanese kids play," says Yoko Mossner, the cultural director at the hosting Japanese Tea House and Garden, 527 Ezra Rust at S. Washington.

"One of our board members, Todd Hall, the president of GlasTender, has small children and wanted to add a festival component for them. So he did all the research and is setting up the games for elementary-age children."

Last year's initial festival, supported by the Detroit-based Consulate General of Japan, attracted more than 1,000 people to its free offerings.

Mossner said other improvements this year include placing all of the performing groups and 200 seats for the audience under a 40-foot by 60-foot tent and having the Consulate General's personal chef, Hiroomi Takabayashi, talk about the preparation of Japanese foods in addition to making tempura for all to sample.

 When the harmonizing folk trio The Refugees step on stage, it is like magic, according to Cindy Bullens, one-third of the group.

"Every time we hit the stage, we have such a blast," Bullens said during an interview from her Maine home.

"We love playing and singing our songs. We love singing in three-part harmony. There's a lot of laughter in our shows, too. In fact, our banter has become part of what I think attracts people to us. We just have a really good time. So we expect nothing less than that. We're gonna hit the stage and have a really good time and hopefully the audience will too."

The Fratellis are set to perform in Detroit on Monday.

Jon Fratelli, lead singer of the Scottish pop band The Fratellis is obsessed with the United States. He as well as his bandmates, bassist Barry Fratelli and drummer/guitarist Mince Fratelli, can't get enough of touring the States.

"I'm a sucker for America," said Fratelli, whose band members use stage names and aren't related. "I definitely have a romantic idea of America and especially of traveling in America whilst being in a band. We'll always look forward to coming to America. It doesn't matter where we roll up in. We'll always be excited.

Dover Cooper

Several local acts will band together this weekend to pay tribute to one of the most influential musicians to emerge from the Flint blues scene over the last 20 years.

Players ranging from Mark Adams and the Fabulous Windbreakers to the Greg Nagy Band will converge at Bubba O'Malley's on Sunday to honor Dover Cooper, the well-traveled harmonica player and former Buick City Blues Band member who died Aug. 5 at age 54.

A $10 donation will be requested at the door, to help defray the costs of Cooper's funeral services.

Idolator recently uncovered a really funny letter to an advice columnist. It's from a self-described music snob who loves her musician boyfriend but hates his music.

She writes:

"I was a music major in college, and I've done freelance music reviews, so I've got a sort of built-in music snobbery that has very little to do with taste and more to do with being able to analyze song structure, harmonic structure and melody more than most people who haven't studied music.

"On the whole, his songs are pleasant, but it's hard to silence that music-critic voice in my head that says: 'OK, you've played those two chords enough now. How about trying something different?'"

Continuing my grossly informal end-of-summer award handouts ...

Best reason to leave your hipster credentials at the door: The new Coldplay album

With regard to Coldplay, I've gone through phases. I dug the early "Blue Room" EP ("Such a Rush" is still by far their best song). I was wholly bored with "Parachutes." I liked "A Rush of Blood to the Head" by default, since it was played constantly at the Bird when I was a Central Michigan University student. After that, it was back to indifference, as the only strong feeling prompted by "X&Y" was that Chris Martin needed a solid kick to the groin.

New Kids on the Block "The Block" (Interscope) 2 1/2 stars
Without New Kids on the Block there would have been no Backstreet Boys, no N' Sync or probably none of the other boy bands that sprung up in the aftermath of NKOTB's success. So blame them, praise them, do what you will, but don't write off their influence.

They've returned with their first new album since 1994 and Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre haven't strayed far from the formulaic brand of slickly produced pop that turned them into sensations.

The Ragbirds are equal-opportunity eclectics.

This Ann Arbor-based group stirs up an exotic, multi-cultural musical roux that draws on Celtic, Latin, Gypsy, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, reggae and Americana styles.
And when asked which of these styles is at the foundation of their musical hybrid, drummer Randall Moore replied, "All of them! I like to think that all of those styles are pretty equally represented in our sound."