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        Country duos: The Dixie Chicks and Ricky Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder show at the Firstar Center isn't the only great country double-bill in town tonight. At the Comet (4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside; 541-8900), alt-country holds forth, with the hard-ore honky tonk of Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys and Deanna Varagona. 9 p.m., no cover. (For ticket info on the Dixie Chicks concert, see Get To It on Page E1.)
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        Benefit concert: When we wrote about Connor Chee in July, he was preparing to compete against 80 artists in the American Music Scholarship Association competition at the Aronoff Center. He went on to win the Gold Medal.

        Now his fellow piano majors at the School for Creative and Performing Arts want to accompany him to New York to watch him perform at Carnegie Hall (part of his prize winnings) next month. Their problem: money.

        To raise funds for the trip, the piano majors (plus a harpist, and flute and oboe players) are staging a benefit concert at 7 p.m. Friday in the Cathedral Room at the Taft Theatre. Tickets are $10 at the door. Thirteen kids and five chaperones hope to make the trip. 632-5972.

        CD release: He swept the 2000 Cammys, rocked 'em at Pepsi Jammin' on Main and at countless honky tonks across the country. He's Dallas Moore, the Tristate's leading long-haired country-rock outlaw. Along with belting out songs from Skynyrd to Hank Sr., the man flat knows how to throw a party.

        Saturday night, that's just what he and his Dallas Moore Band will do at the Wooden Horse Bar & Grill (10080 Springfield Pike, Woodlawn; 771-7767). The occasion is the release of his “unplugged” album, Untold Stories, featuring such stompers as “Frog Giggin”' and the moody murder ballad, “Sweet Marie.” And if you request “Free Bird,” they won't think it's a joke.

        The party starts at 10 p.m., admission $5.

        Tokyo Quartet: One of the great ensembles of the past three decades, the Tokyo String Quartet, gives the first of its annual concerts at 8 p.m. Tuesdayin Corbett Auditorium. Playing its matched set of “Paganini” Strads, the group performs music by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Tickets: $12, $8 students (UC students are free). 556-4183.

Movies opening Friday

   • Bamboozled
   • Beautiful
   • Bedazzled
   • Girlfight
   • The Legend of Drunken Master
   • Pay It Forward
   • Psycho Beach Party

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