Weekend Agenda Weekend mysteries

Leave the house this weekend, and you're likely to find yourself wrapped in the mists of bafflement. Perhaps we exaggerate, but you'll at least trip over some small mysteries. During CunninLynguists' Friday show at the High Noon, The A.V. Club will keep puzzling over how this rap group from Kentucky isn't big on another level. Perhaps the name suggests a tacky pack of fratboys, but in fact they've got more depth and character than the vast majority of hip-hop artists. That same night at The Frequency, folks will have just as much trouble figuring out how Minneapolis band The Book Of Right On compacts all its screwed-up, mischievous ideas into songs that actually rock. And perhaps those in attendance when Colbie Caillat plays the Barrymore on Saturday night can help us identify that elusive "something-or-other" that helps some generically harmless pop contenders succeed above others. Then again, it's nice to see that our homegrown institutions still outlast such things: Community radio station WORT celebrates its 34th birthday Saturday at the High Noon Saloon, and a bunch of East-side rockers play Mickey's Tavern Friday night to help a friend of theirs out with some medical bills.

Then there's the matter of hybrids. We can only speculate as to what inspired Chicago's Afro-Zep (playing Saturday at the High Noon Saloon) to combine Led Zeppelin songs with Afrobeat instrumentation, though it turns out to work pretty well. And if Zac Brown Band's (playing Sunday at Alliant Energy Center) blend of country and beach-bum chill really hasn't existed before, then why? Friday's screening of Home From The Hill at Cinematheque pairs director Vincente Minnelli (best known for lavish Hollywood musicals) with the sublime grimness of actor Robert Mitchum. The mysteries are much more thorny on Saturday night, when Cinematheque screens three documentaries about art and history from French director Alain Resnais.