Concert

A Morgan State University concert-goer has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was knocked to the ground and trampled last year when a large amount of cash was thrown into the crowd during a performance by rapper Lil' Wayne. Tyrique Layne, a student at Morgan at the time, filed the lawsuit yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court, claiming that she required overnight hospitalization as a result of injuries she suffered last October at the concert held at the university. In addition to Lil' Wayne, whose given name is Dwayne Michael Carter, the suit names Universal Records Inc., Cash Money Records Inc. and Young Money Touring Inc. Stacey Richman, an attorney who has represented Lil' Wayne in another matter, said she did not have any information on the lawsuit and could not comment.

Somewhere, I have black and white snapshots of a Herman's Hermits concert I attended on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J., more than 40 years ago. The photos are blurry, but you can spot Peter Noone's head bobbing above a sea of transfixed teenage girls. I remember elbowing my way to the front to hand him a teddy bear on behalf of another girl. If you go The British Invasion Concert, sponsored by MPT, takes place at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. The show features Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone; Badfinger star Joey Molland; Denny Laine, former singer with Moody Blues and Wings; and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas.

First, Karen McVearry spent $30 to join the Hannah Montana fan club and buy presale concert tickets for her 9-year-old daughter Maddie. Too late - they had sold out. The 36-year-old Catonsville mom tried again the day the tickets went on sale to the public. As Maddie played soccer, McVearry stood on the sidelines, a cell phone in each hand, calling Ticketmaster, while a friend also called and tried ordering online. Still too late. The Jan. 8 Hannah Montana show at 1st Mariner Arena sold out in minutes.

The maestro handed out doughnuts. Marin Alsop, the music director-designate for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, helped deliver the treats to the 150 people who circled around Meyerhoff Symphony Hall after the box office opened yesterday. Alsop's hospitality helped ease the hunger pangs of those who had been waiting for hours. The first people arrived at 7 a.m., two hours before the box office opened. About a dozen musicians were also on hand. "Only in Baltimore," said Charles Shubow as he took a doughnut from Alsop.

For the first time in 15 years, Wine in the Woods will draw thousands of grape fans to the center of Columbia on the same day Merriweather Post Pavilion attracts thousands of music fans to the same location for an evening concert. Such a convergence of cars has been a possibility before, said Jean Parker, Merriweather's general manager, but it never happened to work out until the pavilion booked Seal to appear tomorrow. Representatives from the pavilion, the Department of Recreation and Parks, which organizes Wine in the Woods, and county police and fire departments have been making plans for several months to prepare for the overlapping streams of traffic.

Pop diva Beyonce Knowles helped clean up Druid Hill Park yesterday without lifting a manicured finger. In exchange for a ticket to her Aug. 8 concert at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, more than 400 teenagers and adults spent four hours pulling weeds, raking mulch and picking up fallen branches at Druid Hill and another park in Edgewood in Harford County this weekend. New York-based Boost Mobile RockCorps bought the tickets and organized the community service event under the theme "You've Got 2 Give 2 Get."

Concert -- World Artists Experiences will present a concert by the Estonian contemporary folk group V?gilased (The Mighties) at 7 p.m. today at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, 801 Chase St., Annapolis. Free. www.worldartists.org.

Concert -- Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts will present a Valentine's Day Emerging Artists Showcase at 7:30 p.m. today at 801 Chase St., Annapolis. The show will feature singer-songwriter couples Jen and Scott Smith (above), Brian Gundersdorf and Katie Graybeal, and Andy Fox and Denise O'Brien. Tickets are $15, $10 for students, seniors and MHCA members. 410-280-5640 or www.marylandhall.org.

As it wrapped up its 20th season Saturday, the Columbia Festival of the Arts reached a record for attendance at its ticketed events. From June 6 through June 23, the festival filled just over 80 percent of the roughly 8,000 seats available at the 12 ticketed events, according to the festival's executive director, Nichole Hickey. "We've never gotten there [before]," Hickey said, estimating attendance to be about 15 percent higher than in previous years. Thousands more people attended free and paid art exhibits, lectures, master classes and readings as well as the free, three-day LakeFest event.

Comics, alive The lowdown -- Theatre Project veterans Daniel Stein and Touchstone Theatre of Bethlehem, Pa., return to the Preston Street venue beginning tonight with A Comic Strip. Created collaboratively and directed by Stein, this grown-up, dark comedy focuses on a cartoonist whose life is about to crumble when characters from his favorite boyhood comic strip take him on a perilous, eye-opening journey. If you go -- Showtimes at the Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St., are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays, through June 17. Tickets are $16. Call 410-752-8558 or go to theatre project.

SATURDAY THIEVERY CORPORATION: D.C.-based DJs Eric Hilton and Rob Garza usually keep their live shows interesting by bringing musicians from their label, ESL Music, on stage. So you can look for lots of special guests and music from the duo's latest release, "Radio Retaliation." Thievery Corporation performs at Pier Six Pavilion, 731 Eastern Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$65. Go to ticketmaster.com. MARYLAND WINE FESTIVAL: Grab a designated driver and your wine notes journal: You're in for abundant samples from Maryland's wineries, including Basignani Winery, Boordy Vineyards, Cygnus Wine Cellars, Elk Run Vineyards, Fiore Winery, Woodhall Wine Cellars and dozens more.

* "There was a bit of a flamenco dance step, with the five heads snapping up on 'I Want You Back'; the hands went up over the heads and were clasped together as if in prayer on Jermaine's medley, which began with 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; and on Sly Stone's 'Thank You,' one arm was flung out to the side, then the hands were brought together and down in a slashing motion diagonally across the chest." - James D. Dilts' Sun review of the Jackson Five's September 26, 1971, concert at the Baltimore Civic Center * "Every floor was packed with [fans]

Lettie Holman swears on Bruce Springsteen's soul patch that Ticketmaster automatically kicked her over to its high-priced TicketsNow scalper site when she was trying this week to buy seats for The Boss' tour stop at Washington's Verizon Center. Ticketmaster says she and others who make similar claims are misremembering or lying. So it is that, even before it starts, Springsteen's newest tour has become a public relations disaster for him and America's best-loved concert-ticket monopoly.

In an economic environment where the music industry largely withered, the concert industry in 2008 held steady - but just on the surface. Tour grosses from November 2007 through November 2008 were up nearly 13 percent from the year before, with overall ticket sales hitting a record of a little less than $4 billion worldwide, according to Billboard magazine. North American concert grosses were up 8 percent in 2008 after a 10 percent decrease the year before. However, the trend of declining global concert attendance continued, falling 2 percent after a nearly 20 percent drop in 2007.

Cultural organizations are taking a beating during the economic downturn, and to recover, they'll more than ever need to retain the devotion of audiences who have supported them for years. That's why the Baltimore Opera Company, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, should figure out a way to show its appreciation for all those who bought tickets for scheduled productions that have been canceled. The company said it was struggling with an accumulated deficit of about $800,000 and disappointing ticket sales for its production this year of Verdi's Aida, one of the opera repertory's most lavish spectacles.

The summer concert season is about to kick off. Ticket prices aren't cheap. But if the rising cost of, well, just about everything is making you rethink a real vacation, a concert could be a worthy indulgence. Over the last few years, the market for ticket sales has expanded beyond just Ticketmaster, helping to provide a wider range of prices. (If you remember back in the 1990s, the band Pearl Jam canceled a summer tour in protest of Ticketmaster's monopoly on ticket sales, which included surcharges.

The opera season, relatively quiet since December, is slipping back into high gear. Productions by Opera Vivente and Annapolis Opera started the action in the past few days, and the scene gets even busier this week. Peabody Opera Theatre presents one of Mozart's most popular works, The Magic Flute, in a staging that features sets designed by students of the Maryland Institute College of Art. Roger Brunyate directs this tale of love, duty, deception and self-discovery. Hajime Teri Murai conducts.

By candlelight The lowdown -- Chamber Music by Candlelight, showcasing Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians and their friends, remains one of the most rewarding concert series in the area. Sunday's presentation offers the Clarinet Quintet by Brahms; the String Quartet No. 1 by Leos Janacek; Stephen Funk Pearson's Mountain Moon for violin and guitar; and Sonata for Two Violins by Miklos Rozsa. If you go -- The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Second Presbyterian Church, 4200 St. Paul St. Donations accepted.

St. Andrew's to hold soup sale at market St. Andrew's United Methodist Church, 4 Wallace Manor Road, Edgewater, will offer homemade soup at its weekly indoor flea market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow. Soup is sold by the quart or gallon; preorders are accepted. Space at the flea market is available for $15 for a 10-by-10 foot space; tables are $5. Other food concessions also will be available. Information: 410-269-7671. Christmas sale set for tomorrow Jenkins Memorial Church will hold its Christmas Bazaar and Cookie Walk from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at 133 Riviera Beach, Pasadena.

Somewhere, I have black and white snapshots of a Herman's Hermits concert I attended on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J., more than 40 years ago. The photos are blurry, but you can spot Peter Noone's head bobbing above a sea of transfixed teenage girls. I remember elbowing my way to the front to hand him a teddy bear on behalf of another girl. If you go The British Invasion Concert, sponsored by MPT, takes place at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. The show features Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone; Badfinger star Joey Molland; Denny Laine, former singer with Moody Blues and Wings; and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas.