A single yellow light began to shine on singer-songwriter Mirah just before 10 p.m. on Sunday evening, and it continued to beam directly on her for the next hour as she entertained an engaged audience at Castaways in downtown Ithaca. The shoeless singer took to her chair at center stage, tuned her guitar, readied her amplifier and apologized to the audience.

She explained that she had to sit down while performing because a drum had fallen on her foot the night before. — thankfully no bones in her foot were broken.

“Welcome! Brothers, Sisters!” Eyes saturated with a sense of purpose, Billy Bragg inaugurated his Saturday evening performance at the State Theatre with scratchy, scathing electric guitar riffs as the firm backbone to a stream of political consciousness. Sporting dark blue jeans and a black 45-r.p.m. spindle throwback T-shirt, the graying folk-punk protestor drove the crowd to the verge of delirium by savagely pounding at his strings while firing off the words “democracy,” “unite” and “market fundamentalism.” Between songs, the Brit’s barely comprehendible rants featured profanities that we don’t even have in American English.

Andrew Bird put on a dazzling affair this past weekend at the State Theater. The Illinois musician and one-man army of sound captivated the 1,000+ people in attendance, juggling responsibilities as violinist and guitarist as he charmed the crowd with his banter.

Simply put, he was a blur of motion and sound on stage. Darting from one instrument to another, bird engaged the audience with his ethereal whistling and multi-layered, melodious compositions. Disarming everyone present with his unbelievable musical talent, the musician produced deep, rich and textured harmonies that saturated the beautiful old theater.

I fear the lyrics to Hot Hot Heat’s 2002 hit single will morph into reality following the drunken debauchery that will surely ensue on tomorrow on Slope Day. People will be singing, “Bandages, bandages, bandages / Up and down on my legs my arms from you!” But whether or not these words will simply be the result of a catchy, stick-in-your-head chorus or of a horrible drunken accident … I guess time will only tell.

Perhaps best known for “Bandages,” Hot Hot Heat has authored four best selling albums, which together include four top 50 hits. The band’s most recent album, Happiness Ltd., was released last year. Hot Hot Heat will perform second and directly before Gym Class Heroes tomorrow afternoon.