Seeing live music can be a transcendent mind-body experience, akin to getting a tattoo underwater, or making out during an eclipse. Transcend boredom with today's Groupon: for $8, you get two tickets to one Alive After Five concert at the Knoxville Museum of Art in Worlds Fair Park (up to a $20 value; show prices vary). Concerts take place from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. every Friday evening from October 8 through November 19, although the show on November 5 is free to all guests, so customers should use their Groupon on any of the other six dates.

Alive After Five provides music lovers with an opportunity to hear master melodeers in an unconventional venue. Each installment in the popular Friday-evening series presents the musical stylings of stylists who fall outside of the mainstream’s diet of pop-rock, gangster rap, and Mongolian folk song mash-ups. Come out October 8 to digest the Latin-flavored ear food of Matias-Rocha y Nueva Trova—accompanied by the fancy footwork of Latin dance school Salsa Knox—or swing by November 12 for the jazz, blues, and soul of Bluesette. Many performances also strike a comestible chord with fare from local eateries such as Cocoa Moon and Regas Restaurant, plus two cash bars to keep throats clear in case of a mid-song audience scat wave.

An ideal date destination, as well as a great chance to showcase your dance-juggling, Alive After Five features a two-set structure that allows attendees to explore the museum’s exhibits during the intermission. Show-seers can also sign up for museum membership at a discount, granting them reduced admission prices to future Alive After Five events as well as the right to put “patron of the arts” on their business cards. Guests younger than 18 also receive free admission to all shows, making each concert and excellent opportunity for anything from a night of family fun to a few hours of child storage.

Reviews

Six Judy's Book reviewers give the Knoxville Museum of Art an average of four stars, and four TripAdvisors give it an average of 3.5 owl eyes:

• An enjoyable smaler [sic] art museum with a good variety. – Stevied888, TripAdvisor
• Mrs. James Ward Thorne created scale versions of famous historical rooms in the 1930s and 1940s that were displayed at Worlds Fairs. There are a few museums around the country that have these rooms on display. If you are a fan of miniatures, or have a daughter who loves her doll house, you may want to take a half hour to visit the musem. The detail on these rooms is amazing and worth a brief visit. – ChrissyHny, TripAdvisor