If your ears are ringing just from reading all that, you’ll probably prefer the more refined line-up at the Bank Boston Pavilion (209 Northern Avenue, Boston); starting with what has to be the first ever gay-themed package tour: TRUE COLORS (June 16) with rainbow-friendly headliners Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, and our own polymorphously perverse Dresden Dolls. We’d guess that anyone who attends that show will want to be back a week later for MORRISSEY on June 26.
Getting back to the oldies, one of our favorite guilty pleasures is the Saturday OLDIES CONCERTS at the Hatch Shell, where surviving ’50s and ’60s figures dig up their greatest hits. Fresh from getting whacked on The Sopranos, Frankie Valli inaugurates the series on June 16. The Stylistics and Bluenotes do an old-school soul night on July 28. But we especially recommend Johnny Rivers, who plays all his hits — a good 30 of ’em — as well as some killer swamp-rock guitar.
Another oldies fix can be found at the LOWELL SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL (at Boarding House Park, Lowell, $12–$28) whose wide-ranging line-up includes the Natalie Merchant–less version of 10000 Maniacs (July 7), blues great Buddy Guy (July 20), ousted Allmans guitarist Dickey Betts (August 9), songwriting aces Shawn Colvin and John Hiatt (August 24) and the long-MIA, ex-BS&T singer David Clayton-Thomas (August 25).
One of the true joys of the summer season is the chance to see music outside those dark clubs. You can, for instance, sit outdoors on the Putnam Plaza overlooking Boston Harbor, where the INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART (ICA) presents a weekly series of free shows by Berklee students and alumni, on Thursdays from 6 to 8:30 pm. Jazz saxophonist Mike Tucker, who’s earned the praise of Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker, inaugurates the series June 14. The MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston) also has a summer concert series on its courtyard, with shows twice weekly through August 22. Long-running local folk hero Chris Smither is there June 20. One of the loveliest places to catch live music is the Newport Yachting Center, in Rhode Island, which has a two-week SUNSET MUSIC FESTIVAL from June 28 through July 8 (tickets $20–$65). Appearing nightly (except on July 4) is a different headliner, with Joan Jett (June 29) for the rockers and Kenny Rogers (July 3) for the rockers’ parents. It’s also worth a trip to DISCOVERY PARK in Portland, where a free concert series will include the likes of Del Fuego–turned–kids’ troubadour Dan Zanes (June 30), blues/soul man Robert Cray (July 4) and folk icon Arlo Guthrie (August 4).
Those dark indoor clubs will also be seeing plenty of action this summer. The uncategorizable FIERY FURNACES have played some of the better club gigs we’ve caught in the past few years — imagine the early Who as fronted by Laurie Anderson — and they’re at the Paradise (967 Comm Ave, Boston), on June 29. The same club has a night of Boston rock for the ages on July 14, when BUFFALO TOM celebrate their long-overdue new CD with the lately reformed Moving Targets opening.
