Friday, November 20, 2009
When he's not providing the score for dadaist cartoons or
performing in space suits, Felix Kubin
makes disharmonic pop/experimental noise the old-fashioned way, no computer, no
ironic detachment. The folks at Non-Event have been trying to get him here for
years, and tonight he's in town for his first Boston
(and only second USA)
show ever. So if you like your music cacophonous, perverse, and fearlessly new,
don't miss. | Massachusetts College of Art, North Hall, Room 181, 621 Huntington Ave, Boston | 8 pm | $10 | http://www.nonevent.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, November 20, 2009
Hirsute, hippie weirdo (beardo?) Devendra Banhart has emerged relatively unscathed from his stint as
an unlikely tabloid target (he briefly dated Natalie Portman), and now it's
back to business. The freak-folk singer-songwriter has come a ways since 2007's
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon: he's
now touring behind his first major-label release, the polymorphously perverse What Will We Be (Warner Bros.), and
tonight he plays his occasionally unhinged, astonishingly inventive new songs
while putting your ironic hipster moustache to shame.| Berklee
Performance Center,
136 Mass Ave, Boston | 7:30 pm | $25 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, November 20, 2009
A precursor of all the "hot"
this-and-thats, '70s band Dan Hicks &
The Hot Licks brought a cool, hipster humor to a swinging vocal style that
was equal parts Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt. Hicks has been all around the
block since then, but these days he's again working with the Licks, and they're
at the First Unitarian Church, 3 Church Street, Cambridge | 8 pm | $32 |
978.462.9630 or http://mktix.com/heptunes.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tonight's show is about as
"unplugged" as you'll ever hear Betty
Buckley. Catapulted to fame by her rendition of "Memory" as Grizabella in
the original Broadway production of Cats, Buckley here performs in duo with
jazz heavy-cat pianist Kenny Werner,
at the Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge | 7:30 pm [$38] + 10
pm [$35] | 617.395.7757 or http://www.regattabarjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, November 20, 2009
Our country was totally late
for the party with Metric, who have
been embraced with critical success and strong sales in their native Canada since 2003's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? The
band are now up to their fourth album, Fantasies,
and their shadowy, danceable anthems are suddenly everywhere (which includes episodes
of Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, and Gossip
Girl). It's not hard to figure - their high-flying, synthed-out songs rock.
So next time you want to make fun of our neighbors to the north (or the metric
system), remember that you got scooped by a bunch of moose-riding, non-littering
hockey players, eh? They're at the House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston
| 7 pm | $20 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, November 20, 2009
You might have thought that a
full-time company based in, yes, Boise, Idaho, and touring the country would do
well to last even one year, but the Trey
McIntyre Project is on its second nationwide tour, bringing dance to places
that don't usually see it as well as to those (like Boston) that do, and this
weekend, courtesy of World Music, it's bringing Like a Samba (set to eight songs by Astrud Gilberto), (serious) (to music by Henry Cowell), Shape (inspired by Barbie and
Goldfrapp), and The Sun Road (to
Blackfoot pow-wow music and songs by Paul Simon and Nina Simone) to the
Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | November 20 @ 7:30
pm; November 21 @ 8 pm; November 22 @ 3 pm | $40 | 617.876.4275 or http://www.worldmusic.org.
Filed under:
DANCE
Saturday, November 21, 2009
After a few years in Jenny Lewis's sonic shadow, the Watson Twins have stepped out and into
their own. The Kentucky-born, LA-based identical twins play a particularly
affecting and seductive brand of indie folk, and they've created what may be
the best cover of the Cure's "Just like Heaven" yet recorded - not an easy
title to claim. The two look for (and find) beauty in stillness, and with their
unhurried, æthereal music and the kind of harmonies you'd expect from identical
twins, they open for fellow folk crooner Joshua
Radin. | House of Blues, 15
Lansdowne St, Boston
| 8 pm | $20-$29 | http://www.houseofblues.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Pablo Francisco
is probably most famous for his impersonation of the God-voiced movie-trailer
guy Don LaFontaine, but his bag of characters also fits Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Keanu Reeves, telenovella actors, and about a million others. Forgoing wry
observation for a more energetic (if adolescent) brand of comedy, Francisco is
a kinetic and gifted impressionist, and you can catch him Saturday at the
Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St, Boston | 7 + 9:45 pm | $20-$32 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
COMEDY
Saturday, November 21, 2009
As a prelude to a Sunday
residency beginning next month at Johnny D's, the always provocative 19-piece Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra plays a one-off at Emmanuel Church, with music
by resident composers David Harris, Jim Hobbs, Darrell Katz, Bob Pilkington, Warren
Senders, and Norm Zocher and a line-up that includes most of those folks plus
singer Rebecca Shrimpton, flutist Hiro Honsuku, trumpeter Mike Peipman,
saxophonist Phil Scarff, trombonist Bill Lowe, and more. That's at Emmanuel
Church, 15 Newbury St,
Boston | 8 pm | $12 |
781.899.3130 or http://www.jazzcomposersalliance.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Museum of Fine Arts
is opening not one but three new exhibits today. "
Café And Cabaret: Toulouse-Lautrec's Paris" is a collection of late-19th-century
paintings, posters, and prints from one of the fathers of popular French
lithography. "
Albrecht Dürer: Virtuoso
Printmaker" features the work of the pivotal Late Gothic German artist. And
finally, there's "
Harry Callahan:
American Photographer" (no, not "Harry Callahan: Clint Eastwood Bad-Ass"),
with his groundbreaking photos from the mid 20th century. Get a triple dose of
culture at the MFA, 465 Huntington
Ave, Boston | 10 am-4:45
pm | $20; $18 students, seniors; free for children 6 and under | 617.267.9300
or
http://www.mfa.org.
Filed under:
ART
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Veteran of Def Comedy Jam, self-proclaimed
"Bad Boy of Boston Comedy," and founder of the Black Comedy Explosion, Jonathon
Gates has kept Boston
laughing for 20 years, and tonight he brings in newer blood with Generation Next, a showcase of local
and national talent. Gates will host Chris Tabb, Bethany Van Delft, Terry
Hodges, and Jay, with live music by DJs Wade and Ladies Choice. They all cram
into the Strand Theatre, 543
Columbia Rd, Dorchester
| 8 pm | $20 | http://www.strandboston.com.
Filed under:
COMEDY
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Remember "good, clean fun"? We've
read stories about it from the '50s, but tonight our fair city celebrates it
with the Faneuil Hall 25th Annual Christmas Tree
Lighting Ceremony. This holiday season's inaugural will feature caroling, bell
ringers, dance troupes, live music by Jada and Ernie & the Automatics, a
preview of Boston Ballet's Nutcracker,
and, of course, the lighting of "the tallest Holiday tree in New England!" And a guest appearance by Santa. It's
all at the East End Promenade of Faneuil Hall, Boston | 11 am-6 pm [lighting @ 5:30 pm] |
free | http://www.faneuilhallboston.org.
Filed under:
CHRISTMAS
Saturday, November 21, 2009
If the name of Times New Viking is any indication (and
it is), these Ohio
kids boast a healthy dose of wit to go with their pretty great lo-fi garage
pop. They'll arrive tonight with local heroes Hallelujah The Hills, who're fresh off their national tour, at
Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | 9 pm | $5 | http://www.greatscottboston.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 21, 2009
We can't recall ever hearing
Wagner from
Benjamin Zander and the
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, so this
weekend's attractive program is overdue: the Prelude to act one of
Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg; the Prelude and Liebestod from
Tristan und Isolde,
with soprano
Linda Watson; and
Dawn,
Siegfried's
Rhine Journey, Siegfried's
Death, Siegfried's
Funeral March, and
Brünnhilde's
Immolation from Götterdämmerung, with Watson again. The usual
three performances: Sanders Theatre, 45
Quincy St, Cambridge
| November 19 @ 7:30 pm; November 22 @ 3 pm | Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston
| November 21 @ 8 pm | $15-$70 | 617.236.0999 or
http://www.bostonphil.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, November 22, 2009
There are moments when
pop-music history takes a profound turn, and one such was at the Newport Folk
Festival in 1965, when Bob Dylan plugged in an electric guitar and played with
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Murray
Lerner was there to record the moment for his classic 1967 concert
documentary Festival! (which covers the event from '63 to '66), and he'll
be present tonight when the film screens at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St,
Cambridge | 7 pm | $15 | 617.876.6837 or http://www.brattlefilm.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Sunday, November 22, 2009
We can't recall ever hearing
Wagner from
Benjamin Zander and the
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, so this
weekend's attractive program is overdue: the Prelude to act one of
Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg; the Prelude and Liebestod from
Tristan und Isolde,
with soprano
Linda Watson; and
Dawn,
Siegfried's
Rhine Journey, Siegfried's
Death, Siegfried's
Funeral March, and
Brünnhilde's
Immolation from Götterdämmerung, with Watson again. The usual
three performances: Sanders Theatre, 45
Quincy St, Cambridge
| November 19 @ 7:30 pm; November 22 @ 3 pm | Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston
| November 21 @ 8 pm | $15-$70 | 617.236.0999 or
http://www.bostonphil.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, November 23, 2009
The year that Oliver Wendell
Holmes was describing the Massachusetts State House as "the Hub of the Solar
System," Los Angeles
was a ranching community with a population of less than 5000. LA's evolution
from dusty pueblo to concrete behemoth provides some fascinating history, and
crime journalist John Buntin has
probed some of it in his L.A. Noir: The
Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. Buntin tells a
cops-and-robbers story from the '30s to the '60s through the ambitions of
gangster Mickey Cohen and police chief William H. Parker. (This is, in essence,
the true story behind James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential.) He's at Porter Square
Books, Porter Square
Shopping Center, Cambridge | 7 pm | free | http://www.portersquarebooks.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The big name in this before-and-after-Thanksgiving
Boston Symphony Orchestra program is
superstar violinist Joshua Bell, but
it's guest conductor Sir Andrew Davis
who caught our eye - he led, with Kiri Te Kanawa, the most beautiful
performance of Richard Strauss's "Beim Schlafengehen" we've ever heard. We like
the program, too: Debussy's Prélude à
l'après-midi d'un faune, Stravinsky's Symphony
in Three Movements, and Brahms's Violin Concerto, with Bell. That's at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston
| November 24 @ 8 pm; November 27 @ 1:30 pm; November 28 + December 1 @ 8 pm |
$29-$115 | 617.266.1200 or http://www.bso.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
It's as if, for the last 10
years or so, you couldn't say "Japanese abstract noise rock" without thinking Melt Banana. The trio are known for
their frantically paced, experimental Japanoise, with frontwoman Yasuko Onuki
adding vocals that sound like the primal screech of a rabid and furious cat. As
their frequently sold-out tours suggest, it's a love-it-or-hate-it thing. This
time out, they're with Salem's own freak-metal Captain Cutthroat and the even weirder Exusamwa, so if ringing ears and moshpit wounds are how you want to
celebrate Thanksgiving this year, head to the Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass
Ave, Cambridge | 8 pm | $12-$14 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
After a buzzy showing at CMJ,
Bodega Girls are bringing their non-stop
party back home for (what else?) a "Lo-Fi Hedonistic Dance Party" - an
appropriate gig for this self-described "band of tricksters, hedonists and
good-for-nothings." Their beat-laced breed of indie rock isn't meant for
crossed arms or shoegazing, so get off your feet and move to songs like "She's into
Black Guys" and "Ain't That Cold" at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
| 8 pm | free | http://www.myspace.com/bodegagirls.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Screenwriters seldom get
credit for auteurship, but twin brothers Julius
and Philip Epstein, who were born
100 years ago on August 22, certainly shaped a personal cinema with their
screenplays, which, written separately and together, range from Casablanca (1942) to Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). (They also
happen to be the great-uncle and grandfather, respectively, of Red Sox honcho
Theo, and the uncle and father of his dad, novelist Leslie - but we digress.) The
Brattle Theatre's "Epstein Brothers Centennial" retrospective opens with one of
their lesser-known gems, Vincent Sherman's Mr.
Skeffington (1944), in which Bette Davis and Claude Rains get married for
all the wrong reasons. That's at 40
Brattle St, Cambridge
| 4:15 + 7 + 9:45 pm | $7.75-$9.75 | 617.876.6837 or http://www.brattlefilm.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Maybe you can talk the talk
and walk the walk, but can you run the run? Not only is the Boston Volvo 5k Road Race a kind of
pre-repentance for the truly profane amount of food you'll eat later today,
it's good karma, since it's a fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society. You'll feel good both physically and mentally, so get yourself over to
Boston Volvo, 75 North Beacon St, Brighton | 7:30 am [registration]; 9 am
[start] | $20-$25 [registration]; no fundraising minimum | http://main.nationalmssociety.org/volvo5k.
Filed under:
BENEFIT
