Saturday, November 07, 2009
Billy Ruane, an irrepressible fixture on the
local music scene, has been booking great shows for more than 20 years.
Tonight's mega-show is no exception, with blues-rockers Drug Rug, the indie-soul Whispertown
2000, folk crooner Nina Violet, Portland lo-fi duo Lady Lamb The Beekeeper, and eight
others (so far). This six-hour marathon is the third annual benefit concert for
well-liked local musician Stephen Fredette, who's battling lymphoma. They'll be
strumming all night for a good cause at the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge
| 6 pm-2 am | $10-$12 | http://www.lizardloungeclub.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 07, 2009
In 2000, Al Gore
lost an election, but not really, and in the intervening years he's chosen his
life's work, winning a Nobel Peace Prize, a Grammy, an Academy Award, and a
Prime-Time Emmy (true) for grinding away the apathy and inaction and general
stupidity surrounding climate change. Following his seminal wake-up call, the
diagnostic An Inconvenient Truth, Gore is back with a prescription - he reads
from his new Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Global Climate Crisis at the First
Unitarian Church, 3 Church St, Cambridge | 1 pm | $30 [includes a copy of the
book] | 617.661.1515 or http://www.harvard.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Saturday, November 07, 2009
For 15 years, Denis Leary's been hosting the annual comedy
fundraiser Comics Come Home to
benefit the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care. This year, you can expect sets
from Jimmy Fallon, Bill Burr, Kenny Rogerson, Lenny Clarke, Adam Ferrara, Tony
V, Jeffrey Ross, Patrice Oneal, Whitney Cummings, and more. Whether it's for
that warm fuzzy feeling or the feeling of moral superiority, they're selling
laughter you can feel good about at Agganis Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston | 7:30
pm | $40-$155 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
COMEDY
Saturday, November 07, 2009
The Boston Symphony
Orchestra's fall Beethoven-symphony cycle wraps up this weekend with guest
conductor Lorin Maazel on the podium
for No. 8 and then the great No. 9, for which he'll have soprano Christine
Brewer, contralto Meredith Arwady, tenor Matthew Polenzani, bass-baritone Eike
Wilm Schulte, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass
Ave, Boston | November 5 + 7 @ 8 pm; November 6 @ 1:30 pm | $29-$115 |
617.266.1200 or http://www.bso.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 07, 2009
With hair by Coheed and Cambria and vocals oscillating
between Jack White and Robert Plant, Australia's Wolfmother have triggered a resurgence of guitar-driven hard rock.
They're brought to town by the AIDS-fighting (RED)Nights, so go and thank them
at the House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | November 7 @ 7 pm | $25 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Even at four decades old, Monty Python still serves up the
world's freshest comedy, and you can get a big helping of it at the Brattle
Theatre's Python-A-Thon, a full day
of absurdity including And Now for
Something Completely Different (1972; 2:15 pm), Life of Brian (1979; 4:30 pm), The
Meaning of Life (1983; 9:30 pm), a quote-along version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975; 7
pm), and, for good measure, Pythonite Terry Jones's take on the Kenneth Grahame
children's classic The Wind in the
Willows (1996; noon).
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | $30 all-day
pass; $25 students; $10 quote-along; $7.75 individual films | 617.876.6837 or http://www.brattlefilm.org
Filed under:
FILM
Sunday, November 08, 2009
The wildly popular The
Beatles: Rock Band is pretty much the Beatles of the Rock Band world. The
game has reintroduced an entire generation to their parents' music, and in a
flourish of home-town love, the Cambridge-based video-game company Harmonix is
partnering with the Independent Film Festival of Boston to bring it to the
Somerville Theatre, alongside Richard Lester's watershed 1964 film A Hard Day's Night. After the
mockumentary, ticketholders will have the unique opportunity to play a
video-game tournament on a movie screen, so bring your skills to 55 Davis Square, Somerville
| 4 pm [film]; 6 pm [competition] | $5-$7 | http://www.iffboston.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Or with Jane Glover
and the Handel and Haydn Society in entr'actes
from Mozart's Thamos, König in Ägypten, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, with
fortepianist Robert Levin, and
Haydn's Symphony No. 45 (Farewell), at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston
| November 6 @ 8 pm; November 8 @ 3 pm | $15-$72 | 617.266.3605 or http://www.handelandhaydn.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, November 08, 2009
You saw the ballet (last week at the Opera House, if you
were lucky) - now hear the opera! Boston
Lyric Opera opens its season with Bizet's sizzling Carmen, for which it'll have the Pops' own Keith Lockhart in the orchestra pit and Dana Beth Miller (Carmen),
John Bellemer (Don José), Daniel Mobbs (Escamillo), and Hanan Alattar (Micaela)
on stage at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | $34-$195 | November
6, 11, 13, 17 @ 7:30 pm; November 8, 15 @ 3 pm | 866.348.9738 or http://www.citicenter.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, November 09, 2009
And just to empty Massachusetts of all its teenage girls, Train (of "Drops of Jupiter" fame) will
be playing with Uncle Kracker - the
same night as Miley Cyrus and Rob Thomas - at the House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne
St, Boston | 6 pm | $29-$39 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, November 09, 2009
In addition to Miley Cyrus and Train (also tonight), an
embarrassment of pop-music riches, Rob
Thomas comes to Connecticut with OneRepublic, touring behind his June album
Cradlesong at the Mohegan Sun Arena,
1 Mohegan Sun Blvd, Uncasville, Connecticut | 7 pm | $46 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, November 09, 2009
Although no one has yet seen Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana in the same place at the same time,
one of them is pretty much guaranteed to be at the TD Garden, 100 Legends Way,
Boston | 7 pm | $39.50-$79.50 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, November 09, 2009
One of the most radical filmmakers in Japan, if not the world, Koji Wakamatsu has gotten a lot of
attention for his magnum (190 minutes' worth) opus, United Red Army (2008), a fictional account of the infamous
late-'60s/early-'70s Japanese terrorist group, its early ideals, and its
self-destructive demise. Some of that attention has been unwelcome - the US
State Department has Wakamatsu on its black list, so he won't be able to attend
this Harvard Film Archive screening at 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | 7 pm | $9 |
617.495.4700 or http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
Filed under:
FILM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Buenos Aires-born, New England
Conservatory-educated singer/composer Sofia
Koutsovitis writes alluring
jazz-band arrangements for her settings of pan-American rhythms and folk-song
forms. Celebrating the release of Sube Azul (World Village),
Koutsovitis hits the Regattabar with guitarist Eric Kurimski, bassist Jorge
Roeder, drummer Jorge Pérez-Albela, and percussionist Samuel Torres. That's in
the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge
| 7:30 pm | $15 | 617.395.7757 or http://www.regattabarjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Imagine the Cure's "Just like Heaven" sung as a Blossom
Dearie jazz samba. That's the lead-off single from Austin singer Kat Edmonson's Take to the Sky (Convivium), and the justifiable comparison made by
no-bullshit critic Jeff Simon. Edmonson not only has a distinctive sound but
the rhythmic dexterity and musical know-how to shape each word so you'll hear
it. When she hits her original material, it becomes clear that she's one of
those throwbacks who's also up-to-the-minute.
Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field
Road, Boston | 8 pm | $18 | 617.562.4111 or http://www.scullersjazz.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Since his 2002 breakthrough with the clever, introspective
Personal Journals, it's been clear that hip-hop needs someone like Sage Francis. The Providence MC
nurtures a seemingly limitless reservoir of righteous indignation over
everything from politics to hip-hop itself, and he unleashes upon his targets
the pun-happy acrobatics of a dexterous, if arrogant, linguist. Whether it's
about rap, the health-care debate, or himself, his voice is urgent and vital.
Harper's Ferry, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston | 8 pm | $15-$17 |
http://www.harpersferryboston.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
By now, there must be wild Amazon parrots who can sing at
least a bar or two of "Gives You Hell," the catchiest piece of hateful spite to
come bouncing out of your radio since Fall Out Boy's Take This to Your Grave. With their latest, When the World Comes Down, the emo-ish All American Rejects have cemented their place among the manicured
power chords of the pop-punk pantheon, and they come to Foxborough for two nights
with the significantly whinier (but no less poppy) Taking Back Sunday.
Showcase Live, 23 Patriot Place, Foxborough | November 10-11
@ 7 pm | $35 | http://www.ticketmaster.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
What more can we say about Neko Case? With a voice that can do anything but be boring, layered
lyrics that tend toward epic, and an irrepressible energy that she seems to
draw from the ground, the dark queen of alt-country has already made an
indelible impression on American music. Her songs have elemental force and
momentum, and she'll be showing off with desert indie-rock group Calexico at the Wilbur Theatre, 246
Tremont, Boston | 8 pm | $35 | http://www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Russian-born Toronto resident Sophie Milman plies her very adept Ella Fitzgerald moves at
Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston | 8 pm
| $25 | 617.562.4111 or http://www.scullersjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The international appeal and feel-good globalism
of San Francisco's
Rupa & the April Fishes would be
annoying if the band weren't so damned good. To wit, lead fish Rupa Marya spent
her childhood traipsing from India
to France to the US - and she
also happens to be a physician. La! But the group's arrangements for acoustic
guitar, cello, accordion, trumpet, acoustic bass, and drums maintain the
individualized folkloric grit and Gypsy dance-floor bomp of their source
material. And multi-lingual Rupa happens to be a dandy singer and songwriter.
They celebrate their new Este Mundo (Cumbancha) at the Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge
| 7:30 pm | $15 | 617.395.7757 or http://www.regattabarjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Jonathan Safran Foer's
first two books, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly
Close, introduced a young novelist with impressive virtuosity and boundless
imagination, so it's hard to know what to make of his latest, Eating Animals, a
non-fiction polemic against, well, eating animals. Foer couples his
considerable gifts with exhaustive research to convince the reader of the evils
of carnivorism. He's being brought in by Brookline Booksmith, but he'll be at
Congregation Kehillath Israel,
384 Harvard St, Brookline | 7:30 pm | $5 | http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
You saw the ballet (last week at the Opera House, if you
were lucky) - now hear the opera! Boston
Lyric Opera opens its season with Bizet's sizzling Carmen, for which it'll have the Pops' own Keith Lockhart in the orchestra pit and Dana Beth Miller (Carmen),
John Bellemer (Don José), Daniel Mobbs (Escamillo), and Hanan Alattar (Micaela)
on stage at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | $34-$195 | November
6, 11, 13, 17 @ 7:30 pm; November 8, 15 @ 3 pm | 866.348.9738 or http://www.citicenter.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By now, there must be wild Amazon parrots who can sing at
least a bar or two of "Gives You Hell," the catchiest piece of hateful spite to
come bouncing out of your radio since Fall Out Boy's Take This to Your Grave. With their latest, When the World Comes Down, the emo-ish All American Rejects have cemented their place among the manicured
power chords of the pop-punk pantheon, and they come to Foxborough for two nights
with the significantly whinier (but no less poppy) Taking Back Sunday.
Showcase Live, 23 Patriot Place, Foxborough | November 10-11
@ 7 pm | $35 | http://www.ticketmaster.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Plan ahead: jazz saxophone superman Joe Lovano hits the Regattabar with his slam-bang Us Five band featuring jazz "it" girl
Esperanza Spalding on bass, pianist James Weidman, and drummers Otis Brown and
Francisco Mela, in the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge | 7:30 pm [$28] +
10 pm [$25] | 617.395.7757 or http://www.regattabarjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Before he was catapulted into the national media spotlight, Henry Louis Gates Jr. was a Harvard
professor, a literary critic, and one of the country's most decorated public
intellectuals. So though we all now know that he enjoys Red Stripe beer,
perhaps more important is that he's spent a lifetime studying, arguing, and writing
about race in America. Tonight, Cambridge Reads book club will be hosting Gates
as he reads from his 1994 memoir, Colored People.
Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, 45 Quincy St,
Cambridge | 7:15 pm | free [tickets required] | 617.496.2222
Filed under:
WORDS
Friday, November 13, 2009
You saw the ballet (last week at the Opera House, if you
were lucky) - now hear the opera! Boston
Lyric Opera opens its season with Bizet's sizzling Carmen, for which it'll have the Pops' own Keith Lockhart in the orchestra pit and Dana Beth Miller (Carmen),
John Bellemer (Don José), Daniel Mobbs (Escamillo), and Hanan Alattar (Micaela)
on stage at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | $34-$195 | November
6, 11, 13, 17 @ 7:30 pm; November 8, 15 @ 3 pm | 866.348.9738 or http://www.citicenter.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, November 15, 2009
You saw the ballet (last week at the Opera House, if you
were lucky) - now hear the opera! Boston
Lyric Opera opens its season with Bizet's sizzling Carmen, for which it'll have the Pops' own Keith Lockhart in the orchestra pit and Dana Beth Miller (Carmen),
John Bellemer (Don José), Daniel Mobbs (Escamillo), and Hanan Alattar (Micaela)
on stage at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | $34-$195 | November
6, 11, 13, 17 @ 7:30 pm; November 8, 15 @ 3 pm | 866.348.9738 or http://www.citicenter.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, November 15, 2009
One of this town's oldest and most respected cinema traditions, the Boston Jewish Film Festival, opens tonight at the Coolidge Corner Theatre with Israeli director Ori Ravid's debut feature, Eli & Ben, in which a young boy is shocked by the arrest of his esteemed father. (Peter Keough's review is on page 27.) The festival runs through November 15; other venues include the Kendall Square Cinema, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | $25 | 617.244.9899 or http://www.bjff.org
Filed under:
FILM
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
You saw the ballet (last week at the Opera House, if you
were lucky) - now hear the opera! Boston
Lyric Opera opens its season with Bizet's sizzling Carmen, for which it'll have the Pops' own Keith Lockhart in the orchestra pit and Dana Beth Miller (Carmen),
John Bellemer (Don José), Daniel Mobbs (Escamillo), and Hanan Alattar (Micaela)
on stage at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | $34-$195 | November
6, 11, 13, 17 @ 7:30 pm; November 8, 15 @ 3 pm | 866.348.9738 or http://www.citicenter.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
