Friday, March 19, 2010
Make your reservations early: guitar god John Scofield always fills the Regattabar, and his all-star New Jazz Quartet with pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Kendrick Scott is sure to pack ’em in this weekend at the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St, Cambridge | March 19-20 @ 7:30 pm [$28] + 10 pm [$25] | 617.395.7757 or regattabarjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, March 19, 2010
In what might have been the fastest ride to the top for any Boston artist ever, 22-year-old Sam Adams recently landed his debut EP, Boston’s Boy, atop the iTunes hip-hop chart without the benefit of a record label. Although he has yet to graduate from Trinity College (where he captains the soccer team) — and just recently began rhyming — Adams has already graduated to the big time, and he plans to ink a major record deal any minute now. Translation: this is the last time you’ll get to see him rock at Harpers Ferry, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston | 8 pm | OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT | 617.254.9743 or harpersferryboston.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, March 19, 2010
If you’re a Generation Y-er, late-’70s/’80s indie-rockers the Feelies were probably one of those bands you’d hear about without ever actually listening to their music. The band, who broke up in 1992, have always been better known for their anti-music-industry attitude and their more famous champions (R.E.M., Rick Moody) than for their meticulously minimalist indie rock. But that’s starting to change, thanks to a couple of album reissues and their 2008 decision to come out of retirement to — in typical Feelies fashion — play some sporadic shows, like the one last year at the Wilbur where they opened for Sonic Youth. That performance was an appetizer; this time around, we’re getting the main course, as the band headline at the Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 8 pm | $20 | 617.864.EAST or mideastclub.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, March 19, 2010
The last time the Stephen Petronio Company came to town, in January 2007, it was to inaugurate the ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater with a hot version of Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps called The Rite Part. Now, the company brings Petronio’s new I Drink the Air Before Me — title by Shakespeare (The Tempest), music by Nico Muhly, costume by Cindy Sherman — back to the ICA, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | March 19 @ 7:30 pm; March 20 @ 8 pm; March 21 @ 3 pm | $40 | 617.876.4275 or worldmusic.org.
Filed under:
THEATER
Friday, March 19, 2010
Street art recently made the acquaintance of the conventional art world during the second ever “Paint it Now” at South Boston’s Distillery Gallery, where for the past two weeks, artists from NYC and Boston have been going to town on the gallery’s walls. During tonight’s opening reception (the installation will hang through April 29), you can check out the 22-artist collaboration as well as meet a host of folks much more talented than yourself.
Distillery Gallery, 516 East Second St, Boston | 7-10 pm | Free | gallery.distilleryboston.com
Filed under:
ART
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Beloved Malian guitar virtuoso Habib Koite may be a perfectionist in the studio, but when he’s out jamming with his band Bamada, he loosens up considerably. Look for him to mix it up with his dynamic talking-drum player Mahamadou Kone at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville | 8 pm | $35 | 617.876.4275 or worldmusic.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, March 20, 2010
You know that mental filter most of us were born with, the one that separates “inappropriate” from “appropriate” thoughts before we speak? Curb Your Enthusiasm star and stand-up comedienne Susie Essman doesn’t have it, and that’s why this foul-mouthed New Yorker is a hit at Friars Club and Comedy Central celebrity roasts. (During one such event for Donald Trump, she asked the guest of honor: “Donald, did you enjoy your meal? I heard your hair ordered the salmon.”) The author of What Would Susie Say: Bullshit Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy will be bringing her stand-up act to the Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St, Boston | 7 pm | $29-$39 | 800.745.3000 or thewilburtheatre.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Saturday, March 20, 2010
With the recession still looming like a
charmless, foul-smelling boss, it's become more important than ever that our
popular music offer an escape from a less-than-optimal reality. That's why a
new North American tour from the breezily whimsical Parisian duo Air seems like a gesture from the gods.
Grab your most-down-on-his-or-her-luck friend and hitch a ride with the
chilled-out electronica kings to their plush sonic empire, at the Berklee
Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston | 7:30
pm | $35 | ticketmaster.com or berkleebpc.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sure, snagging the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director is hot stuff, but can Kathryn Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker" win the really big ones — the Chlotrudis Awards? The 16th annual ceremony promises to outdo the Academy shindig in everything but length: delightful musical numbers, worthy winners, and an appearance from the “Career So Far” award winner, actress Beth Grant, whom you might remember from No Country for Old Men (as Carla Jean’s crusty mother) and Little Miss Sunshine (as the mean beauty-contest official). What’s more, the stellar presenters will include the Phoenix’s own Peter Keough and Gerald Peary, at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | 5 pm | $20 | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Monday, March 22, 2010
One of the first Hollywood films to acknowledge the atrocities of the Third Reich, Hungarian émigré André de Toth’s None Shall Escape (1944) postulates the post-WW2 trial of a fictitious Nazi and shows how this average German turned into a war criminal. French film critic and historian Jean-Michel Frodon, whose anthology Cinema and the Shoah has just been translated into English, will screen and discuss the film at the Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | 7 pm | $9; $7 students | 617.495.4700 or hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
Filed under:
FILM
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 gloss on
King Lear, transports Shakespeare’s story to Sengoku-era Japan, where warlord Hidetora’s decision to abdicate in favor of his eldest son has consequences every bit as black and tragic as the original’s. This masterpiece screens all week in a new 35mm print at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Brookline | 617.734.2500 or
coolidge.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Monday, March 22, 2010
We quite liked R&B/pop diva Alicia Keys's latest, The Element of Freedom (J-Records, 2009)
- apart from an issue or two we had with the vocals. (Whoever decided it was a
good idea to run her voice through production enhancers on the single "Love Is
Blind" should be sentenced to community service.) Tonight the gorgeous, classy Keys
will serenade us under the bright lights, so let's hope her handlers keep the Auto-Tune
in the off position when she brings those million-dollar pipes to Agganis
Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston | 7:30 pm | $45-$125
| ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Best known as the author of the 1955 standard “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” lyricist Fran Landesman has not been resting on her laurels. Working with composer Simon Wallace since 1994, she has a whole new book of urbane, literate, classic American Songbook–type numbers of the type that don’t get written much any more. Boston singer Shepley Metcalf has just recorded a bunch of them as Something Irresistible: Songs of Fran Landesman + Simon Wallace, and she’ll be singing them — joined by pianist Ron Roy, bassist Chris Rathbun, and drummer Gene Roma — at Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston | 8 pm | $20 | 617.562.4111 or scullersjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
“She shakin’ it 4 daddy, she shakin’ it for me.” Robin Thicke, the only white guy on the planet who can pull off a line like that, makes no apologies for his freak tendencies. The dude recently ground his way through an oversexed rendition of “Shakin’ it 4 Daddy” with hornball rapper Nicki Minaj on Letterman without batting an eyelash (or making a post-show apology), so you can imagine how naughty he’ll get tonight when the cameras are off.
House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | 8 pm | $35-$45 | 888.693.BLUE or houseofblues.com
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The brilliant, acerbic Christopher Hitchens has debated the Reverend Al Sharpton and a number of other God-fearing celebs since the release of his 2007 argument for atheism, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. This time around, the Vanity Fair scribe goes toe-to-toe with the LA-based Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe for the “Great God Debate,” and if Wolpe is even half as persistent as our Uncle Moishe, Hitchens better bring his A-game.
Back Bay Events Center at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St, Boston | 7:30 pm | $28-$45 | newcenterboston.org
Filed under:
WORDS
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Bay Area stalwarts Tower of Power have been holding down the funk front for more than 40 years. The horns-and-rhythm 10-piece (with lead singer Larry Braggs) hit the Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St, Boston | 7:30 pm | $45 | 800.745.300 or thewilburtheatre.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
As you’ll recall, Jon Garelick waxed ecstatic about Christian Scott in the March 12 “Giant Steps.” Scott and his explosive young band are at Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Road, Boston | 8 + 10 pm | $20 | 617.562.4111 or scullersjazz.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
We often wonder what it would be like to attend a dinner party at the house of cognitive scientist and Harvard professor Steven Pinker and his wife, the philosopher/novelist Rebecca Goldstein. Does Pinker advocate the computational theory of mind as he serves the main course? Later, over tea and biscuits, does Goldstein preside over a competition to see which guest can present the best argument in favor of the thesis that human nature is inherently good? Judging from the agenda the couple have prepared for “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Morality and the Arts” — a discussion of such deep questions as “What, if any, are the limits of science?” and “Can atheists have spiritual experiences?” — we’d say we’re not all that far off. Bring your thinking caps along to Harvard Hillel, in Beren Hall, 52 Mount Auburn St, Cambridge | 7 pm | free | 617.661.1515 or harvard.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wildly independent filmmaker George Kuchar’s raunchy, taboo-busting shorts — think “Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof” (1961), “Corruption of the Damned” (1965), and “Hold Me While I’m Naked” (1966) — set the tone for the avant-garde cinema of the ’60s, inspiring the likes of Andy Warhol and John Waters. Kuchar will be on hand to screen some of his films and maybe pass around a bong during “An Evening With George Kuchar” in Room 101, BU College of Communication, 640 Comm Ave, Boston | 7 pm | free | 617.353.3483 or bu.edu/com/ft/film/cinematheque.shtml.
Filed under:
FILM
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
You never quite know what you're going to get from
Andrea Fraser. She's made a career of tweaking and critiquing the art world,
having hijacked a group of gallery goers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in
order to give them a bogus tour, humped a wall after finding herself "overcome"
with emotion at Spain's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and stripped down to nothing
while giving an artist's talk. Tonight she's in town to take part in "The
Church of What's Happening Now: New Art, New Artists with Andrea Fraser" - for
which she'll talk to Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts director Marjorie
Garber and Institute of Contemporary Art chief curator Helen Molesworth about
the subject of "institutional critique" and then hang around for the "opening" reception
of her video exhibit "Andrea Fraser Boxed Set" (which has been up at the
Carpenter Center since February). Here's hoping for a little inspired mayhem in
the Thompson Room at Harvard University's Barker Center, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge | 6 pm | free | 617.495.0738 or
fas.harvard.edu/~humcentr.
Filed under:
ART
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
There's a popular notion that women are not as
funny as men. Out to annihilate that untruth is the second annual Women In Comedy Festival, a five-day laugh
smorgasbord of shows, workshops, and panels with this city's best female comics
(and, yes, the occasional male), improv and sketch groups, filmmakers, and
humor writers. The event's producers have opened up the line-up to the rest of
the country, so this year, two Californians are headlining: the uproarious,
possibly insane Maria Bamford, a woman of a thousand voices who has starred on
Comedy Central's "Comedians of Comedy" tour, and the more-together but no less
funny (okay, maybe a little less funny) Los Angeles-based Jackie Kashian. The
festival invades two notorious laugh institutions: Mottley's Comedy Club, 61 Chatham St, Boston,
and Improv Boston, 40 Prospect St,
Cambridge | March 24-28 | http://www.womenincomedyfestival.com.
Filed under:
COMEDY
Thursday, March 25, 2010
James Levine returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra podium tonight to conduct the world premiere of Peter Lieberson’s Farewell Songs — the composer’s musical farewell to his wife, the fabulous mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died of cancer in July 2006. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley will be the soloist. Debussy’s Jeux will start off the program, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 will close it, at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston | March 25, 27, 30 @ 8 pm; March 26 @ 1:30 pm | $29-$115 | 617.266.1200 or bso.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Whenever a new New Yorker comes out, we go straight to the table of contents to
see whether David Grann has contributed. This top-notch reporter and storyteller
traverses murky, occasionally dangerous terrain to retrieve his features. Tonight
Grann will be chatting with Atlantic contributing
editor Toby Lester about the former's upcoming The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, a collection of previously published
pieces that include his investigation into the mysterious death of the world's
foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes, his harrowing profile of the powerful,
ruthless prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood, and what might well be his greatest
journalistic achievement: a deftly organized look back at Cameron Todd
Willingham, a Texan who, on dubious evidence, was put to death for murdering
his children. That's at Porter Square Books, Porter
Square Shopping
Center, Cambridge | 7 pm | free | 617.491.2220 or http://www.portersquarebooks.com.
Filed under:
READING
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Boston Underground Film Festival turns the Kendall
Square Cinema into an unholy temple of depravity as it discharges its twisted
opening-night film, Love Exposure (2009)
- a four-hour, Japanese-made work about a young man who uses his prowess at
kung fu to make a name for himself as an up-the-skirt pornography photographer.
Other films that sound intriguing: Playing
Columbine, a documentary about the controversy surrounding a video game
based on the notorious murder spree by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and It Came from Kuchar, another
documentary, this one taking aim at the lives of legendary B-movie directors
George and Mike Kuchar. The Kendall is at 1
Kendall Square, Cambridge
| March 25-April 1 | http://www.bostonunderground.org.
Filed under:
FILM
Friday, March 26, 2010
In addition to being a tremendous musician, Marissa
Nadler wins points for not abandoning our city for the more glamorous New York
Shitty even as she's become something of an indie folk star. The Jamaica Plain
songwriter - who has four full-lengths under her belt as well as a soon-to-be released
album collaboration with the California death-metal band Xasthur (seriously) -
is part of an all-ladies bill featuring Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat
and the Portland-based Aly Spaltro's Lady Lamb The Beekeeper at T.T. the Bear's
Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | 9:20 pm |
$10 | 617.492.BEAR or ttthebears.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Vampire Weekend don't
do anything incredibly original. (Unless, of course, you're 17 and have never
heard a lick of Paul Simon.) But they sure know their way around a pop song, as
their recent
Contra (XL Recordings) makes
clear. There won't be a lot of asses in their seats when VW bring their p(r)eppy,
Afropop-inspired melodies to town for an already sold-out performance at the
Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston | 8 pm
|
ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, April 02, 2010
You might know stand-up comic Doug Benson from
his 30-day-in-a-row pot-smoking streak in the documentary Super High Me (2008),
or his frequent takedowns of anti-drug commercials. ("The absolute worst is the
one where a young girl is physically melting into a couch. . . .
As a pot smoker, I'm not deterred by that. I'm thinking . . . I've
been smoking the can't-find-my-keys weed, and somewhere in the world there's
some melting-into-the-couch shit?") Tonight he'll be putting down his blunt
long enough for a show at the Wilbur Theatre,
246 Tremont St, Boston | 7:30 pm | $20-$25 | 800.745.3000 or thewilburtheatre.com.
Filed under:
COMEDY
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The words "intelligent" and "metal" don't often turn
up in the same sentence - except, of course, when you're discussing High On Fire,
whose nuanced, punishing live show you can take in at the Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 8 pm | $15 | 617.864.EAST
or mideastclub.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Friday, April 09, 2010
Live electropop meets gore in
multimedia event "The Animals," and though we're not sure whether this "bloody,
outrageous revolution" sounds really cool or like something out of Lars von
Trier's nightmares, we're certainly curious. Created by performer/writer Adam
Stone and director Mike Donahue, and based on Stone's 2009 album of the same
name, "The Animals" features dancers, video/animation, music, and 10 scenes of
one very unfortunate boy being torn apart by 10 different species, from bees to
a crocodile. Is it okay to dance while a young boy is getting mauled? The
answer is probably yes over at Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge | 10:30 pm | $15 | 866.811.4111 or cluboberon.com.
Filed under:
MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE
Friday, April 09, 2010
Midlake's new prog-folk album, The Courage of Others (Bella Union),
does not immediately reveal its pleasures, but a patient listener will find handsome
payoff in the moving choruses and surging, swirling high-rises of sound built from
a trunk or two's worth of instruments. These dudes from Denton,
Texas, are at the Paradise, 967
Comm Ave, Boston |
8 pm | $14 | 617.562.8800 or thedise.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Details about "The Beast in Me - Johnny Cash:
Art Influenced by the Struggle of a Man" - which opens today and runs through
May 2 at the Nave Gallery in Somerville - haven't yet reached us, but we do
know something about the
Johnny Cash
Tribute shows that have sprung up around it. There are four in total, and
they're going off in Portland, Northampton,
Providence, and Boston. Of the eight local acts doing homage
to the Man in Black in Boston (okay, Somerville), we're most excited about
Apollo Sunshine frontman
Jesse Gallagher,
sterling country-blues foursome
Coyote
Kolb, and
Movers & Shakers,
who do the Drive-By Truckers thing better than anyone around these parts. Proceeds
from the evening will go to various prison-literacy programs, a nice touch that
we imagine Cash himself would have appreciated. It's at P.A.'s Lounge, 345
Somerville Ave, Somerville
| 9 pm | $10 |
artsomerville.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Author and This
American Life contributor David
Sedaris has become one of those three or four American writers who roll off
people's lips when you ask about their favorite authors - a club otherwise occupied
by the likes of Danielle Steel and James Patterson. But as a "popular writer," Sedaris
is in another league. His droll riffs on the absurdity of modern life are clever
indeed - one reason he's able to charge concert-ticket prices to his
"readings." He brings his inexhaustible stockpile of chuckle-worthy anecdotes
to Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston
| 7 pm | $30-$55 | 617.482.6661 or celebrityseries.org.
Filed under:
READING
Monday, April 12, 2010
Amanda Palmer's latest project promises
to double your fun, with, of course, a bit of the Dresden Dolls' signature
dramatic flair. Evelyn Evelyn purports to be "the world's only conjoined-twin
singer-songwriter duo," but it's actually the artsy brainchild of Palmer and
Seattle musician Jason Webley. The former street performers (she a living
statue, he a busker) have attracted celebs from Andrew W.K. to Francis Bean
Cobain to partake in their odd, vaudeville musical art, so you can be sure
they'll have a few exciting surprises in store
during their two shows at Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge | April 12-13 @ 8 pm |
$25-$40 | 866.811.4111 or cluboberon.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Thursday, April 15, 2010
We think of our commonwealth as being fairly
open-minded, so we've never understood the longstanding ban on tattooing. What
exactly was Massachusetts's
problem? And how was the ban finally reversed? For the answer to both
questions, check out the Institute of Contemporary Art's
"On Pins & Needles: Tattooing in Massachusetts," a lecture pegged to the museum's
"Dr. Lakra" exhibit (April 14-September 6), which will feature the work of Mexican
tattoo artist Jerónimo López Ramírez (a/k/a Dr. Lakra). ACLU Massachusetts
lawyer Sarah Wunsch will be on hand with show curator Pedro Alonzo to discuss
the role she played in making possible the pursuit of tattoo happiness, at 100 Northern Ave, Boston | 7 pm | $10; $8
students, seniors | 617.478.3103 or
icaboston.org.
Filed under:
LECTURE
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Brooklyn-based Miniature Tigers' first full-length, Tell It to the Volcano (Epic, 2009), married an innocent '60s pop
vibe with some seriously zany lyrics. But it was one of those unlikely happy couplings,
like, oh, Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn. Especially successful was the strange,
moving "Dino Damage," which was about an adult dinosaur's fraught relationship
with his young. You can discover the band for yourself when they play with the Morning
Benders at T.T. the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline
St, Cambridge | 9:55 pm | $10 | 617.492.BEAR or ttthebears.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
You may not know composer/violinist Owen Pallett's name, but if you've
heard the gorgeous string arrangements on either of the Arcade Fire's two albums,
you already know his work. When Pallett isn't writing string and orchestral
arrangements for high-profile indie-rock bands, he's recording under the name Final Fantasy - and more recently under
his own name - supremely nerdy orchestral-pop concept albums like He Poos
Clouds (2006), which the musician has described as "an eight-song cycle about
the eight schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons." But it's his brand new
one - Heartland (Domino), a sumptuous electronica-meets-baroque-pop concoction
- that brings him to the Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | 7:30 pm | $18 | 617.876.4275 or
worldmusic.org.
Filed under:
MUSIC
Monday, April 26, 2010
Eighties nostalgia is too often
reduced to the extremes of giddy neon pop and sour, bummed-out Brits like the
Moz. But Ian McCulloch and Echo & The Bunnymen were able to find a happy medium between pretty and
sad with songs like "Lips like Sugar" and "The Killing Moon." Also, they
totally ruled on the soundtracks to Pretty in Pink and The Lost Boys. The re-formed post-punk crew take command of the
stage at the Paradise, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | 8 pm | $29.50 | 617.562.8800 or
thedise.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
