"Raw Milk Debate"
Thursday @ Harvard Law School
Who says movies can't change the world? Or at least the contents of our refrigerators. Last September saw the release of local filmmaker Kristin Canty's documentary Farmageddon, which explored the health benefits of raw milk and the safety regulations restricting its consumption. Now Harvard Law School is hosting a public debate on the issue that will include Fred Pritzker, of the Pritzker & Olson Law Firm and Dr. Heidi Kassenborg, Director, Dairy & Food Inspection Division, Minnesota Department of Agriculture on one side, and David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution and Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, on the udder, er, other. Read more
Ron Savage
Thursday @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Jazz takes its maiden voyage in the Gardner Museum’s new Calderwood Hall — the jewel of architect Renzo Piano’s design for the new wing. The honor goes to veteran Boston drummer (and Berklee prof) Ron Savage and his trio with pianist Sharik Hasan and bassist Alex Toth. This is the first of the resumed “First Thursday” concerts at the reopened venue. Read more
Steve Aoki
+ Datsik + Autoerotique
Thursday @ House of Blues
We’re pretty bummed that local drumstep outfit Terravita are sitting out tonight’s stop on the Dim Mak's Deadmeat Tour 2012, since they’ve been opening shows on the tour along the way, a coup we were totally psyched about. Sigh. Guess we’ll just have to dance our disappointment away with the tour’s headliners, Steve Aoki and Datsik, who will most assuredly be putting in some solid face time at this rager of a dance party tonight. Read more
You Won’t
+ Slowdim + Friendly People + The Suitcase Junket
Thursday @ T.T. the Bear's Place
Former theater kids and would-be filmmakers, local indie duo You Won't found their footing in music.
Ryan Reed talks to You Won't frontman Josh Arnoudse. They're joined by Slowdim, Friendly People, and the Suitcase Junket tonight at TT's. Read more
"Guys, Gals, and Glitter"
Friday @ Club Café
If there’s a constant we can rely on, it’s that at any give time, somewhere in Boston, somebody will be prepping their booby tassels for a burlesque show. (And, if not, there’s always the Glass Slipper.) But when do we get a chance to eyeball some man-meat? Not often enough, we say, which is why we’re excited for ”Guys, Gals, & Glitter” at Club Café, a show for fans of both male and female assets. Half good old-fashioned striptease, half rollicking comedy show, this burlesque revue stars both the talented ladies of Rogue Burlesque and the gentleman of Sirlesque. We’re all for equal opportunity ogling, which you’ll get your fill of at Club Café. Read more
Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni
Friday @ Symphony Hall
There’s a lot of excitement about the young Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, who seems to have turned the Columbus Symphony Orchestra around in his first season as music director. The Handel and Haydn Society has invited him back to lead one of the most exciting and demanding symphonies in the repertoire: Beethoven’s Eroica, on a program with Beethoven’s dramatic Egmont Overture and Haydn’s rarely heard Symphony No. 48. Read more
Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni
Friday @ Symphony Hall
There’s a lot of excitement about the young Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, who seems to have turned the Columbus Symphony Orchestra around in his first season as music director. The Handel and Haydn Society has invited him back to lead one of the most exciting and demanding symphonies in the repertoire: Beethoven’s Eroica, on a program with Beethoven’s dramatic Egmont Overture and Haydn’s rarely heard Symphony No. 48. Read more
In Flames
+ Trivium + Veil Of Maya + Kyng
Friday @ Palladium
Metal is a tricky genre. What, can easily devolve into shtick in the charge of lesser bands, Sweden's In Flames handle deftly with their fusion of death metal, Eurothrash, and stadium pop. They're at the Palladium tonight,
Daniel Brockman gets the dirt from drummer Daniel Svensson pre-show.
Read more
Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, and Sue Williams "Figuring Color"
Friday @ Institute of Contemporary Art
Bright colors and fleshy forms embody artists’ thoughts about our bodies in new ICA curator Janelle Porter’s debut show here. Sue Williams creates a cyclone of collaged red, white, and blue human organs. Kathy Butterly fashions droopy, cartoony ceramics. Felix Gonzalez-Torres piles up candies equal to the weight of the artist and his lover lost to AIDS. Roy McMakin fills a room with gray furniture recreated from memories of his parents’ and grandparents’ homes. Read more
Time Stands Still
Friday @ Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Lest we forget there’s still a war being fought over there (it’s all too easy to) Lyric Stage brings Time Stands Still to town for a month-long run. A staging of the acclaimed Broadway hit, Time Stands Still tells the story of a photojournalist and foreign correspondent who fall in love while on assignment in war-torn Baghdad. But can their relationship survive the less obvious perils of ordinary life when they return home? A timely reminder of the battle those who see war continue to fight long after their tour of duty (in whatever capacity) is through, the play opens tonight and runs through late March. Read more
"Boston Facial Hair Fiasco!"
Saturday @ Church of Boston
Movember is long over but you’re still cultivating that Fu Manchu you’ve been working on since summer? We feel you, shaving off a fine beard or gentlemanly moustache can feel like amputating a limb. The peeps over at Tallboy have the night for you. The Boston Facial Hair Fiasco has got a facial flair competition with categories including “Full Beard Natural or Groomed,” “Freestyle Moustache and Beard,” “Fake Beard,” and more. Best bring you’re A-Game, there be some hirsute gentleman in this city. Judged by Carmen O’Connor of Bodega Girls and Bert Mayer III of the Boston Beard Bureau, among others, the Fiasco also has a stacked bill with Township, Coyote Kolb, and Black Helicopter. Read more
Cuffs
+ Woollen Kits + Headband
Saturday @ Plough & Stars
A full night of fuzzed-out vocals, rangy guitar riffs, and all-around solid garage rock is to be found when Cambridge’s Cuffs (comprising members of Reports, Big Troubles, and PY!) play a show at the Plough & Stars. They’re joined by Aussie garage-pop outfit Woollen Kits, and local garage/psych rockers Headband. Read more
The Ducky Boys
+ Hudson Falcons + Energy
Saturday @ Great Scott
When you’ve been at the forefront of Boston’s punk revival since 1995, a one-night-stand just won’t cut it. So Jason Messina, Douglas Sullivan, and Mark Lind — collectively running through the skatepunk streets as the Ducky Boys — take over a Great Scott weekend to unveil sixth studio album Chasing the Ghost (State Line), a 17-track collection of fist-in-your-face punk anthems that really don’t care if the world ends in 2012. Read more
Stephie Coplan & the Pedestrians
Saturday @ Lizard Lounge
One night in November, Stephie Coplan emailed an MP3 of her snarky new piano-pop single, “Jerk,” to Paul Driscoll of WFNX. An hour later — after he dutifully edited out all the swears — Driscoll premiered the relentless track on the “Nightly News.” Coplan recorded her reaction for YouTube — all schoolgirl giggles, “holy shit!’s,” and euphoric appreciation — and a star was seemingly born overnight. Now based in New Jersey, Coplan spent five years living in Cambridge/Somerville and attending Tufts University, so between that factoid and Winthrop-native drummer Shane Considine, Boston demands this trio move back. A national breakout pick for 2012 with unlimited potential. Read more
The Addams Family
Sunday @ Shubert Theatre
Boston isn’t privy to the abundance of first-run productions with which New York is glutted, something theater-heads sometimes bemoan. In the case of the The Addams Family, however, second-time-around’s a charm. After the tepid — and some downright cool — reviews given to the original Broadway production featuring America’s favorite anti-happy little family, the show was re-worked, re-cast, and re-vamped . . . to successful ends. See for yourself tonight, when Morticia, Gomez, and company bring their morbid delights to the stage. Read more
Boston Ballet in "Simply Sublime"
Sunday @ Opera House
The Boston Ballet opens its Spring 2012 season with not one, but three fine ballets in one program. Simply Sublime is indeed a rather sublime way to kick off the ballet’s new season, including George Balanchine’s intricate and exhilarating Symphony in Three Movements, Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia (a romantic comedy of sorts set to ten Ligeti piano pieces), and Michael Fokine’s one-act, non-narrative romantic work Les Sylphides. Read more
Emilie Autumn
Sunday @ Royale
It’s not often you come across a goth chick who’s trained in classical violin, which is what makes emilie autumn so intriguing. The long-time (like, since she was old enough to hold a bow) concert hall-violinist-cum-dark rocker has played in Courtney Love’s backing band among others, but tonight it’s all her. Touring behind, curiously, her newly penned goth-lit book The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls, Autumn brings her act — part rock show, part performance art — to Royale. Read more
Less Than Jake
+ Samiam + A Wilhelm Scream + Flatfoot 56
Sunday @ Middle East Downstairs
The fact that Less Than Jake are celebrating 20 years together kind of makes us feel really, really old. And this on the tail end of our
Emo issue, which somehow simultaneously made us feel like maladjusted 14-year-olds and out-of-touch old folks at the same time. But it’s true, the Gainesville ska-punks play a 20th anniversary show in Cambridge tonight, which we’ll most certainly be attending in the spirit of some serious nostalgia. The sold-out show also features Samiam. A Wilhelm Scream, and Flatfoot 56. Read more
"Aphrodite and the Gods of Love"
Monday @ Museum of Fine Arts
The ancient Greek love goddess is the subject of 160 sculptures and vessels from the MFA’s collection of classical art as well as 13 loans. MFA Director Malcolm Rogers says, “I am excited to welcome visitors to the realm of the sexy goddess Aphrodite and hope that her powers are still potent and present, as well as her wise ancient ways.” Read more
"Portlandia: The Tour"
Monday @ Berklee Performance Center
The Phoenix believes in giving you both sides of the story. Which is why we think you should
check out Chris Braiotta’s hilarious piece of haterism on IFC’s Portlandia and then, thusly informed, check out the show’s stars Fred Armisen (SNL) and Carrie Brownstein (Wild Flag/Sleater-Kinney) for yourself. The duo behind the absurdist sketch comedy show that riffs on indier-than-thou subculture in Portland, Oregon, will perform live music, present sneak-peek clips from the show's second season, and share personal anecdotes at this stop on their limited engagement live tour. And expect those always exciting “special guests.” Read more
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
+ Flogging Molly + Devil Makes Three
Tuesday @ House of Blues
Dropped last spring, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears’ sophomore album Scandalous (Lost Highway) was
so uncommonly good we gave it an unprecedented four stars (Gotta work it hard to impress us, is what we’re saying). So we’re ready and willing to be further impressed when the Austin garage-soul outfit rock an opening slot on Flogging Molly’s 8th Annual Green 17 Tour tonight. The Devil Makes Three shares the bill. Read more
Buckwheat Zydeco
Tuesday @ Regattabar
More than 30 years ago, Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. was in the forefront of a new generation of R&B-inflected western-Louisiana dance music known as zydeco. Today, Buckwheat Zydeco are still kings of this genre driven by accordion, washboard, electric guitar, bass, and drums, and they hold a passel of Grammy nominations to prove it. Read more