MUSIC
Pop & Rock
SLEIGH BELLS Since 2008, Alexis Krauss and Derek E. Miller have been making giddy speaker-blowing music that combines sugary-sweet vocals with harsh blasts of guitar and synths to arresting effect. Their most recent album, last year’s “Texis,” proves that the combination is still invigorating, reveling in chaos as it digs deep for the sublime. Aug. 26, 7 p.m. Paradise Rock Club. 617-562-8800, crossroadspresents.com
SOMERGLOOM 2022 This daylong festival closes out the summer with fuzzed-out, metal-edged mood music by 11 acts, including a trio of local headliners: space travelers Junius, bummer-riders Glacier, and thrashers SEA. Aug. 27, noon. ONCE at Boynton Yards, Somerville. oncesomerville.com/by/
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ALEX ISLEY: MARIGOLD TOUR The singer-songwriter and member of R&B royalty (her dad is the Isley Brothers’ Ernie Isley) has a resonant alto that grounds the stretched-out soul of her latest album, this year’s “Marigold.” Aug. 29, 7 p.m. Brighton Music Hall. 617-779-0140, crossroadspresents.com
MAURA JOHNSTON
Folk, World & Country
SWELLTUNE RECORDS SNIFF-A-RAMA SONG SAFARI With a name like that, how can you resist? Local label Swelltunes is putting on another one of its multi-act extravaganzas, with the vintage stylings of the Televisionaries and Becky Lynn Blanca and a special surf set from Shaun Young. And if that’s not enough, everyone gets a “sniff-a-rama” card to deploy during the show. Aug. 26, 9:30 p.m. $20. The Porch, 175 Rivers Edge Drive, Medford. 781-874-9357, www.theporchsouthern.com
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER/AOIFE O’DONOVAN You need Hiss, good buddy, and Aoife as well, and you can get both when these two performers, each with their own distinctive folk iteration, bring their “Turn Tail in the Milky Way” tour to the Lowell Summer Music Series this Saturday. Aug. 27, 7:30 p.m. $39, $89. Boarding House Park, 40 French St., Lowell. 978-275-1829. www.lowellsummermusic.org
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NORA BROWN This 17-year-old banjo prodigy is full of wonders. How can someone so young sound so ancient? How can someone from Brooklyn sound like she came out of an Appalachian holler? And how does Nora Brown pull it off with such effortless aplomb? Sept. 1, 8 p.m. $20. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679, www.passim.org
STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
BOSTON JAZZ FEST This year’s edition of the annual musical extravaganza features smoky-voiced jazz and R&B siren Kandace Springs, Billie Holiday acolyte Pat Braxton, classically trained pianist, singer, and songwriter Vivian Fang Liu, soul-funk jam band The GroovaLottos, and much more. Aug. 27, noon-9 p.m. Free. South Boston Maritime Park, 600 D St. www.bostonjazzfest.org
HARVEY DIAMOND QUARTET FEATURING FRANCISCO MELA Heartfelt and thoughtful pianist Diamond, a local treasure who was among the last students of jazz guru Lennie Tristano, is joined by renowned Cuban drummer Mela (McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano), plus top-notch trumpeter Phil Grenadier, and seasoned bassist Jon Dreyer. Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m. $20. The New School of Music, 25 Lowell St., Cambridge. music.jondreyer.com
DANIELLE MIRAGLIA & THE GLORY JUNKIES The Condon Shell Summer Concert Series presents the electrifying singer-songwriter and guitarist and her red-hot band, winners of 2021 Blues Act of the Year at the New England Music Awards. Sept. 1, 6:30 p.m. Free. Condon Shell, 2501 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford. https://fb.me/e/2CfYGSfNM
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
Classical
TANGLEWOOD The BSO sees the summer out in style as Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the Shed podium following surgery last year to treat an aggressive form of brain cancer; he leads the season’s final two concerts, including the traditional season finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on Sunday afternoon. (Aug. 27-28). Friday evening, BSO assistant conductor Anna Rakitina teams up with frequent Tanglewood guest Gil Shaham in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and leads the BSO in its first ever performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 3. Lenox. 617-266-1200, www.tanglewood.org
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FOUNDATION FOR CHINESE PERFORMING ARTS The Lincoln-based Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts wraps up its summer series of free concerts at New England Conservatory l this weekend with violinist Max Tan and pianist Marisa Gupta at Williams Hall (Aug. 26) and the Mercury Orchestra performing an all-Beethoven program led by Channing Yu at Jordan Hall (Aug. 27). New England Conservatory. www.chineseperformingarts.net
A.Z. MADONNA
ARTS
Theater
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC For her final production as artistic director at Barrington Stage Company, which she cofounded nearly three decades ago and built into a potent theatrical force in the Berkshires and beyond, Julianne Boyd has crafted an incandescent “A Little Night Music” that makes for one hell of a swan song. Equally laced with heartache and humor, featuring a witty book by Hugh Wheeler and a matchless score by Stephen Sondheim, “A Little Night Music” gives cast members abundant opportunities to shine, individually and together. And shine they do, led by Emily Skinner, Jason Danieley, Mary Beth Peil, and Sierra Boggess. Through Aug. 28. Barrington Stage Company. At Boyd-Quinson Stage, Pittsfield. 413-236-8888, www.barringtonstageco.org
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SING STREET A musical adaptation of the 2016 film, “Sing Street” revolves around a Dublin teenager who forms a band to impress a girl with whom he is smitten. Directed by Rebecca Taichman, with a book by Enda Walsh, music and lyrics by Gary Clark and John Carney, and choreography by Sonya Tayeh. Aug. 26-Oct. 2. Huntington Theatre Company in association with Sing Street LLC. Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
BUDDY: THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY One of the great what-if? stories of rock ‘n’ roll, Holly died at age 22 in a 1959 plane crash along with Ritchie Valens, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson. (It was later dubbed “The Day the Music Died” by Don McLean in “American Pie.”) Directed and choreographed by Marcos Santana, “Buddy” features Matt McClure as Holly, Craig Underwood as Richardson, and Ryan Reyes as Valens. Songs include Holly hits such as “That’ll Be the Day,” “Oh Boy,” “Maybe Baby,” and “Peggy Sue,” along with Valens’s “La Bamba” and Richardson’s “Chantilly Lace.” Through Aug. 28. North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly. 978-232-7200, www.nsmt.org
DON AUCOIN
Dance
EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE The finale of the renowned company’s residency at The Yard is a preview performance of their new work, “Underscored.” Rooted in street and social dance, the company is joined by guest artists from New York City for this work inspired by the underground dance scene and memories of veteran club dancers. Aug. 26-27. $10-$30. The Yard’s Patricia N. Nanon Theater, Chilmark. www.dancetheyard.org
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JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL This summer’s impressive season goes out with a bang this weekend, anchored by Miami City Ballet with live orchestra presenting classics by Balanchine, Robbins, and Graham. Taking a turn on the outdoor stage are Boston Dance Theater, Kayla Hamilton, and YYDC, founded by Yue Yin. Her New York-based company brings two recent ensemble works featuring its trademark fusion of Chinese folk and contemporary dance. Through Aug. 28. $25-$85. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket. www.jacobspillow.org
WINDHOVER DOUBLE BILL Saxyn DanceWorks and Alison Cook-Beatty Dance share the stage for concerts featuring works-in-progress as well as company repertory. A new work by Thryn Saxon and her troupe explores gender equality through the lens of Plato and the folklore of Selkies. Among Cook-Beatty’s offerings is “Central Park Field,” a work exploring isolation and transformation originally set in a baseball field during the pandemic. Aug. 25-26. $24-$34. Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Rockport. https://windhover.org/
KAREN CAMPBELL
Visual Art
A PLACE FOR ME: FIGURATIVE PAINTING NOW Figurative painting, one of the oldest art forms around, spent decades on the sidelines as hopelessly unfashionable while intensely conceptual and abstract work dominated most of the last half of the 20th century. But it never went away, and in the last 20 years in particular has gone through an ebullient renaissance. This show makes a case yet again that should hardly need to be made: that human hands pushing paint to portray human beings is as elemental to our species’ culture as walking and breathing. Through Sept. 5. Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org
FLYING WOMAN: THE PAINTINGS OF KATHERINE BRADFORD Bradford, a Maine- and Brooklyn-based painter, is having a moment. This first-ever survey of her work comes on the heels of the artist being named as the recipient of last year’s $35,000 Rappaport Prize, administered by the de Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln. Bradford, whose loose and dreamy canvases mean to evoke psychological states, was also recently featured at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts in a two-person show with Diedrick Brackens. Through Sept. 11. Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, Maine. 207-775-6148, portlandmuseum.org
JOANA VASCONCELOS: VALKYRIE MUMBET MassArt’s brand-new museum opened in late February of 2020 and shut down days later with the pandemic rumbling ever closer. After almost three years of openings and shutdowns, Vasconcelos’s colossal soft sculpture, several stories high, that feels like a plush version of a multi-limbed, interdimensional invader, merits some kind of endurance award. There until at least the end of the year, the piece honors Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman, an enslaved woman who in 1781 won a court battle for her freedom that helped make slavery illegal in Massachusetts. A glittering monument to liberation, it’s been waiting for you for a long, long time — the least you can do is show up. Through Dec. 31. MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave. 617-879-7333, maam.massart.edu
MURRAY WHYTE
BETH GALSTON: ICE FOREST In an immersive installation that conjures fairy tales, the Carlisle-based sculptor fills the gallery with suspended cast-resin rose stems that change with the natural light and are illuminated at night. It’s a busy summer for Galston, who has another piece, “Unraveling Oculus,” an installation with a video shot using mirrors inside a silo, on view through Oct. 10 at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Through Oct. 24. Woodland Gallery, Chesterwood, 4 Williamsville Road, Stockbridge. 413-298-2023, www.chesterwood.org/beth-galston
CATE McQUAID
EVENTS
Comedy
UNION COMEDY FESTIVAL A two-day festival from the Union Comedy collective, featuring two shows full of improv and solo performers. First night is at the Union Comedy theater, second is a noon-to-midnight nonstop schedule with 15- to 20-minute slots per act at the Crystal Ballroom. Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 27 at noon. Union Comedy, 593 Somerville Ave., Somerville. Crystal Ballroom at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville. www.unioncomedy.com
CELESTE BARBER: FINE, THANKS LIVE TOUR The Australian comedian became an Instagram and TikTok sensation over the pandemic with her body-positive parodies of supermodels’ posts, and is now touring the world doing stand-up. Aug. 30, 7 p.m. $72.25-$99. Boch Center Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St. 866-348-9738, www.bochcenter.org
TICKLE ME TUESDAYS This week’s headliner, Kareem Green, has played for some rough audiences. He says one crowd in Brooklyn took their heckling a bit too far, following him back to his car. “They even breathed on the window and wrote ‘boo,’” he says. “And backwards so I could read it.” Aug. 30, 7 p.m. $20-$40. Macumba Latina, 477 River St., Mattapan. www.eventbrite.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
FILMS AT THE GATE FESTIVAL Calling all fans of kung fu movies! Head over to Chinatown for a free three-day festival this weekend, featuring outdoor screenings of some of the best kung fu movies out there (who doesn’t love Ip Man?) along with family-friendly games and live martial arts demonstrations. A limited number of socially distanced chairs will be provided; to ensure you’ve got a seat, though, you’ll want to bring your own. Aug. 26-28, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m. each day. Free. John F. Fitzgerald Surface Road and Beach Street. asiancdc.org
ST. ANTHONY’S FEAST Witness what National Geographic called the “feast of all feasts” in Boston’s North End. The largest Italian religious festival in New England, according to festival organizers, this celebration of Italian culture will feature over 100 pushcarts with street food like arancini, calamari, gelato, and plenty of pasta. In addition to all the food, festival-goers can also enjoy a lineup of daily parades, live performers, fun contests, and religious services. Aug. 25-28, times vary. Free entry. Endicott, Thacher, and North Margin streets. stanthonysfeast.com
ANASTASIA In the 1990s, the beloved animated movie about a Russian orphan with amnesia delighted a generation of aspiring young princesses and their parents alike. Now, the new Broadway adaptation of “Anastasia” will visit Boston as part of its national tour, giving audiences a chance to see a childhood hero come to life. Through Aug. 28, times vary. $25-$160. Citizens Bank Opera House, 539 Washington St. boston.broadway.com
JOY ASHFORD