MUSIC
Pop & Rock
PORTER ROBINSON This innovative yet pop-savvy DJ and producer’s latest album “SMILE! :D” hits its peaks on tracks like the punchy “Cheerleader” and the stomping social-media broadside “Perfect Pinterest Garden”; on this tour, he’ll be running through his brief yet robust catalog in Eras Tour fashion. Aug. 30, 8 p.m. MGM Music Hall at Fenway. crossroadspresents.com
GOTH BABE Portland singer-songwriter Griff Washburn’s bedroom-pop project, whose latest album is this year’s “Lola,” masters a chill vibe through sunwashed guitars, sweeping synths, and fuzzed-out vocals. Aug. 31, 8 p.m. MGM Music Hall at Fenway. crossroadspresents.com
KICKING GIANT Guitarist Tae Won Yu and drummer Rachel Carns make noisy, hooky art-pop-rock that can’t help but put its full-throttle feelings on display. They open for fellow ‘90s indie stalwarts Built to Spill, who celebrate the 30th anniversary of their heart-eyed, riff-heavy 1994 album, “There’s Nothing Wrong With Love.” Sept. 4, 7 p.m., Paradise Rock Club. 617-562-8800, crossroadspresents.com
MAURA JOHNSTON
Folk, World & Country
SARAH JAROSZ This talented singer, songwriter, and acoustic multi-instrumentalist is touring in support of new album “Polaroid Lovers,” which displays the results of a willingness to take what she calls “thoughtful chances” and finds her carving out a new folk-rock sound. She plays Friday as part of the Lowell Summer Music Series. Aug. 30, 7:30 p.m. $42, $142. Boarding House Park, 40 French St., Lowell. 978-275-1829. www.lowellsummermusic.org
KALOS The trio of fiddler Ryan McKasson, guitarist-vocalist Eric McDonald, and accordionist Jeremiah McLane make a return to this Harvard Square venue with their “Celtic chamber music,” which draws on various branches of the genre, from Scotland and Ireland to Cape Breton and Quebec. Sept. 3, 8 p.m. $20. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679. www.passim.org
LOS TEXMANIACS If you’re looking for some rocking Tex-Mex music, it’s hard to do better than the melding of conjunto, country, and rock ‘n’ roll that these guys bring. They’ve won a Grammy for their efforts, and earlier this year leader and bajo sexto player Max Baca was inducted into the national Conjunto Hall of Fame. Sept. 4, 7 p.m. $40. The Fallout Shelter, 61 Endicott St., Norwood. www.extendedplaysessions.com
STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
JORDAN CALL, GRAY GAFAROV & GUESTS Guitarist and composer Call celebrates his debut album, “The Saturdays at The Bebop,” featuring Call and Gafarov compositions in the sprightly gypsy jazz style pioneered by Django Reinhardt, with the versatile Gafarov on both bass and violin, plus trombonist Stephan Tenney and clarinetist John Clark. Aug.31, 7 p.m. $20-$25. The Burren Back Room, 247 Elm St., Somerville. burren.com/music
THE WILLIE J. LAWS BAND The locally-based guitarist and singer-songwriter hails from the Gulf Coast of Texas, and his funky blues is influenced by T-Bone Walker, Lightning Hopkins, Albert King, and more, with tinges of Lone Star State R&B, soul, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. Aug. 31, 10 p.m-1 a.m. No cover. The Beehive, 541 Tremont St. beehiveboston.com
ARTURO SANDOVAL The Cuban trumpeter, pianist, and composer was introduced to the wider world in the 1980s by none other than Dizzy Gillespie. Since then, he has won 10 Grammy Awards, acquired American citizenship, and remains among the greatest players in Afro-Latin jazz. Sept. 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. $50-$160. Scullers. scullersjazz.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
Classical
NIGHTINGALE VOCAL ENSEMBLE An octet of vocalists takes over Forsyth Chapel at Jamaica Plain’s Forest Hills Cemetery for a program that celebrates the ensemble’s favorite songbird (three guesses what that is) through classic and contemporary vocal repertoire. Aug. 31, 7 p.m. Forsyth Chapel, Jamaica Plain. www.nightingalevocalensemble.com
THE ROSSINI CLUB Can’t wait for summer to be over? Cool things down with the Rossini Club’s take on Schubert’s “Winterreise,” produced in collaboration with Nantucket’s Dreamland arts center; Greta Feeney directs the staged performance set on a noir version of the island, starring tenor Benjamin Boskoff in a new orchestration for woodwind quintet and accordion by oboist Normand Forget. Sept. 1, 2 p.m. Nantucket Dreamland. www.therossiniclub.org
A.Z. MADONNA
ARTS
Theater
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS A quiet florist shop worker befriends a plant with a personality in this clever musical comedy by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Although the nerdy Seymour is just trying to win the heart of his crush Audrey, the bloodthirsty plant, named Audrey II, has bigger and more dastardly plans. This production features “RuPaul Drag Race” winner Latrice Royale as Audrey II. Through Sept. 21. Ogunquit Playhouse, Ogunquit, Maine. www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/2024-little-shop-of-horrors
NEXT TO NORMAL A family’s struggles with societal expectations complicated by mental health issues gets a heartfelt workout in this musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. For this Barrington Stage Company/Round House Theater co-production, director Alan Paul weaves in live video and multimedia to illuminate the inner lives of the family. Through Sept. 8. Boyd-Quinson Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield. https://barringtonstageco.org/next-to-normal/
THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS This fast-paced comedy emerges from the Italian commedia dell’arte tradition, which features stock characters — including a trickster servant/clown, a pompous man, naïve young lovers, and a military officer full of false bravado — and provides broad plot outlines that encourage actors to improvise dialogue. A perfect match for Lanes Coven’s clowning expertise and physical theater approach performed outside in their airy tent. Through Sept. 8. Lanes Coven Theatre, Windhover Performing Arts Center, Rockport. www.lanescoven.com
THE 39 STEPS Alfred Hitchcock’s fast-paced whodunit meets comic mayhem in this theatrical adaptation, where only four actors play nearly 150 characters. While the plot traces the complexities that occur when a man meets a woman who claims she’s a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered, and a mysterious organization called The 39 Steps chases him across the country in a wild manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale. The theatrical adaptation boasts inventive stagecraft as well as hilarious quick changes — both characters and sets — for a theatrical experience that is both exciting and hilarious. Through Sept. 7. Cape Playhouse, Dennis. https://capeplayhouse.com/39-steps-2024/
TERRY BYRNE
Dance
DON’T OPEN THIS ArrowFest, celebrating the grand opening of Arrow Street Arts’s Harvard Square venue, kicks off with this immersive production by Liars and Believers. Melding dance, aerial arts, puppetry, and music, it’s conceived as a tour of “the source of all your wishes,” but don’t be surprised if what you want is not quite what you get. Sept. 5-7. $50. Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. www.arrowstarts.org
JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE INTERACTIVE While Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival ended its summer season last weekend, it continues to offer access to spectacular internationally acclaimed dance for free through its collection of dance videos. The Dance Interactive site archives clips from notable performers and creators ranging from the 1930s (check out Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers) to this season’s Royal Ballet Connections. Trending is a clip of Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing Twyla Tharp’s “Pergolesi” that brilliantly showcases his extraordinary skill, versatility, and showmanship. https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/
LION DANCE Weather permitting, the Rose Kennedy Greenway collaborates with Chinatown Main Street for the last Lion Dance of the season. A celebration of Boston’s vibrant Chinatown, the dance unfurls at the Chinatown Gate in Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park on The Greenway before parading through the streets. Aug. 31, noon. Free. www.rosekennedygreenway.org
RELEASE YOUR DANCE If you’re more interested in busting your own moves, the grassroots House music/dance collective Release Your Dance welcomes any and all to a six-hour drop-in event in Dewey Square, with DJs spinning Deep, Soulful, Afro, and House music. It’s part of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s Outdoor Summer Dance Series, designed as a way to bring together people from all walks of life to experience the joy of music and dance. Aug. 31, noon-6 p.m. Free. All ages. Dewey Square. www.rosekennedygreenway.org
KAREN CAMPBELL
Visual art
TAU LEWIS: SPIRIT LEVEL The first solo museum exhibition for an artist swiftly gaining global acclaim, this exhibition comes on the heels of her recent successes at such important showcases as the 2022 Venice Biennale and Prospect.5, New Orleans. Lewis’s work, labor-intense and handmade, comprises sewing, weaving, casting, collage, assemblage, and carving. Her scavenging and reworking of materials conjure a kind of rebirth of past lives for the wayward bits and pieces she collects, and a reconfiguring of diasporic “Black geographies,” in her words, that she, as Caribbean-Canadian, inhabits herself. For the ICA she’s created a brand-new work of five figures standing vigil over a radiant quilt that helps tell the tale of their diasporic universe. Through Jan. 26. Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org
THE GUN VIOLENCE MEMORIAL PROJECT A — sadly — ever-evolving project since its inception in 2019, this installation is exactly what it says it is. Shed-like structures each built of 700 hollow glass bricks — the number of weekly gun deaths in the United States — serve as homage for the dead: Each brick contains mementoes, photos, notes, and eulogies for one of the dead, a chilling physical catalog of loss that makes personal numbing statistics that can feel all too abstract. A collaboration between the artist Hank Willis Thomas’s Songha Group and Boston-based MASS Design Group, the project is a citywide collaboration that will present elements at the ICA, at Boston City Hall, and at MASS Design’s gallery in the South End. Through Jan. 20. Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, 617-478-3100; Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square; and MASS Design Group, 1 Chandler St.
ON CHRISTOPHER STREET: TRANSGENDER PORTRAITS BY MARK SELIGER Closing soon: Seliger, a renowned celebrity portrait photographer for magazines like Vanity Fair and GQ, ran a personal side project from 2013 to 2016, taking street portraits of people on Christopher Street in Manhattan’s West Village. A historic epicenter of the American gay rights movement, the neighborhood remains a hub of gay life in America. The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar that was the site of a 1969 uprising against police raids, considered by many to be the foundation of the modern LGBTQ+ movement, is at 53 Christopher. Seliger’s street portraits evolved into a larger documentary project about contemporary LGBTQ+ culture. This show will include 32 of those portraits, as well as a film and responses and exhibitions from the local LGBTQ+ community. Through Sept. 8. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. 617-566-1401, www.gardnermuseum.org.
MURRAY WHYTE
PEOPLE OF CHELSEA Photographer Darlene DeVita and writer Sarah Putnam’s “People of Chelsea” project celebrates the city’s resilience with portraits and personal histories of locals. For this show, marking Chelsea’s 400th anniversary, the duo teamed with the nonprofit Chelsea Black Community to reflect on life before and since the Great Chelsea Fire, which destroyed 18 city blocks in October 1973. Besides DeVita’s portraits, the exhibition features projections of personal family photos reaching back decades. Through Oct. 6. Spencer Lofts Gallery, 60 Dudley St., Chelsea. www.facebook.com/spencerloftsgallery
CATE McQUAID
EVENTS
Comedy
SEAN PATTON In his hilarious 2022 special “Number One,” Patton said having OCD is like living with a vengeful god who will hurt his loved ones if he doesn’t perform very specific tasks. “Growing up with OCD,” he says, “every time I made a sandwich, which was a lot, I had to kiss all four corners before I bit into it so that my grandfather would never die in a boating accident.” Aug. 31, 7 p.m. $25. Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville. 617-245-2900, www.crystalballroomboston.com
T.MURPH The veteran of the Chicago scene says he really respects teachers, and thinks they are underappreciated and underpaid. But there are limits, from a parent’s point of view. “Please, stop calling us,” he says. “Calling us like, ‘Hoo! Oh my God, your son is acting irate. Would you like to talk to him?’ No. No the hell I would not like to talk to him. He is your son until 3:30. Goodbye!” Aug. 31, 9:30 p.m. $33. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
POPCORN COMEDY This monthly stand-up showcase hosted by Peter Liu and Jason Fishman is back in Arlington this month with headliner Brian Glowacki and an impressive undercard including Kathe Farris, Joe Fenti, Peter Angela, and Matt Bedell. Sept. 5, 7:30 p.m. $20. Capitol Theatre, 204 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington. www.eventbrite.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
KIDS NIGHT OUT Gear up for the start of the school year with a back-to-school pizza party complete with fun activities like making glow slime, painting “Ghostbusters”-themed canvases, and decorating desserts. Youths ages 5 to 14 are welcome to attend, and registration is required. Aug. 31, 6 p.m. Free admission. ConnectEd & Inspired, 138 S. Main St. connectedandinspired.org
LABOR DAY YOGA Spend some time with your child this Labor Day moving and stretching together. Head over to Lincoln with a mat and water bottle for a child-friendly yoga class that incorporates imagination with yoga aspects like mindfulness and self-regulation. Sept. 2, 10:30 a.m. $20/$10 for adult/child non-members, and $16/$8 for adult/child members. deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road. thetrustees.org
ANIMAL AND ICE CREAM SOCIAL Head over to Cambridge for the chance to meet with an animal ambassador from the Magazine Beach Park Nature Center. Learn about how animals adapt to survive, treat yourself to some ice cream and a stroll in the park. Sept. 5, 6 p.m. Free admission, registration is required. Magazine Beach Park Nature Center, 688 Memorial Drive. communitykangaroo.com
ARUSHI JACOB