MUSIC
Pop & Rock
DIRTY DISHES “All of Me,” the latest single from this New York-based nightmare-pop duo, is a bummer love song tailor-made for fall’s more biting days, where lead singer-guitarist Jenny Tuite’s bitten-nail vocal and precipitous riffs settle into an uneasy comfort. Part of Fitz Fest II, a three-day, multi-venue recognition of Boston’s indie community. Sept. 24, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $12. Middle East Upstairs. 617-864-3278, mideastoffers.com
BAD BOY Family REUNION TOUR Sean “Diddy” Combs wasn’t just a master at flipping old A-sides into hip-pop gold — recall his transformation of Matthew Wilder’s spaced-out “Break My Stride” into the swaggering “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down.” He also put together a stable of artists (the saucy Lil’ Kim; the MC-turned-minister Mase) who combined New York street smarts with big pop hooks. Sept. 24, 8 p.m. Tickets: $39.50-$150. TD Garden. 800-745-3000, tdgarden.com
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BRAD PAISLEY Earlier this year, this country workhorse put out “Without a Fight,” a lovers’ quarrel that paired him with Demi Lovato. An heir to the Nicks/Petty classic “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” it transcended copycat status thanks to Paisley’s crack guitar playing. Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m. $28, $25 advance. Xfinity Center. 800-745-3000, livenation.com
Folk & World
THE MASTERSONS Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore were already singing and playing together as Americana act the Mastersons. But by their own account the husband-and-wife duo didn't really become a genuine collaboration until they began writing songs together, rather than individually, for their 2014 second album, “Good Luck Charm.” Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $10. Cinema Salem, Salem. 978-744-1400, www.cinemasalem.com
RYAN BINGHAM/BRIAN FALLON & THE CROWES/PAUL CAUTHEN A bang-for-your-buck triple bill that brings together Texas troubadour Bingham; Gaslight Anthem frontman Fallon, working solo while that band takes a break; and a new country-soul voice, Cauthen, who opens for the co-headliners. Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m. Tickets: $35. Royale. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com
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KEVIN GORDON This purveyor of an intense, muscular brand of roots music (with deep lyrical roots as well, in the places where he's lived and grown) has been making his way up from his Nashville base to these parts on a regular basis of late. This time, he's doing it solo. Sept. 25, 10 p.m. Tickets: $10.
Atwood's Tavern, Cambridge.
800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com
Jazz & Blues
TONI LYNN WASHINGTON Born in Southern Pines, N.C., this powerful vocalist sang in gospel choirs and R&B bands before moving north to become Boston’s “Queen of the Blues.” Sept. 24,
9 p.m. No cover. Chianti Restaurant, 285 Cabot St., Beverly.
978-921-2233, www.chiantibeverly.com
VIVIENNE AERTS/THREE BLIND MICE Two vocalists kick off Journeys in Sound’s fourth season. Native Netherlander Aerts came to Berklee to learn from the likes of Joe Lovano and Joanne Brackeen. Since then, she’s performed with such masters as Lee Konitz and Kenny Werner. Three Blind Mice features pianist Jacob Hiser, bassist Umar Zakaria, and singer-tap dancer Jenny Herzog, whose taps take the drummer’s place, reviving the symbiosis of jazz and dance. Sept. 25, 4 p.m. Tickets: $10-$14. Arts at the Armory Café, 191 Highland Ave. Somerville. www.artsatthearmory.org
AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA Boston’s own progressive big band opens its 44th season with the world premiere of Mark Harvey’s “Northeast Express,” a bluesy tribute to over a century of East Coast train travel. The program also includes music from Aardvark’s latest CD, “Passages,” and Duke Ellington classics. Sept. 29, 8 p.m. Tickets: $25. Scullers. 866-777-8932, www.scullersjazz.com
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Classical
SEPTEMBERFEST The Longy School’s Pickman Hall will be transformed into a cabaret for a celebration of the early 20th-century German artists known as the “Novembergruppe,” which included Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, and Hanns Eisler. Roaring Twenties attire is welcome. Sept. 23, 8 p.m., Longy School of Music of Bard College, Cambridge. www.longy.edu
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The orchestra opens its season with an all-Russian program: Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (with the high-flying virtuoso Lang Lang), and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” in the well-loved Ravel arrangement. Sept. 24, 6 p.m., Symphony Hall. 888-266-1200, www.bso.org
DANIEL STEPNER The veteran violinist, who earlier this year stepped down from his post in the Lydian String Quartet after 29 years, visits Boston College to play a solo program of works by Bartok, Hindemith, Bach, and BC faculty member Thomas Oboe Lee. Sept. 25, 3 p.m., Boston College Gasson Hall, Chestnut Hill. 617-552-6004, www.bc.edu/schools/cas/music
ARTS
Theater
REGULAR SINGING This is the fourth and final installment of Richard Nelson’s Apple Family Plays, and it’s a beauty, a kind of collective meditation on the vexations and consolations of family, along with a few minor matters like death, memory, and history. The production features the same first-rate cast as the previous three plays, meshing as smoothly as a well-honed chorus, and is directed by Weylin Symes, who was also at the helm for “That Hopey Changey Thing,’’ “Sweet and Sad,’’ and “Sorry.’’ Through Sept. 25. New Repertory Theatre in association with Stoneham Theatre at Charles Mosesian Theater, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown. 617-923-8487, www.newrep.org
SIGNIFICANT OTHER In Joshua Harmon’s comically incisive journey across the jagged landscape of 20-something friendship, dating, and love, Greg Maraio delivers a multifaceted performance as Jordan, a single gay man who feels adrift when his three female friends start getting married. Directed by Paul Daigneault. Through Oct. 8. SpeakEasy Stage Company at Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, www.speakeasystage.com
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MARJORIE PRIME Jordan Harrison’s slow-building but intriguing drama, a 2015 Pulitzer finalist, ventures to a not-too-distant future when the boundaries between technology and humanity have become so thoroughly blurred that we entrust our memories to artificial-intelligence programs that have assumed the form of deceased loved ones. Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara. Through Oct. 9. Presented by Nora Theatre Company. A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production. At Central Square Theater, Cambridge. 617-576-9278 ext. 1, www.centralsquaretheater
.org
Dance
IPSWICH MOVING COMPANY As part of the weekend-long Ipswich Illuminated Celebration, two of the company’s intrepid dancers will perform “When Water Meets Air.” The site-specific aerial dance installation will feature the dancers performing while suspended from the arches of the Green Street Bridge over the Ipswich River.
Sept. 24. Free. Green and Water Streets, Ipswich. 978-356-5565, www.ipswichmovingco.org
ONE MINUTE SOLOS Jimena Bermejo-Black curates this intriguing evening of movement in which all creations are limited to one minute, and pieces cycle over the course of the night. Participants include Sarah Mae Gibbons, Merli V. Guerra, Marsha Parrilla, and Michael Figueroa. Sept. 24. Pay what you will.
Mobius Gallery, Cambridge. 617-945-9481, www.mobius.org
MACHINE DE CIRQUE Think five semi-naked guys and clever stunts with bath towels, among other impressive and irreverent shenanigans. This new circus company from Quebec City offers an all-ages show that ranges from the poetic to the absurd, driven by an impressive series of acrobatic feats. Through Oct. 2. Presented by ArtsEmerson. $10-$85. Robert J. Orchard Stage. 617-824-8400, www.artsemerson.org
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Galleries
BREAKING NEWS: CASSILS Transgender artist Cassils takes on violence in the media with video and film installations. What’s real? What’s made up? Who is responsible? What does our attraction to violent images say about us? Through Oct. 15. School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, 230 The Fenway. 617-627-0047, www.smfa.edu/breaking-news-cassils
MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS: LETTER OF THE YEAR
Works on paper by the multimedia artist made in concert with her installation, “53+1=54+1=
55/ Letter of the Year,” at the 55th Venice Bienniale, in 2013, reflect that work’s themes of political power, captivity, and freedom. Through Oct. 15. Samson, 450 Harrison Ave. 617-357-7177, www.samsonprojects.com
ARt: AUGMENTED REALITY
Pokémon Go fans, take note: Augmented reality is an art form, too. This show invites visitors to display their drawings in a virtual gallery, to witness the surrounding neighborhood float away bit by bit, and more. Through
Oct. 30. Boston Cyberarts Gallery, 141 Green St., Jamaica Plain. 617-522-6710, www.bostoncyberarts.org
Museums
SARAH SZE: TIMEKEEPER A site-specific installation by the innovative sculptor who represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Through Dec. 11. Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University,
415 South St., Waltham. 781-736-3434, www.brandeis.edu/rose
BEYOND WORDS: ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS IN BOSTON COLLECTIONS This three-venue exhibition displays medieval and Renaissance illustrations that appear in rare books held in local libraries and museums. The exhibition, which inaugurates the McMullen Museum of Art’s new home, is also at the Houghton Library at Harvard University and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The most extensive selection is at the McMullen, with more than 180 exquisite works on display, many for the first time. Through Dec. 11. (At the Gardner Sept. 22-Jan. 16.) McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Commonwealth Ave. 617-552-8587, artmuseum@bc.edu
ROBERT FRANK: SIDEWAYS Photographs by the great Swiss-born photographer taken between 1947, when he moved to the United States, and 1961, when he held his first major museum show. Through Jan. 29. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 9400 College St., Brunswick, Maine. 207-725-3275. www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum
EVENTS
Comedy
LAGOON: THE CAMBRIDGE FOOTLIGHTS INTERNATIONAL TOUR 2016 The theatrical club has been around for 133 years and produced stars from John Cleese and Emma Thompson to John Oliver. The touring company comes to ImprovBoston with its latest sketch comedy show, “Lagoon.” Sept. 23, 10 p.m. $25. ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St., Cambridge. 617-576-1253,
www.improvboston.com
MARC MARON This month marks the seven-year anniversary of the “WTF” podcast that gave the intellectual and emotional Maron, who has roots in the Boston comedy scene, a whole new career. Sept. 24, 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $29-$42. Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston. 617-248-9700, www.thewilbur.com
STEVE SWEENEY: TOWNIE A foundational member of the Boston comedy scene debuts his one-man show, about growing up here and the people he’s worked with in movies like “The Equalizer” and “There’s Something About Mary.” Sept. 24, 8 p.m. $27.50. The Cabot, 286 Cabot St., Beverly. 978-927-3100, www.thecabot.org
Family
Clifford the Big Red Dog Meet and Greet Come hang out with the giant cuddly pup this weekend at Edaville amusement park. There’ll be storytime, photo ops, and an exclusive breakfast before the park opens at 9 a.m. Dress in all red and say “hi” to Clifford’s owner Emily Elizabeth! Sept. 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $32-$37. Edaville USA, 5 Pine St., Carver. 508-866-8190 www.edaville.com/events/clifford-big-red-dog
Fluff Festival Leave the wet wipes at home, this festival is all about celebrating a massive marshmallow mess! Join the fun as Union Square toasts the genius of Fluff inventor Archibald Query with jousting, sandwich making, and general goofiness. Fluffernothings better than this! Sept. 24, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. Free. Union Square, Somerville. www.flufffestival.com
Poketour
Just because the hype died down doesn’t mean you should stop trying to catch ’em all! Turn your baseball caps backward and meet up with other trainers to take advantage of the Pokestops, modules, and gyms around Boston. Don’t be a Snorlax, get up and Pokemon Go! Sept. 25, 11 a.m.-
4:30 p.m. $15 Boston Common. www.eventbrite.com/e/the-poke-tour-of-boston-tickets-27783235405?aff=erelexpmlt
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Sept. 29 Chance the Rapper at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion concerts1.livenation.com
Oct. 1 Green Day at House of Blues concerts.livenation.com
Oct. 1 Lauryn Hill at Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre www1.ticketmaster.com
Oct. 12 Charlie Puth at House of Blues concerts1.livenation.com
Oct. 12 Christine and the Queens at Paradise Rock Club www1.ticketmaster.com
Oct. 15 Gavin DeGraw and Andy Grammer at Orpheum Theatre www1.ticketmaster.com
Oct. 16 Catfish and the Bottlemen at House of Blues concerts1.livenation.com
Oct. 19 Saint Motel at Royale Boston www.ticketmaster.com
Oct. 25 Colbie Caillat at Wilbur Theatre www.ticketmaster.com
Sonia Rao