MUSIC
Will Dailey Sunflower Bean Township Kina Zore One Plays Cricket BOOKS
Mona Awad THEATER
“Sweeney Todd” “Rhinoceros” ART
“Continental Divide: Wildlife, People, and the Border Wall” “Art of Jazz: Forms/Performance/Notes” COMEDY
T: an MBTA Musical MOVIES
“B-Movie: Lust and Sound in West-Berlin” “The Three-Sided Mirror/The Fall of the House of Usher” DANCE
“Searching for Signal”
Thursday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
25 Evans Way, Boston
$12-$27, 617-278 5156
www.gardnermuseum.org
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has hosted classical concerts since the days when its founder still resided there, but it’s only recently that they began to feature pop artists in the RISE series, performing in the unique, cubic Calderwood Hall. This week it’s singer-songwriter Will Dailey, who’d snagged a Boston Music Award in his genre a whopping five times. Kara Hess opens.
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Middle East Upstairs
472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$10-$12, 18+, 866-777-8932
www.ticketweb.com
This New York band mixes two popular strains in contemporary indie rock: post-punk and psychedelia. It’s an intriguingly contradictory fusion, dreamy and shimmering, but taught with anxious punk energy. The passionate vocals of bassist Julia Cumming and guitarist Nick Kivlen’s Cure-like guitar lines are standout elements. Be sure to come early and catch Secret Lover, one of Worcester’s best active bands.
Friday, 10 p.m.
Great Scott
1222 Comm. Ave., Allston
$10-$12, 21+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
In their bio, local band Township boasts with deserved pride to have survived as an act for nearly a decade. Rather than simply holding pattern, they continue to evolve their 70’s-style classic rock sound —theyeven just added a new member, keyboardist James Rohr, this past year. This show celebrates the release of their latest bit o’ vinyl, “Light Years.”
Saturday, 8 p.m.
The Space
128 Brookside St., Jamaica Plain
$15, kinazore@gmail.com
www.kinazore.com
Helder Tsinine, frontman of this local band, survived a war-torn upbringing in Mozambique before arriving in Boston in 2007. Despite the suffering of his early life, his music is infectiously upbeat, reflecting his commitment to spread peace in a world always sorely in need. Kina Zore will be filming this live show. Come dance—with their hip-shaking beats, it won’t be hard.
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Aviary Gallery
48 South St., Jamaica Plain
Free, 617-477-4728
www.aviarygallery.com
Get lost in a digital universe of electronic sounds at this show, featuring Blevin Blectum, Joss, Domestique and Miru Shim. Electronic music means a lot of things, but these artists are farther from the pop and closer to purely artistic soundscapes. It’ll also be your last chance to see the Aviary Gallery’s current art show, Ricky Katowicz’s “Stitched Portraits.”
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St., Brookline
Free, thestore@brooklinebooksmith.com
www.brooklinebooksmith.com
This novelist will read from her debut novel, “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl”. Rather than providing a fully linear narrative, Awad takes us through 13 vignettes about key points in the life of her main character, exploring the (preposterous) demands of body image in today’s culture. Critics are already praising the book’s deft movements from humor to pathos.
Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center
136 Mass. Ave., Boston
$12-$17, 617-747-2261
www.berklee.edu/events/sweeney-todd-musical-theatre-club?ss=204996
Berklee students perform this acclaimed Stephen Sondheim bloodbath, which has changed many a theatergoer’s feelings about pie. It’s a great example of Sondheim’s ability to create musicals that deconstruct the genre even as they become classics in their own right. The story, however, dates back to mid-19th century London. Legends that Todd was a real person are, thankfully, unsubstantiated.
Through March 13
Modern Theater
525 Washington St., Boston
$10-$30, 866-811-4111
www.bu.edu/bpt/
Boston Playwrights’ Theater presents this famous absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco, about a town in which everyone is turning into rhinos. Of course, it’s not purely absurd—there’s an obvious critique of mass movements, with individuals all becoming the same big, dumb, rampaging animal. But the calmly bizarre way the story unfolds makes it something stranger than the usual social commentary.
Through March 17
Boston University School of Theology
745 Comm. Ave., Boston
Free, kjackman@bu.edu
If the U.S.-Mexico border wall is discussed, it’s usually about the human cost and the politics of immigration, but this series of photos by Krista Schlyer explores the wall’s less-discussed environmental impact, and, more broadly, the environmental impact of all human-made structures. It’s a reminder that “the issues” debated by the left and right are rarely the only issues.
Through May 8
Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art
102 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge
Free, 617-496-5777
www.coopergalleryhc.org
It may be convenient to compartmentalize the various art forms, but it can also obscure the fact that they’re always in dialogue. In this show, featuring over 70 works including paintings, photography, album covers and sound installations, we see how jazz music, particularly as a mode of African-American expression, has inspired visual art, from the beginning to the present day.
Fridays through May 20
ImprovBoston
40 Prospect St., Cambridge
$25, 617-576-1253
www.improvboston.com
Ah, the T: it’s noisy and old but we love it—at least when it’s functioning. You’re probably reading this on the T right now, and it’s probably stopped inexplicably somewhere. If and when you make it out alive, check out this musical comedy from the minds of ImprovBoston, winner of 2011’s Best New Musical on BroadwayWorld.com. You’ll find it highly relatable.
Sunday, 11 a.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater
290 Harvard St., Brookline
$5, 617-734-2501
www.goethe.de/ins/us/bos
This documentary surveys the cultural scene in 1980’s West Berlin, an enclave of freedom in the midst of Communist East Germany, where chaotic, hedonistic creativity reigned. It’s told from the perspective of Brit Mark Reeder, a native of Manchester, England, who found himself in many roles—but never far from a wild time—during his years “stranded” in the walled-off city.
Friday, 7 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy St., Cambridge
$7-$9, 617-495-4700
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
The Harvard Film Archives presents these silent films by Jean Epstein, his two most famous works, with live accompaniment by Martin Marks. Silent films are often characterized by frenetic-looking movements, but 1928’s in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Epstein used slow motion to eerie effect. The shorter “Three-Sided Mirror” from 1927 expresses a surprisingly progressive gender consciousness.
Through March 4
The Oberon
2 Arrow St., Cambridge
$10-$35, 617-547-8300
www.americanrepertorytheater.org
Because it forces an audience to reflect on their own bodies, dance seems like an ideal medium to discuss the weird disembodiment of Internet life. This piece from Touch Performance Art, creators of the AcousticaElectronica show at Oberon, does just that, explores the modern split between digital and flesh-and-blood selves through a romance told in dialogue, dance and video.
Rock out with Will Dailey at the Gardner Museum
Ebet Roberts/Redferns
