THIRD EYE BLIND Since the ‘90s, this band has combined Stephan Jenkins’s bleary-eyed yet sharply articulated poetry with undeniable hooks — the “doo doo doo”-ing of “Semi-Charmed Life” is the most potent, but cuts like “Jumper” and “Never Let You Go” are just as insistent — to create modern power-pop gold. With the fiddle-emo outfit Yellowcard. July 13, 7 p.m. Xfinity Center, Mansfield. 800-745-3000, livenation.com
SNOOPER This Nashville punk outfit is all chaos and glee, with songs like the galloping “Waste” and the post-post-punky “On Line” packing a half-hour’s worth of excited energy into brief, thrilling megadoses of fun. July 18, 6:30 p.m. Arts at the Armory, Somerville. 617-718-2191, artsatthearmory.org
QUEEN OF JEANS On their latest album, “All Again,” this Philly four-piece smudges pealing pop hooks with just enough guitar fuzz to cushion their wounded lyrics. July 18, 7 p.m. doors. The Rockwell, Somerville. get2thegigbos.com
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MAURA JOHNSTON
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Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more.
Folk, World & Country
ZOE & CLOYD Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller bring together their respective musical backgrounds — she in klezmer and jazz, he in bluegrass and folk — for something they’ve given the natural label “klezgrass.” Their latest release, “Songs of Our Grandfathers,” acknowledges and explores both lineages. July 16, 7 p.m. $20. The Burren, 247 Elm St., Somerville. 617-776-6896. www.burren.com
COLBY ACUFF On his major-label debut, “Western White Pines,” Idahoan Acuff writes what he knows — where he’s from and how he lived before his music career took him to Nashville. He mates that western content to a superb, thoroughgoing country sound. July 17, 9 p.m. $15. The Porch Southern, 175 Rivers Edge Drive, Medford. 781-874-9357. www.theporchsouthern.com
QUITAPENAS This California outfit’s web bio starts with the phrase “One word, all caps, four syllables, all claps,” which points directly to what’s at the heart of the tropical Afro-Latin music QUITAPENAS makes: a dedication to finding a danceable groove. July 18, 7:30 p.m. $30. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300. www.mfa.org
STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
YELLOWHOUSE BLUES BAND The explosive nine-piece ensemble features horns and multiple vocalists, and their repertoire encompasses material from blues titan Howlin’ Wolf to Motown master Stevie Wonder and beyond. July 13, 8 p.m. $25-$65. The Music Room, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth. musicroomcapecod.com
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FOURTH ANNUAL CHARLES RIVER JAZZ FESTIVAL This year’s edition of the riverside romp presents a parade of prime performers including Grammy-winning drummer Charles Haynes & the Tabernacle, Puerto Rican saxophonist/composer Johnathan Suazo, South African vocalist/composer Naledi, and saxophonist Seba Molnar, the festival’s founder and executive director. Food, beverages, and other merchandise will be available. July 14, 1-9 p.m. Free, registration required. Herter Park Amphitheater, 1175 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton. bostonjazzfoundation.org
CLEAR AUDIENCE Formed in 2005, this engaging, inventive, and adventurous local quartet features compositions and collaborations contributed by all. For this gig, founders Andy Voelker (saxophone), Steve Fell (guitar), and Jef Charland (bass), will be joined by drummer Steve Langone, sitting in for original member Luther Gray. July 17, 8:15 p.m. $10. The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. www.lilypadinman.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
Classical
TANGLEWOOD This weekend’s banner event for the Boston Symphony Orchestra is Friday evening’s all-Russian concert, which includes Stravinsky’s “Apollon musagète” with dancers from Boston Ballet performing George Balanchine’s choreography, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s flashy “Scheherazade” with newly arrived BSO concertmaster Nathan Cole (July 12). But it’s worth sticking around the rest of the weekend; Saturday evening brings a program of music by Carlos Simon and Duke Ellington, with the sparky pianist Yuja Wang featured in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 for good measure (July 13). Sunday afternoon, violinist Augustin Hadelich joins the BSO for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, on a program with Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Forward into Light” and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 (July 14). Tanglewood, Lenox. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org
BERLIN TRIO Flutist Mary Oleskiewicz, violist Georgina McKay Lodge, and fortepianist David Schulenberg present an 18th-century program of pieces by C.P.E. Bach (son of J.S. Bach), a virtuosic time capsule of the nebulous border between the Baroque and Classical periods. July 16, 7:30 p.m., St. Anne’s in the Fields, Lincoln; July 17, 7:30 p.m., The Chapel at West Parish, Andover; July 18, 7:30 p.m. Presented by Society for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP). www.sohipboston.org
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CANADIAN BRASS The bulk of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival is over, but there will be scattered performances throughout the rest of the summer as part of the Festival Annex — the first of these being a performance by the redoubtable quintet Canadian Brass, where the program might include anything from Bach to hot jazz to commissioned pieces for the 50-year-old ensemble. July 16, 7:30 p.m. Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport. 978-546-7391, www.rockportmusic.org
A.Z. MADONNA
ARTS
Theater
ALL SHOOK UP Tunes made famous by Elvis Presley, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and “Hound Dog,” among nearly two dozen others, provide the frame for a story of an outsider who shakes up a sleepy Midwest town in the 1950s. July 12-21. Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, Waltham. www.reaglemusictheatre.org/shows/11/all-shook-up
A TENDER THING Playwright Ben Power uses Shakespeare’s words while rearranging scenes to imagine what life might have been like for Romeo and Juliet had they dodged disaster and lived on together. Candy Buckley and Derek Smith star as the star-crossed lovers. Through July 20. St. Germain Stage. Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield. https://barringtonstageco.org/2024-season/
GATSBY This world premiere is a haunting production that finds a perfect match in the soaring, soulful music of Florence Welch (of Florence + the Machine) and Thomas Bartlett, a book by Martyna Majok (“The Cost of Living”), and choreography by Sonya Tayeh (“Moulin Rouge”). Under the seamless direction of Rachel Chavkin (“Hadestown”), this story moves with the unrelenting rhythms of the ocean currents that so fascinated Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator. All of the performers combine glorious voices with impeccable dance skills and detailed characterizations. But the real gift of this creative team is their ability to bring together a stunningly talented ensemble to breathe life, and even some unexpected insights, into these characters. Through Aug. 3. Presented by the American Repertory Theater, Loeb Drama Center. https://americanrepertorytheater.org/shows-events/gatsby
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TERRY BYRNE
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS An outdoor setting lends itself to the zany antics of William Shakespeare’s early farce, complete with not one but two sets of twins separated in a shipwreck, and fast-paced physical comedy framed by the Bard’s blank verse. Last summer’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Shakespeare & Company felt like a party as much as a play. Let’s see what director Kate Kohler Amory brings to the fun. July 13-Aug. 18. Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre, Shakespeare & Company, Lenox. shakespeare.org
WIPEOUT Boston favorites Karen MacDonald and Cheryl D. Singleton star in the world premiere of Aurora Real de Asua’s exploration of life’s ebbs and flows, set on the water when three friends in their 70s learn to surf. Through July 28. At Gloucester Stage Company. https://gloucesterstage.com/wipeout
BOB ABELMAN
Dance
CIRIO COLLECTIVE: 10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Two of Boston Ballet’s most acclaimed principal dancers, siblings Jeffrey and Lia Cirio, nurture their creative drive through this collective, enabling collaborations with a wide range of artists. The troupe’s upcoming landmark anniversary program features new and returning dancers in a world premiere choreographed by Gregory Dolbashian, plus “Woven In (Mint & Tiger)” by Lia Cirio and Emily Mistretta, and “There Is Beauty in the Dark” by Jeffrey Cirio. July 12-13. $44.50. Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion. www.bostontheatrescene.com
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NEWPORT DANCE FESTIVAL Newport Contemporary Ballet’s annual outdoor festival brings together six companies from around the country. Each of five performances features a slightly different program. In addition to Newport Contemporary Ballet, participating companies include East Coast Contemporary Ballet (Norwalk, Conn.), Tom Gold Dance (New York City), Rhea Keller and Leah Russell (Seattle), Rhode Island Women’s Choreography Project (Providence), and Visceral Dance (Chicago). July 17-21. $39-$225. Great Friends Meeting House, Newport, R.I. https://newportcontemporaryballet.org
BOSTON BALLET Company dancers Patrick Yocum, Ji Young Chae, Chisako Oga, and Kaitlyn Casey head to the Berkshires to perform the George Balanchine classic “Apollo” alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The piece is inspired by and set to Stravinsky’s “Apollon musagète” — Balanchine called the collaboration with the legendary composer a turning point in his life, helping launch his international choreographic career. The program also includes Andris Nelsons conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s vividly dramatic “Scheherazade.” July 12. $22-$60. Tanglewood, Lenox. www.bso.org
JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL The festival takes an immersive dive into the art of tango with its engagement of the Buenos Aires-based dance company Social Tango Project. In addition to talented artists from Argentina, the company will showcase regional and local tango dancers as well as live music. Saturday evening’s performance includes free entry to a one-night-only milonga (dance party) after the performance in an adjoining space, and Thursday’s performance is also available via livestream. July 17-21. $58.50-$95. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket. www.jacobspillow.org
KAREN CAMPBELL
Visual art
IMAGINE ME AND YOU: DUTCH AND FLEMISH ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ISLAMIC WORLD, 1450-1750 An elucidation of the underexplored cultural exchange that took place between an ascendant Netherlandish world of the Northern Renaissance and the ancient societies of the Islamic world, this exhibitions gathers more than 100 objects to explore how these rising powers of Western Europe both influenced and absorbed the rich cultural legacies of eastern empires like the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal that concurrently controlled much of Central and Southeast Europe, North Africa, and South, West, and Central Asia. Through Aug. 18. Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617-495-9400, www.harvardartmuseums.org
FIRELEI BÁEZ This first-ever career survey of the Dominican-American painter Báez, 43, leaves only one question: What took so long? At the ICA, Báez’s rich oeuvre of large-scale paintings unfurls as a wildly color-filled tour through neglected tales excavated from colonial history, enlivened by the artist’s poetic imagination and formidable painterly gifts. As a painter and storyteller, Báez has a rare eloquence and grace with both her medium and subject matter, a gently seductive quality that makes the stories she unearths irresistible. Humanism, that old saw, feels like a forgotten relic in most cultural expression these days; Báez brings it vividly back to life in a way authentic to the moment. Through Sept. 2. Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, icaboston.org
IMAGINE VAN GOGH In a crowded field of “immersive” experiences of the art of Vincent van Gogh — at one point in 2021, there were three video-projected Van Gogh extravaganzas happening in the city at the same time — one stood out, mostly for not being a horrendously tacky perversion of the artist’s work. Good news: This is the one. And while I’m still not a believer in the format, I can allow that “Imagine Van Gogh,” with its simple, sky-high projections of details of famous paintings, is as elegant an iteration of such a thing as you’ll find. Through Aug. 30. SOWA Power Station, 530 Harrison Ave. 866-524-1914, www.imagine-vangogh.com.
MURRAY WHYTE
SIDDHARTH CHOUDHARY: ALONG THE WAY Choudhary was born in Mumbai, has lived in Hong Kong and Paris, and now lives in the Boston area. He starts each of his paintings of people he has met around the world by making a digital drawing with a stylus on an iPad. When he paints the sly, bright, cartoonish portraits in acrylic on canvas, he includes hiccups resulting from that digital process, making painterly works with traces of high-tech DNA. Through July 27. Anderson Yezerski Gallery, 460 Harrison Ave. 617-262-0550, www.andersonyezerski.com
CATE McQUAID
EVENTS
Comedy
COLIN QUINN LIVE “It’s the golden age of snitches and tattletales,” says Quinn in his new special, “Our Time Is Up,” filmed at a convention of psychiatrists. “Everybody’s a Karen. Not just the Karens. People that film Karens and go, ‘Look what this Karen did!’ That’s a Karen move, too. Filming a Karen and posting it is the ultimate Karen move.” July 12, 8 p.m. $35.75-$79.50. The Cabot, 286 Cabot St., Beverly. 978-927-3100, www.thecabot.org
RIVER BUTCHER “I’ve been taking testosterone for about three years,” says Butcher in their 2023 “Someone’s Boyfriend” stand-up special, referring to their transition. They’ve been impatient with the process, saying they feel like “history’s slowest werewolf,” when really they wanted to wake up changed like Tom Hanks in “Big.” “Just really wanted to be a 30-year-old man ever since I was seven years old.” July 13, 7 p.m. $33. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
LONGBOARDS COMEDY NIGHT A worthy lineup comes to Longboards this week — Don Gavin and Christine Hurley on Thursday. July 18, 7:30 p.m. $35. Longboards, 76 Wharf St., Salem. www.pinkyringcomedy.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
ALL AGES ADVENTURE IMPROV Join the troupe of Adventure Improv for a custom experience tailor-made for you. Help the performers navigate fantasy worlds from the comfort of your seat and enjoy the mini-games, elaborate light and sound, and musical numbers. July 13, 2 p.m. $15. The Rockwell, 255 Elm St. therockwell.com
FAMILY YOGA IN THE PARK Enjoy the weather and nature with your family as you move through yoga poses together. Make sure to bring a water bottle and a mat to this informative and hands-on session on mindfulness and meditation. July 14, 10:30 a.m. $20/$10 for non-member adult and child, $16/$8 for member adult and child. deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road. thebostoncalendar.com
JOHNNY THE K A full show wrapped up in one man, John Kelleher brings his 12-string guitar and curated collection of costumed hats, masks, and disguises to Burlington this Wednesday. Bring a picnic blanket and a snack for a lively show outdoors. July 17, 6:30 p.m. Free admission. Burlington Town Common, 29 Center St. facebook.com
ARUSHI JACOB
