Compagnie Käfig

  According to the festival’s own publicity, Compagnie Käfig were “the smash hit” of the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow season. The critic for the Boston Globe praised the French-Brazilian company’s blend of martial arts, hip-hop and contemporary dance for its ability to reach the audience: “Perhaps more than in most other performances, the overwhelming necessity in [...]

Joey Bada$$

  Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott is barely 18 years old. In 1999, he was 4. Last year, the name Joey Bada$$ became synonymous with that year when the unknown rapper released his so-titled mixtape over some of that era’s most recognizable beats by MF DOOM and J Dilla. Now, the Brooklyn teen and his Pro Era [...]

Boston Early Music Festival

  The Boston Early Music Festival returns to the Mahaiwe this weekend with a celebrated, fully staged production of George Frideric Handel’s first opera, Almira. How celebrated was it in its initial Boston run? The Wall Street Journal called Almira “a stunning, revelatory production that demonstrated how superb scholarship and execution in both historical stagecraft [...]

Solid Sound Festival

  After a year’s hiatus, Wilco return to MASS MoCA this weekend for Solid Sound, a target-curated music festival that’s been called “an antidote to big-name destination festivals elsewhere in the country.” Beyond headlining the event, Wilco have hand-selected all the events and performances set to take place in the museum galleries and grounds. Noteables [...]

Jim James

  Regions of Light and Sound of God is the immaculate title of Jim James’ debut solo album. The My Morning Jacket frontman has been involved with a number of projects away from his Louisville-based rock band—namely Monsters of Folk, a Woody Guthrie Tribute and an EP of George Harrison covers under the spanglified pseudonym [...]

Chicago

  Do we really have to remind you why you want to go to this show? For more than 40 years, Chicago have been entertaining millions with their blend of rock, jazz and soul music. To wit: “Colour My World,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park,” “If You Leave Me Now,” and [...]

Melissa Etheridge

  We completely forgot that Melissa Etheridge won an Oscar. (If you must know, it was for the theme song of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.) That’s about all we’ve forgotten about one of the seminal singer-songwriters of the last 25 years, however. Bluesy and ballsy, Etheridge has never been less than entertaining—and honest. She’s [...]

Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls

  Folk legend Joan Baez has teamed up with fellow folk activists the Indigo Girls for a special 10-show tour this summer, with a date at the acclaimed Berkshire venue Tanglewood. Baez, who began her music career in the summer of 1960, toured with Bob Dylan in 1963 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from [...]

ALSO NOTED

  Rock’s best appliance-oriented band, the Refrigerators, will headline tonight’s (Thursday) Alive at Five (5 PM, free, 434-2032). . . . Los Angeles indie rockers Airborne Toxic Event head to Upstate Concert Hall tonight (8 PM, $10.27-$20, 371-0012). . . . Expert jazz sidemen Bruce Barth and Steve Nelson step forward at the Van Dyck [...]

Social Distortion

  Orange County, Calif., punk godfathers Social Distortion kicked off a monthlong tour of the U.S. and Canada. Thankfully, local stalwarts of all things sonically cool 102.7 WEQX made sure the band stopped by the Upstate Concert Hall for a show. This year, the band, fronted by Mike Ness, recorded their first new album since [...]