HubArts.com

Tuesday concert info dump

*String Cheese Incident with Bob Weir and Ratdog, Tweeter, July 15, $35-$45, on sale Friday 10 a.m.
*Earth, Wind & Fire with Chris Botti, Pavilion, July 18, $35-$65, on sale Friday 10 a.m.
*Mariah Carey with Sean Paul, at the Garden, Aug. 21, $19.50-$129.50, on sale Friday 10 a.m.
*Allman Brothers, Tweeter, Aug. 26, $25-$50, on sale Saturday 10 a.m.
*Rascal Flatts, Tweeter, Sept. 10, $29-$56.75, on sale Saturday 10 a.m.
*Family Values Tour with Korn, Deftones and more, Tweeter, Sept. 16, $9.99-$59.50, on sale Saturday 10 a.m.
*Pretenders, Avalon, Aug. 4, $45, on sale Saturday at noon.

Apologies to Dave Barry, but...

...wouldn't Ben Affleck's Migraine be an excellent band name?

What part of 'Free Speech' don't they understand?

Dan Kennedy offers clarity on the hot-button issue of protests near soldiers' funerals.

The morning papers: It's all about me, again

I've got a piece about a local mystery author in Globe North today. Bonus: When we took her up in the steeple for the photo shoot, I got to touch the Paul Revere bell. ... Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell weighs in on the new ICA approvingly. The best news in the story is that ICA officials quashed the one thing I didn't like about the museum after an earlier walkthrough - plans to screw up the view with a "lenticular" glass wall.

Living for the weekend

Judging by the dropoff in traffic since last night, many of you have already started your weekend, so I think a lite posting day is in order. But here are a couple of entertainment suggestions for tonight, echoing the morning papers: Kaju Big Battel at the Hynes and the weekend-long Cutting Edge of the Campfire festival at Passim. I also strongly recommend a weekend visit to Laura McPhee's "River of No Return" at the MFA.

And of course tomorrow is the annual WBOS EarthFest concert at the Hatch Shell, generally a good time, especially now that it's been moved away from Earth Day in search of better weather. And the lineup is, as Randy Jackson would say, a hot one. The excellent Los Lonely Boys, Brandi Carlisle and James Blunt (his other stuff may be good but I'm so sick of "Beautiful" I could scream) are the headliners. ... The funniest story of the morning, though, is in the Globe, and finds Linda Laban asking the EarthFest performers what they do to live a more green life. To sum up, except for Carlisle, the answer is "not much."

Red State Rock?

It's not Hub-specific, but I suspect many of you will find high entertainment and plenty of barroom-argument fodder in Ben Sisario's NY Times story about a National Review piece listing the 50 top conservative rock songs. I don't see the actual article on the NR site, but the annotated list is here. The National Review writer, John J. Miller, missed a couple of '60s classics - Ten Years After's "I'd Love to Change The World" ("Everywhere there's freaks and hairies/dykes and fairies/tell me where there is sanity") and Steppenwolf's "Pusher" ("Damn the pusherman"). But many of his choices are smart and well annotated - The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" is at #1, and the Beatles' "Taxman" is #2. And he hits some relative obscurities that are right on the money, like Graham Parker's searing abortion tale, "You Can't Be Too Strong" (#30).

There are some pretty revealing selections as well. "Sweet Home Alabama" (#4) is no doubt a conservative song and a helluva rocker - and there are a million shitfaced rednecks flying the confederate flag from their pickups who love it for other reasons. Yeah, go ahead, Miller, claim them as your own. Hope you've got lots of domestic beer in the fridge when they come over, and no black friends. He also cites the fact that Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain" (#35) is "pessimistic about activism" as a conservative value. Okayyy, that's going to come as a surprise to some of your troops, but, uh, good luck in November. I'll be the guy circling the block at 2 a.m. on the day after election day, blasting CCR's "Fortunate Son" while your legions of defeated Congressmen sob into their Abramoff-funded jacuzzis.

Yet other choices offer material for actual debate about pop music. Is the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (#5) really an anthem for the true-love-waits set, or is the real point the way hormonal anguish fuels the beautiful singing? Is "I Fought the Law" (#15) really on the side of law and order? To me, Miller has entirely missed the point of these songs - it's as if he parsed the lyrics but never actually listened to the records.

Maybe all of this is of interest only to guys who think "High Fidelity" is nonfiction. But give Miller credit for a different take, anyway. It's nice to read a story that offers something to chew on. And there's a picture of Pete Townshend with the Times story that shows why geezer rock can still be worth hearing.

Photo: Flickr - FTIEGS -Creative Commons

The morning papers: It's all about me

I've got an arts piece in Globe North this morning. ... The Exhibitionist has word on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's season. ... The Inside Tracks says if you're a homeless Dot rat, you can be in the Ben Affleck movie.

The morning papers

Names & Faces shows us the J. Geils Band in full reuniting for a few numbers at bassist Danny Klein's 60th birthday party at Sculler's. Pic in the print edition. James Montgomery, Johnny A and many more were in attendance, but the only jamming was Doug Flutie sitting in on drums with the house band. ... Nice piece on a couple of up-and-comers in the musical theater arena. ... The Foxwoods guy joins the Pops for an evening. ... Both papers will be following the "Gone Baby Gone" shoot with intensity. Today the Inside Track talks to author Dennis Lehane, while the Globe writes a color piece from yesterday's Dorchester location. ... Tedd Bale has an itneresting piece on four Boston Ballet dancers here.

Loco x 2

* Locobazooka with Alice in Chains at the Tweet, Aug. 13. Tix $46-$56, on sale Thursday at 10 a.m.
* Delirium, "a Cirque du Soleil Live Music Event," at the DCU Center in Worcester, July 21-22. Tix, $70.75-$126.25, on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Broadway. Really.

The Exhibitionist reports that Nathan Lane will land on Broadway in "Butley," a role he played at the Huntington in 2003 for director Nicholas Martin. Maybe Broadway saw something I didn't. The much-ballyhooed Huntington production seemed a bit of a slog to me.