Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, theater, music, dance, visual arts, and author events for the coming week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

American Graffiti
Sunset on Tuesday, June 16 (Rain Date: June 23)
Rose Kennedy Greenway between Milk and India Streets, Boston, MA

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy partners with the Coolidge Corner Theatre for a free outdoor screening series. The classic coming-of-age story of hot rods, drive-ins, and rock n’ roll follows a group of teens as they cruise the streets on their last summer night before heading to college. All films will be screened in 35mm.

Just A Minute Festival
Wednesday, June 17
Regent Theatre, Arlington, MA

It was an online challenge: create a movie that was no longer than 60 seconds. The films could be made using any device and draw on any genre or style. Hundreds were submitted and, for the first time, the best of these efforts will be shown on the big screen. A Q&A will follow with Festival founder and award-winning filmmaker Don Daniel.

Provincetown International Film Festival
June 17-21
Provincetown, MA

Now in its 17th year, this festival not only highlights the impressive number of new films featuring gay themes and stories, but also gathers together excellent movies that focus on a wide range of subject matter. It is also one of the area’s friendliest festivals, with film screenings up and down Commercial Street. Writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait will be named the 2015 “Filmmaker on the Edge” and engage in conversation with resident artist John Waters. Actress Jennifer Coolidge will receive the Faith Hubley Career Achievement Award and will talk with film critic B. Ruby Rich. A small selection of the many notable filmmakers appearing include: Alison Bagnall (Funny Bunny) Bao Nguyen (Live From New York!); Barry Crimmins (Call Me Lucky); Christine Vachon (Nasty Baby); David Thorpe (Do I Sound Gay?); James Ponsoldt (The End Of The Tour); Jeffrey Schwarz (Tab Hunter Confidential); Larry Kramer (Larry Kramer In Love And Anger); Michelle Boyaner (Packed In A Trunk: The Lost Art Of Edith Lake Wilkinson).

The Roxbury International Film Festival
June 17-28
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

Now in its 17th year, this festival proffers ten days of workshops, panel discussions and film screenings. The RIFF showcases the work of emerging and established filmmakers of color — it has become the largest festival in New England dedicated to this genre. Additional workshops and film screenings take place at the Haley House Bakery Cafe and The Historic Shirley Eustis House in Roxbury. For the list of films see the MFA schedule. For a full schedule, check out the RIFF website.

Pack Up Your Sorrows
June 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theater, Arlington, MA

“On a cross-country journey to interview such leading voices in the mental health field as Kay Redfield Jamison and Scott Stossel (as well as to explore alternative therapies with such luminaries as Lama Migmar Tseten, Harvard Buddhist Chaplain & Director of The Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies), singer/songwriter Meg Hutchinson weaves together a story of Bipolar Disorder, hope and transformation.” A Q&A with the filmmaker follows the screening.

Found Footage Festival: Salute to Weirdos
June 18 at 9 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

The very funny comedy writers Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher are curators and hosts of this long-running showcase of discarded and obscure VHS video clips. The evening’s material has been lifted from dumpsters, Goodwill bins, and the nooks and crannies of cable access stations, so the footage borders on the unbelievable. This year’s offerings will include a montage of exercise videos starring Angela Lansbury, Traci Lords, and a bearded hippie named Zar, a woman singing about hairdressers, a speedo-wearing man dancing for elderly people, and a piano-playing rabbit.

WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG. by Burhan Qurbani – International Trailer from German Films on Vimeo.

We Are Young. We Are Strong.
June 21 at 11 a.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

The Goethe-Institut German Film presents this powerful film, set in 1992 in the former East German city of Rostock. It is a “re-creation of the buildup to two nights of violent unrest in Rostock, when Vietnamese immigrants became the target of a rampaging mob and applauding bystanders unhappy with their own status in a recently unified Germany.” This gripping chronicle of real-life intolerance, hate, and violence is a valuable addition to the body of films dealing with German re-unification. Young Afghan-German writer and actor Burhan Qurbani directed this edgy black and white feature.

— Tim Jackson

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Dance

The Opposites Game
June 19 & 20 at 8 p.m.
Jackson Dance Lab, Tufts University
Medford, MA

The Opposites Game, presented by EgoArt, Inc., is the inaugural performance of the Tufts University Dance Faculty Series. Delve into the world of opposites: hot and cold, tension and relaxation, together and alone.

Dancing in the Streets: The Team
Friday, June 19 at 8:30 p.m.
Conway Basketball Court
Somerville, MA

Presented by Somerville Arts Council, The Team brings Business Casual and Mammals Dancing to an outdoor stage. This is a free performance. Under the direction of Michelle Marroquin, The Team uses body, sound, and objects to bring its distinctive version of modern dance to the streets.

Trident Live Art Series
Saturday, June 20 at 6 p.m.
Trident Gallery
Gloucester, MA

Yet another non-traditional space for dance, Gloucester’s Trident Gallery, hosts a performance. Enjoy excerpts of Look, Look Again / Dance Installation performed by The Ipswich Moving Company, which will be followed by live music played by the Boston-based improv trio Emilio Gonzalez, Matt Samolis, and Dei Xhrist.

And further afield…

Over and Under
Saturday, June 20 at 5 p.m. (Rain date: Sunday, June 21)
Vermont College of Fine Arts Green
Montpelier, VT

Textile artist Alisa Dworsky and choreographer Heather Bryce have been working together to create a ‘ribbon installation’ which will be constructed — live — by Bryce’s dancers. Following the performance, the finished installation will remain on view through July 19.

— Merli V. Guerra

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Visual Arts

Van Gogh and Nature
June 14 – September 13
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA

Given Van Gogh’s immersive fascination with nature, it is hard to believe that this is the first exhibition to explicitly explore such a seminal relationship. Though his work is typically seen through the lens of his tortured soul, as an artist Van Gogh returned again and again to gently unfolding landscapes, treeless hills, heartless blue skies over rugged hills, sunsets, olive groves with trees so twisted they look like ancient human beings, fields of wheat and cypress trees undulating in a hot wind, insects, birds, and other small creatures that inhabit village gardens and city parks. Nature served as Van Gogh’s refuge, his chosen field of study, and his inspiration. As he wandered from provincial Holland to Paris and then to Arles and to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died, nature and its creatures filled his journals, sketchbooks, and canvas after canvas.

This is a major exhibition, set, appropriately, in the midst of the Clark’s summer fields, gardens, and classic New England woodlands. It includes major works from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the National Gallery in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The lineup includes “The Sower,” which reaches back to Millet and the Barbican School, and “A Wheatfield, with Cypresses” and “The Olive Trees,” works that absorbed not only the lessons of the Impressionists and Postimpressionists but those of Darwin and the great naturalists of the 19th century. Clearly one of the not-to-be-missed shows of the summer of 2015.

Bigger Than a Breadbox, Smaller Than a Building
June 17 – October 4
BSA Space, Boston, MA

In an era when most architectural work is in shopping malls, office towers, condo developments, and big box retail outlets — and architectural design has mostly come down to wrapping something brand appropriate around steel frames, electrical and HVAC systems, plumbing, and wi-fi networks — architects have increasingly turned to alternative projects to express their own, unique creative ideas about their field of work. Bigger Than a Bread-box includes about a dozen architectural installations that, according to the show’s curators, are “larger than an architectural model but not quite a building” and which question “long-held notions regarding the nature and purpose of architecture.”

Many of the pieces seem to draw on the restless, polymorphic nature of 21st-century life, where people are constantly on the move and buildings change form and function with the economic tides. The curators’ choices include i explorations of material, the manipulation of space to psychological ends, interactive designs, and a huge installation made from 800 unused toilet rolls found in airplane bathrooms. Besides revealing some very personal, serious, and creative thoughts on space and creativity, the show suggests that the architecture of the future will create buildings that will be radically different from those lived and worked in in the past.

Artists at Work
June 18 – August 23
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT

If you really want to know how an artist’s mind works, take a look at his drawings. This show of Italian, Dutch, and French artists of the 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-centuries, shows students mastering their trade, masters working up ideas for clients, and creative geniuses exploring the world around them with a sharp eye and a supple hand. The works on view are drawn from a collection recently donated to the Lyman Allyn by a private collector.

— Peter Walsh

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Jazz

Petros Klampanis
June 16, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar
Cambridge, MA

The young Greek bassist and composer Petros Klampanis has been making waves since moving to New York several years ago. A regular sideman with Greg Osby, Klampanis comes to Boston to celebrate Minor Dispute (Inner Circle Music), which shows off his provocative skills as player and composer—writing for strings, mixing jazz and traditional Greek traditions, deploying “extended” techniques with his acoustic bass (including electronic looping). He brings the core group of seasoned musicians from that album—pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, guitarist Gilad Hekselman, and percussionist John Hadfield.

Benny Green Trio
June 18, 8 p.m.
Sculler Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Endlessly inventive bop-inspired pianist Benny Green comes to Scullers with bassist David Wong and drummer Rodney Green (no relation).

Driff Fest
June 19, 7:30 p.m. – Midnight
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

The enterprising honchos of the Boston-area Driff Records, reedman Jorrit Dijkstra and keyboardist Pandelis Karayorgis, launch their third Driff-centric fest. This is the first two-day edition. Tonight it’s the quartet Matchbox (with Dijkstra, Karayorgis, bassist Nate McBride and drummer Curt Newton); a quartet with Karayorgis, McBride, and cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum and trombonist Jeb Bishop; a duo with Bishop and saxophonist Tony Malaby; the Bathysphere large ensemble, with all of the above and many more; and a late DJ set by Charlie Kohlhase.

Joe’s Jazz & Blue Festival
June 20, 12 Noon-6:30 p.m.
Powderhouse Park, Somerville, MA.

Named for Somerville Mayor Joe Curatone (a former Somerville High trumpeter), this annual free fest this year features, in order of appearance, the Somerville High School Jazz Ensemble, the Busted Jug Band, the Somerville Symphony Orkestra, the Makanda Project, Peter Ward & Electric Blues, and the Either/Orchestra.

Bill Charlap Trio
June 20, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Charlap is the Great American Songbook pianist par excellence — deep knowledge of every tune he plays, and a richly exploratory style. He’s joined by his longtime drummer Kenny Washington and bassist Sean Smith.

Driff Fest
June 20, 7:30 p.m.-Midnight
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Day II of the Boston label’s annual shebang (see June 19). This one features the two-drummer, two-bass quartet of Eric Rosenthal, Luther Gray, Nate McBride, and Jef Charland; a duo of drummer Rosenthal and cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum; a quartet saxophonist Tony Malaby, drummer Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, Jorrit Dijkstra on Lyricon, and someone TBA; the Bathysphere large ensemble; and a late DJ set by Charlie Kohlhase.

Composers Saxophone Quartet
June 20, 8 p.m.
Green Room, Somerville, MA.

The Composers Saxophone Quartet comprises Allan Chase on alto and soprano, Rick Stone on alto, Sean Berry on tenor, and Kathy Olson, baritone. They’re bound to make the beautiful little Green Room quake.

Duchess
June 23, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Three expert singers with broad experience in all kind of American jazz, pop, and folk — Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, and Melissa Stylianou — channel the girl-group swing of the Boswell Sisters, a ’30s trio known for their rhythmic and harmonic sophistication. And their sense of fun. The singers are backed by pianist Michael Cabe, bassist Paul Sikivie, and drummer Jared Schonig.

— Jon Garelick

Joyce Moreno
June 17
8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Allston, MA

Vocalist/guitarist/composer Joyce Moreno has been a force in jazz-inflected Brazilian music since the 1960s, the heyday of bossa nova. Known for most of her career by her first name only (she began to record and perform under her last name in 2009), Joyce first stepped into a studio in 1964 at the age of 16, at the invitation of the great bossa nova composer Roberto Menescal. On her latest album, Raiz (Root), she returns the favor and pays tribute to Menescal (he joins her on guitar for two of his classics, “O Barquinho” and “Nós e o Mar”) along with other seminal bossa nova composers, including Jobim, Johnny Alf, Durval Ferreira and Mauricio Einhorn, Carlos Lyra, Baden Powell, Ary Barroso, and Dorival Caymmi. The album is a gem, freshening up the well-loved tunes with beautiful, distinctive new arrangements. Joyce and her band (husband Tutty Moreno on drums, Rodolfo Stroeter on bass, and New York–based Brazilian pianist Helio Alves) will no doubt be dipping into these at Scullers, along with some of her own dazzling originals.

— Evelyn Rosenthal

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Theater

Melancholy Play: a chamber musical by Sarah Ruhl and Todd Diamond. Directed by Liesl Tommy. Staged by the Trinity Repertory Company in the Dowling Theater, Providence, Rhode Island, through June 28.

“Tony-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House) teams up with prolific composer Todd Almond (New York’s Public Theater) for this world premiere musical directed by Obie Award-winner Liesl Tommy.”

after all the terrible things I do by A. Rey Pamatmat. Directed by Peter DuBois. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, through June 21.

We are told that this is a provocative drama from an “emerging Filipino American playwright” that “examines how our prejudices impact those closest to us and what the cost of forgiveness and second chances actually looks like. Pamatmat explores the origins of bullying and its mental and psychological ramifications.” Arts Fuse review.

The Huntington’s production of after all the terrible things I do will run alongside Company One Theatre’s production of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (directed by Shawn LaCount). Both productions will be produced in the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, the Huntington’s home for new plays. Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them will run from June 4 through 27 at in Deane Hall.

Three by Emily Kaye Lazzaro. Directed by A. Nora Long. Staged by Boston Public Works in the Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, through June 20.

A good sign: the script doesn’t sound very empowering. It “is a coming-of-age story about three young women finding validation, struggling against loneliness, and losing everything. It’s about friendship and independence and death and adulthood. It also has a lot of jokes about genitalia.” See the Arts Fuse feature on Boston Public Works. Arts Fuse review

The How and the Why by Sarah Treem. Directed by Nicole Ricciardi. Staged by Shakespeare & Company in the Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA, through July 26.

Dramatist Sarah Treem once told an interviewer that for a good play, “you put people in a room who have very good reasons to be furious at each other and you don’t let them leave. The How and the Why is somewhat based on that principle.” Tod Randolph and Bridget Saracino star in this production of a clash between two highly intelligent female scientists. See the Arts Fuse feature on The How and the Why. And here is the Arts Fuse review.

Sweet and Sad by Richard Nelson. Directed by Weylin Symes. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company in collaboration with Stoneham Theatre at 267 Main Street, Gloucester, MA, through June 20.

Part Two of the Apple Family Plays, Richard Nelson’s series of scripts about an American family in which he mixes domestic issues and political commentary. Each drama takes place during a different time. This installment is set on “the tenth anniversary of 9/11” as “a family gathers to share a meal and grapple with topics of remembrance, loss, and change.” Here is my review/commentary on Part One, That Hopey Changey Thing, which was staged earlier this season at Stoneham Theatre with the same cast.

Henry V by William Shakespeare. Directed by Jenna Ware. Staged by Shakespeare & Company in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA, through August 23.

Those hungry for more history plays by the Bard after Henry VI, Part 2 have an opportunity to continue the adventure with the prequel: “Henry V is rare among Shakespeare’s works because it contains explicit references to true events in England’s history. Following the death of his father, Prince Hal takes on the crown, rallies his exhausted troops and sets forth to repair his post-civil war nation.” Is the text pro-war? Anti-war? A little of both? It depends on where director Ware puts the emphasis.

Shiver: A Fairytale of Anxious Proportions, written and performed by Project: Project at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA, through June 28.

In this intriguing effort, Project: Project has adapted an off-the-beaten-path Brothers Grimm fairy tale (“The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn How to Shiver”) for the stage. “Stressed-out academic Charlotte travels to an ancient German archive library in order to dig deeper and learn more about the fairytale. However, instead of finding answers in a book, she tumbles into a world of movement, shadow-play and nightmares, as three stories magically intersect across time and reality.”

Dying City by Christopher Shinn. Directed by Cameron Cronin. Staged by the Happy Medium Theatre in Boston, MA, through July 11.

The local staging of this script—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama—will be up front and personal. Cronin directs the “star power-house Fringe couple, Kiki Samko and Michael Underhill” in a “play about grief, identity, and violence in the human psyche—the lies, betrayal and self-deceptions and the centrality of hate in human existence.”

As for attending the show, please note that the production will take place in the living room of the performers, so special arrangements have to be made: “Due to the loss of the Factory Theater, HMT had to improvise this whole season and after not much deliberation, we collectively decided to still bring this wonderful piece of theater to the community in the most intimate form possible: the actual home of Kiki Samko and Michael Underhill. For privacy purposes, we are withholding the address in our press releases, but it will be provided by sending a reply email to mikeydiloreto@gmail.com.”

The Wakefield Stories by Laurence Carr. Directed by Kristin Dwyer. Staged by the Matty Mae Theatre Project at the Davis Square Theatre on June 19 and 26 and at the Somerville Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery (1330 Broadway) on June 20, 21, 27, and 28), Somerville, MA.

A first, at least for me — a theater production staged in a graveyard. “It’s a story set in August 1945 about five people in a small Ohio town, all affected heavily by WW2 and trying to build their futures while struggling with memories of the not-too-distant past.” Playwright Carr says, “it’s realism, a bit of magic realism, and comedy.” Let’s hope that the spirits are not disturbed (could there be the grave of a theater critic out there?) or we may have a Poltergeist-like situation.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. A new version written and directed by Robert Kropf. Staged by the Harbor Stage Company at 15 Kendrick Avenue, Wellfleet, MA, June 18 through July 11.

As far as I am concerned, you can never have too many productions of Ibsen. Stacy Fischer plays the door-slammer, Nora, in a production which will be an “elegant new version of an enduring classic [that] explores the struggle for authenticity within the confines of an artificial society.”

Thoreau or, Return to Walden, written and performed by David Adkins. Directed by Eric Hill. Staged by the Berkshire Theatre Festival at The Unicorn Theatre (The Larry Vaber Stage), Stockbridge, MA, June 18 through July 11.

Adkins stars in the world premiere production of his homage to the life and thought of Henry David Thoreau. The one-man show is billed as a “dramatic and uplifting tale as he [Thoreau] battles with himself, with his own thirst for blood and for the soul of our American conscience. It’s 1859. The Union is on the verge of civil war over the issue of slavery.” Note that this return to transcendental nature “includes brief nudity.”

The Farnsworth Invention, by Aaron Sorkin. Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz. Staged Flat Earth at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA, through June 27.

Sorkin’s play about treachery and technology focuses on “Philo Farnsworth, a child prodigy raised on a farm in rural Idaho, [who] has overcome adversity to create the world’s first electronic television. Meanwhile, employing the top minds of a generation, self-made media mogul David Sarnoff seeks to uncover the secret to Farnsworth’s groundbreaking device through any means necessary.”

— Bill Marx

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Classical Music

Handel and Haydn Sings
Presented by the Handel and Haydn Society
June 18, 7:30 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

H&H closes the first part of its bicentennial celebration (appropriately, it continues throughout the 2015-16 season) with music by Handel, Palestrina, and Bach, plus the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s My Angel, His Name is Freedom and recent pieces by James MacMillan and Arvo Part.

Powder Her Face
Presented by Odyssey Opera
June 18-20, 7:30 p.m.
Huntington Theater, Boston

Odyssey Opera’s “The British Invasion” wraps up with Thomas Ades’ provocative 1995 opera on the scandalous life of Margaret Campbell, the so-called “Dirty Duchess” of Argyll. Patricia Schuman sings Campbell; Ben Wager, Daniel Norman, and Amanda Hall round out the cast. Gil Rose conducts.

Boston GuitarFest X
June 17 through 21
At the Fenway Center, Northeastern University and other venues, including Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Boston GuitarFest 2014 competition winner Xavier Jara performs a solo recital on opening night, including the GuitarFest 2014 winning composition “Obsession” by Viet P. Cuong. Other offerings in the festival: Oscar Ghilglia playing Poulenc and Milhaud, followed by special Boston GuitarFest guest artist Xuefei Yang; Guitarfest’s artistic director Eliot Fisk presenting J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite VI (Trans. Fisk), Ralf Gawlick‘s monumental song cycle Kollwitz-Konnex (with soprano Anne Harley), and the world premiere of Boston GuitarFest commissioned work Conversation Piece by Kurt Schwertsik (with marimbist Ayami Okamura)

Aston Magna Music Festival presents “Monteverdi’s Warring Lovers”
June 18 at 7 p.m.
At the Slosberg Recital Hall, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA

On the program: Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Lettera amorosa, Tempro la cetra, and other operatic madrigals, plus instrumental works by Monteverdi’s peers Castello, Marini, and Cima. The singers include Dominique Labelle, Frank Kelley, and William Hite. The guest instrumentalist is violinist Asako Takeuchi. Artistic Director Daniel Stepner leads the ensemble.

Chamber Music
June 18 at 8 p.m.
At the Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA

Courtesy of Rockport Music, pianist David Deveau, violinist Andrés Cárdenes, and cellist Anne Martindale Williams perform a program that includes Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 “Archduke,” and Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 100.

Jupiter String Quartet
June 19 at 8 p.m.
At the Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA

The ambitious program includes Beethoven’s Quartet in D major Op. 18, No. 3; Hindemith’s Quartet No. 4, Op. 22; Brahms’s Quartet in C minor Op. 51, No. 1.

Music at Edens Edge
June 19 at 8 p.m.
At First Universalist Church, 57 Main Street, Essex, MA

“Musical Tapestries” features an ensemble that includes violinist Maria Benotti, violist Jason Fisher, cellist Jacques Lee Wood, and pianist Naoko Sugiyama. The music on the program: Bridge’s Phantasy for Piano Quartet in F-sharp Minor, Zoltan Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7, Takemitsu’s A Bird Came Down the Walk, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26.

— Susan Miron

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Rock

Spoon
June 18
House of Blues, Boston, MA

It really seems like Spoon should be bigger than they are. It’s as if they’ve been so consistently solid for so long that they’re taken for granted. Still, the group just keeps pumping out quality music, like their latest LP They Want My Soul, released last August.

John Brown’s Body
June 20
Rock and Blues Concert Cruise (leaves from World Trade Center Pier), Boston, MA

Local band John Brown’s Body have been American reggae pioneers since they formed back in the 1990s. Reggae begs to be listened to near a body of water and with a refreshing drink in hand, so seeing the group while cruising Boston Harbor is a pretty perfect combination.

Rush
June 23
TD Garden, Boston, MA

Prog-rockers Rush are one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. Frankly, I don’t. That said, ever since I saw the excellent Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage documentary a few years ago, I’ve refused to belittle them or their very (very) committed fan base. In the film, the members of Rush come across as down-to-earth guys with not one oversized rock star ego among them. Maybe it’s because they’re Canadian. This is not only the group’s 40th anniversary tour, it is also (so they say) their last tour.

Upcoming and On Sale…

Morrissey (6/24/2015, Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts); Buffalo Tom (6/26 and 27/2015, The Sinclair); Huey Lewis and the News (6/27/2015, Indian Ranch); Melvins (6/27/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Brian Wilson (with Rodriguez) (7/2/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); U2 (7/10, 11, 14, 15/2015, TD Garden); Green River Fest (featuring Steve Earle, Punch Brothers, and tUnE-yArDs) (7/10-12/2015, Greenfield Community College); Mudhoney (7/11/2015, Brighton Music Hall); Billy Joel (7/16/2015, Fenway Park); Raekwon & Ghostface Killah (7/17/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Foo Fighters (7/18-19/2015, Fenway Park); Neil Young + Promise of the Real (7/22/2015, Xfinity Center); Modest Mouse (7/23/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Interpool (7/23-24/2015, House of Blues); Greg Trooper (7/25/2015, Atwood’s Tavern); Bombino (7/27/2015, The Sinclair); X (7/30/2015, The Sinclair); Veruca Salt (7/30/2015, Paradise Rock Club); (the) Thurson MoOre Baand (8/2/2015, The Sinclair); Brandon Flowers (8/3/2015, House of Blues); Jamie XX (8/9/2015, The Sinclair); Dick Dale (8/15/2015, Middle East-Downstairs); Willie Nelson & Family (8/21/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); AC/DC (8/22/2015, Gillette Stadium); Counting Crows (8/23/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Social Distortion (8/23/2015, House of Blues); J. Geils Band (8/27/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Death Cab For Cutie (9/11/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Albert Hammond Jr. (9/20/2015, The Sinclair); Bob Mould (9/23/2015, The Sinclair); Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls (9/25/2015, House of Blues); Boston Calling Music Festival (featuring Avett Brothers, Alt-J, and Alabama Shakes) (9/25-27/2015, City Hall Plaza); Kraftwerk (10/3/2015, Wang Theatre); Ride (10/3/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Mark Knopfler (10/9/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Ringo Starr and His All Star Band (10/23/2015, Citi Performing Arts Center); The Who (10/29/2015, TD Garden)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Author Events

The Nation Celebrates 150 Years
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, D. D. Guttenplan, Chloe Maxmin
Discussing The Nation: A Biography
June 16, 6 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
Brattle Theatre
Cambridge, MA
$5 tickets

Founded by abolitionists just months after Lincoln’s assassination, the venerable magazine has upheld a proudly progressive standard ever since. Guttenplan, the author of a biography of the magazine, sits down to discuss its colorful history, which includes rebels, mavericks, and visionaries whose work has appeared in its pages.

Jesse Goolsby
I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them
June 15 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

The Air Force officer and widely-published essayist will read and discuss his debut novel, which concerns the lives of three American soldiers coming back from Afghanistan. Goolsby’s narrative traces the arc of his characters’  stories from childhood to adulthood, detailing the effect combat has on the difficult adjustments they must make to re-enter everyday life.

The Tannery Series: Andre Dubus III on travel
June 18 from 7- 8 p.m.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA
Free for PEM members and Salem residents, $10 all others

Looking for inspiration for this summer’s adventure? Let the acclaimed novelist Andre Dubus III offer you some advice. Dubus will discuss the history of epic American road trips and their vital influence on the country’s sense of itself. The evening will include craft beer tastings, folk music, the paintings of Thomas Hart Benton, and a lively book talk.

Susan Wilson: Literary Lunch Break
Heaven, By Hotel Standards
June 19 from 1- 2 p.m.
South Station, Boston MA
Free

Susan Wilson is an award-winning author and former Boston Globe reporter who knows the city’s literary history like no one else. She will be presenting her new anecdotal and lavishly illustrated history of Boston literary history, which focuses on the role played by  The Omni Parker House, a favored watering hole of such luminaries as Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

n+1 presents City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis
Co-editor Stephen Squibb in conversation with contributors Greg Afinogenov, Dan Albert, and Annie Wyman
June 19 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

The arts and culture journal takes a fresh look at the American city, mindful of the ‘post-industrial malaise’ which is being felt from sea to shining sea. The anthology — part WPA boots-on-the-ground investigation, part 21st Century Studs Terkel yakking, part gonzo journalism — will be discussed, roundtable fashion, by its co-editor and several of the volume’s contributors.

Vendela Vida
The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty
June 23 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

The acclaimed author and scriptwriter will read and sign copies of her third novel, which concerns a woman on a trip to Morocco whose possessions are stolen from her hotel room. The loss initially strikes her as liberating, but the  loss of her identification also brings a whirlwind of possibilities, narrative and existential, comic and tragic. Arts Fuse review.

— Matt Hanson