This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them:
Monday: Back in the day,
Mary Timony fronted Helium, super-cool alt-rockers from Boston who made a lotta noise in the early ’90s. These days, Timony is a prog-rock hippie whose new CD, The Shapes We Make, sounds like something the freak-folk crowd would dig. The Mary Timony Band plays the Grog Shop tonight.
Tuesday: Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello goes the solo route as the
Nightwatchman on One Man Revolution. But those expecting larynx-shredding rawk from the master axeman are in for quite a surprise. Imagine Leonard Cohen singing Springsteen’s Nebraska. Hint: Morello considers his Nightwatchman alter ego an “artist of the people.” He plays House of Blues.
Wednesday: Got the moves but not the skills? No matter. The
U.S. Air Guitar Championships come to House of Blues tonight. Contestants play riffs, runs, and solos on phantom axes, while judges award points on style and creativity. Turn it to 11!
Thursday: The musical
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is based on the 1988 movie about a pair of con men who wager to see which one can swindle a young heiress out of her fortune first. The reason to see it, however, is award-winner Tom Hewitt, whose Broadway roles include The Rocky Horror Show (he played Frank-N-Furter), Dracula, the Musical (he was the main bloodsucker), and The Lion King (as the royal Scar). It’s at the Palace Theater.
Friday: This weekend’s annual
Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival shows off the colorful adhesive in many ways Dad never dreamed of. Games, life-size sculptures, and the always-popular fashion show -- all using duct tape -- throw the spotlight on Avon’s no. 1 export. It’s at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Avon through Sunday.
--Michael Gallucci
