Weekend Ideas: June 20, 2014

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Summer officially begins with one of those weekends where there’s way too much going on (which is a good thing). So I’ll waste little time in getting to the point – and some representative videos of concert options. Friday’s the lighter night with a blues-rocking guitar pairing at House of Blues with Kenny Wayne Shepherd (back after his turn with Stephen Stills in the Rides) and pedal-steel firebrand Robert Randolph. And one of Boston’s veteran jazz big bands, the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, returns to the Cambridge YMCA for a program by resident composers Mina Cho, David Harris, Bill Lowe, Warren Senders, Norm Zocher and Darrell Katz, who’s scored a concerto for marimba (played by art-rocker Vessela Stoyanova) and violin.

The biggest outdoor event on this beautiful-weather weekend comes with a side of pork. The Phantom Gourmet’s BBQ and Music Festival on City Hall Plaza kicks off Friday with New York’s veteran hip-hop ladies Salt-N-Pepa (and the Timberfakes) pumping the hits, while Saturday gets lively with local ska-punk heroes the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, celebrating frontman Dickey Barrett’s 50th birthday (he’s now the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel, who’ll be on hand as well). Plus the Bosstones will be joined for Saturday’s more filling plate by New Jersey rockers the Gaslight Anthem (who played City Hall Plaza at last fall’s Boston Calling) and our own smoking R&B shouter Barrence Whitfield & the Savages.

Another locally-bred talent, singer/songwriter Patty Griffin follows her recent House of Blues stop with a riverside Saturday set at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., while the Lowell Summer Music series at Boarding House Park keeps busy with brassy, sibling-heavy folk-rockers Delta Rae (with local guest Will Dailey) on Friday and brooding folk-rocker Amos Lee on Saturday.  Art Garfunkel holds court at the Berklee Performance Center on Saturday to share his scripted anecdotes (hey, did you know he taught Paul Simon how to sing?), a bunch of songs and a Q&A session, while Australia’s Jon Butler Trio jams its acoustic rock at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion. Meanwhile, over at the Sinclair, soul-funk rockers Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds take flight, seen here in a recent performance, and here’s a jump to my interview with frontwoman Arleigh Kincheloe. Finally, still talking Saturday, hallowed ’90s alt-rock trio Buffalo Tom (primarily fronted by singer/guitarist Bill Janovitz) returns to the Paradise Rock Club — with its own hearty catalog, I can’t say that Buffalo Tom will reprise this offbeat New Order cover. And John Powhida International Airport delivers soul-rock pizazz at the Lizard Lounge to toast Airport Life, its local, lanky and lauded singer’s first album in six years.

Lucius, one of my favorite — and musically and visually unique — new pop groups, is doing the festival rounds this summer. And if you don’t want to catch the band in a more casual setting than the upcoming Green River and (sold-out) Newport Folk fests, consider a shorter Sunday road trip to the weekend’s Granite State Music Festival in Concord, N.H.  Lucius, seen here in one of their most intense tunes, will headline Sunday evening, and just before them on the main stage will be the great Boston-reared group Kingsley Flood, which splits the lines between Bob Dylan and the Clash. Also on Sunday night, there’s a Music Drives Us fundraiser at the Paradise with a classic local cast including James Montgomery, Danny Klein, Charlie Farren, Barry Goudreau, Bearstronaut, Shake the Faith and Lizzie Borden & the Axes. Jaes Montgomery & Supergroup, Danny Klein (J. Geils Band), Barry Goudreau, Charlie Farren (Farrenheit), David Hull, Hirsh Gardner, Bearstronaut, Lizzi
Finally, for my Thursday Throwback, with Billy Joel kicking off summer concerts at Fenway Park next Thursday, here’s a vintage 1976 set from Joel and his band. The weather’s heating up as the season kicks in with live music.


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