Best of the Weekend – May 22-24, 2015
Welcome to Best of the Day, our recommendations for what to check out around town this weekend. If you’re wondering what to do in Boston this weekend, consider these events.
Friday, May 22
St. Vincent photo by Aktiv I Oslo.no on Flickr
Boston Calling
Boston Calling’s trademark is to put together a concert lineup so mind-boggling, it reads like some kind of absurd dream, with each installment featuring slews of performers who’d have no trouble selling out huge venues all on their own. This year’s roster is perhaps Boston Calling’s most absoludicrous yet: Beck, My Morning Jacket, The Pixies, St. Vincent, Tame Impala, Marina & the Diamonds, and Tenacious D are among the bands who’ll storm City Hall Plaza for this three-day fest. To whet your appetite, check out the playlist:
Don’t have tickets yet? There’s still have time to snag single-day passes. But if you prefer to live vicariously, Boston magazine will be posting concert recaps aplenty—stay tuned.
$50-$350, May 22-24, City Hall Plaza, Boston, spring.bostoncalling.com.
Saturday, May 23
Still from Prince Rama video “Never Forever.”
Dan Deacon with Prince Rama
Since his 2007 breakthrough album Spiderman of the Rings, absurdist electronic composer Dan Deacon and his Baltimore-based Wham City art collective acolytes have been spreading the gospel of Future Shock, as well as some equally irresistible-yet-baffling messages about drinking out of cups. With 2015’s Gliss Riffer, Deacon makes impossibly dance-party-ready ditties brimming with spastic electronic flourishes and hallucinatory lyrics. Deacon tells us: “I’m having visions, infinite visions. The same ones as you.”
But we’re not sure anyone could have the same visions as his opener, Prince Rama, who describe their music as taking the “kaleidoscopic mysticism of ancient devotional music and [focusing] it through the fierce urgency and archetypal language of pop.” This sister act of Taraka and Nimai Larson (who got the idea for the project while living in a Hare Krishna-heavy community in Florida) honed their Bollywood-inspired psychedelia in the DIY art scene of Jamaica Plain before riding the astral plane to their new home in Brooklyn. On Saturday, they return to Boston with their singularly weird brand of trance-psych music, sometimes known to take the form of “group exorcism videos disguised as VHS workouts.”
$18.50, 6 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston, 617-779-0140, crossroadspresents.com/brighton-music-hall.
Sunday, May 24
https://instagram.com/p/2Ez-Zknojq
The Wave
February 9, 1934, might have broken a record for being the coldest day in Boston history, but we submit that May 24, 2015, will set a new record for being the chillest. In fact, according to our highly scientific calculations, the Sunday chill levels expected to envelop Boston this Memorial Day weekend can only be described as “reptilian.” Bostonians are advised to spend the day engaging in vigorous—but not overly vigorous—patio brunching, waterfront strolling, public lawn lazing, and euphoric dancing. For the latter, get thee to Middlesex for the Wave. Kicking off in the late afternoon, CLLCTV Boston’s monthly bash reliably supplies Central Square with good beats and good vibes. For the May edition, they’ve enlisted Big Bear (the DJ, not the now-defunct early-aughts Boston rock band), A Lil’ Louder’s Nu, and DC to BC’s Spicoli.
$5 advance/$10 doors, May 24, 4 p.m., Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-868-6739, thewaveboston.splashthat.com.
