Five Reasons to Leave the House This Weekend

Photo by Jesse Edsell-Vetter

SPECTACLE
Honk! Festival

Honk! is exactly what the name implies—outrageous, upbeat, and incredibly loud. Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands returns this year with performances that are “in your face and out of the world.” Influenced by an immense variety of genres—Samba, Klezmer, Afrobeats, New Orleans second line brass tradition—the three-day festival will have Somerville banging, singing, and dancing. It all begins at Once Ballroom, with performances by bands from places as near as Providence, Rhode Island, and as far as Marseille, France.

Free, Friday, October 7, 7:30 p.m., Once, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville, oncesomerville.com.

Image via Citi Wang Theatre

FOLK LEGEND
Joan Baez

Everyone should know Joan Baez, even if they don’t listen to folk. Baez is not only a remarkable musician (she was 18 when she performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, 19 when she released her debut LP for Vanguard Records, and 66 when she won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), but also an extraordinarily dedicated activist. Baez marched on the front lines with Martin Luther King Jr., was at the forefront of the Vietnam War protests, received Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience award—the list goes on. She also had a part in breaking Bob Dylan into the music scene. Baez performs Saturday with singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, who has five Grammys to her name.

$45–$100, Saturday, October 8, 8 p.m., Citi Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., citicenter.org.

Courtesy Photo

TABLE TALK
Anthony Bourdain

Everyone gets their start somewhere—Anthony Bourdain told us that he entered the culinary scene via a dishwashing job in Provincetown. “The Hunger,” Bourdain’s second standup tour, brings him back to Massachusetts; it follows last year’s ten-city tour, “Close to the Bone,” where Bourdain shared thoughts on his career and Guy Fieri, and disclosed that he frequents KFC. The Parts Unknown host, chef, and author will participate in a Q&A following the talk.

$50­–$250, Friday, October 7, 8 p.m., Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., 617-266-1492, bso.org.

’80s THROWBACK
Violent Femmes

The Violent Femmes have had a long and storied history, with the occasional hiatus and a changing membership that at one point included Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls. But whatever else is going on with the band, the music remains a vital part of the American pop canon, with songs such as “Blister in the Sun,” “American Music,” and “I Held Her in My Arms” remaining stone-cold classics. The current incarnation of the band heads to Boston this Friday.

$30+, Friday, October 7, 7:30 p.m., Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, ticketmaster.com.

Courtesy of American International/Photofest

FRIGHT NIGHT
The Amityville Horror

Ready to start channeling Halloween? You’re not the only one. As part of “Coolidge After Midnite,” a weekly late-night program that features “horrifying, weird, camp, avant-garde, tripped-out and cult” film screenings, Coolidge Corner Theatre is showing The Amityville Horror (1979). Inspired by a true story and best-selling book, the narrative follows a family that (knowingly) moves to Long Island into a colonial home with a gruesome history. Horror ensues.

$12, Friday, October 7, 11:59 p.m., Moviehouse II, Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, coolidge.org.