Best of Boston

Art-punk heroes and alterna-rock granddaddies Mission of Burma, whose original 1979-83 run influenced R.E.M. and the Pixies, roared back with a handful of high-decibel concerts that proved their jittery, angular poetry had not been dimmed by 19 years in hibernation. Bassist Clint Conley called the reunion “a full-blown midlife crisis,” but these fortysomethings played with the same verve as when they were pups.