If you can’t find a way to get out of town for the long weekend to avoid the gigantic mess that is moving day in Boston, make the best of it with some pretty sweet theater, arts, and music events. Or just stroll around and make up a September 1st drinking game: Moving truck stuck under a bridge on Storrow? Take a shot. Recent grad fighting with his mom because he wants to assert his independence but also has no earthly idea how to hang up curtains? Finish your drink. You get the idea.
Also, if you haven’t submitted your picks for The Boston Calendar Best Of Awards, make sure to let us know your favorites in the categories of food, nightlife, music, culture, and city living by September 15. Maybe submit your favorite dive bar so you won’t feel so bad next time you tip a quarter on a $2.75 PBR.
| Friday, August 29 – Boston’s Unscripted Musical Project |
This free production from Boston’s Unscripted Musical Project (B.U.M.P) isn’t your typical musical, and not just because it’s free instead of whatever musicals usually cost, I don’t know, probably a lot. The songs, dancing, dialogue, and music by a full band will be completely improvised based on a single suggestion from the audience. So there’s a chance you can yell something and shape the whole performance, unlike that stupid Drew Carey who never takes your suggestions for “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” but that’s just because you’re watching a television show at home and they can’t hear you no matter how loud you scream “FARTS!!!” (8 p.m., FREE, all ages)
| Friday to Sunday, August 29-31 – “Murder Ballad” |
After an acclaimed, sold-out run in New York, the immersive rock musical “Murder Ballad” comes to Oberon for three shows. The story of a love triangle gone bad is presented as a 360-degree theatrical experience where the action happens everywhere you look, and as you remember from geometry class the angles of a love triangle only add up to 180 degrees, so look around for another threesome happening somewhere. Also I’m sorry for recommending two musicals in a row, and even more sorry that neither of them is “Frozen” on Broadway but that’s not out yet so you’re just going to have to let it go, let it go. (7:30 p.m., $15, all ages)
| Friday to Sunday, August 29-31 – Saint Anthony’s Feast |
The North End’s “feast of all feasts,” Saint Anthony’s Feast has something for all ages: parades, strolling singers, live entertainment, contests, and thousands of confused tourists who are just trying to find the end of the line for Mike’s. There’s going to be so much food that you probably pronounce incorrectly according to Giada de Laurentiis (shut up, Giada): arancini, cannoli, pizza, pasta, calamari, zeppole, gelato, and more. Everything ends in a vowel, and that vowel is “sometimes Y” as in “yummy.” (Start times vary, FREE, all ages)
| Friday to Monday, August 29 to September 1 – campfire. festival |
It started as a way to fill a slow booking weekend at Harvard Square’s Club Passim in 1998, and the curiously punctuated campfire. festival has developed into a biannual showcase for developing new talent and celebrating Boston’s music scene. The four-day event features solo and band sets, “in the round” performances with songwriters swapping tunes, even audience members pulled on stage to perform. Just FYI guys, I’ve been known to break out a pretty sweet karaoke version of “I Won’t Back Down” if you need me. Also, try to listen to the chorus of Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” without hearing “I Won’t Back Down.” You can’t. (Start times vary, $10/day or $25/festival pass, all ages)
| Saturday, August 30 – “27 Tips for Banishing the Blues” |
Sleeping Weazel presents the world premiere of Charlotte Meehan’s “27 Tips for Banishing the Blues” at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, running through September 13. The second installment in Meehan’s “The Problem With People” trilogy, “27 Tips” skewers the self-help industry for selling fake help to people in real pain — people who apparently can’t run a simple Google search for “puppies that are best friends with other animals” because that does the trick for me whenever I get the sads. (8 p.m., $10-20, all ages)
| Saturday to Sunday, August 30-31 – ähts: The Boston Arts Festival |
I didn’t understand the umlaut in ähts: The Boston Arts Festival until I looked closer and discovered it’s actually two tiny Ds for Dunkin’ Donuts and signifies that you should pronounce the word in your most ridiculously exaggerated Boston accent: “aaaaaahhhhhhhhts.” The festival in Christopher Columbus Park showcases diverse performing arts, educational and interactive art activities, cutting-edge temporary public art, and more than 45 juried local artists selling their work. (12 p.m., FREE, all ages)
| Sunday, August 31 – The Freedom Cypher |
The Wreck Shop Movement begins its third year of bringing the Boston hip-hop community together through the time-honored tradition of the cypher: Emcees bring their best written or freestyled rhymes to collaborate with beatboxers, musicians, DJs, singers, and that one guy who keeps trying to sing “I Won’t Back Down” even though it’s really not appropriate for this setting. This month’s Freedom Cypher features producer Lightfoot, so come show off your skills or just hang out and take in the show at The Democracy Center in Cambridge. (6 p.m., FREE, all ages)
| Sunday, August 31 – “Allston Xmas” Release Party |
Allston Christmas isn’t just the favorite holiday of thrifty scavengers and bed bug colonies everywhere, it’s now a web series following a few dozen young people as their friendships, relationships, and attachment to material things are put to the test on moving day in Boston. Sunday’s release party at Great Scott features an early screening of every episode of the series, plus live performances by Wilder Maker, the Dazies, and Grenades in the Archives. And if you’re going hunting on Monday, remember this easy rhyme to avoid those nasty bed bugs: Steel and wood, it’s all good. Soft and cloth, let it rot. (9 p.m., $5, 18+)
Photo credit: Casey Eisenreich/Creative Commons
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This article was provided by our content partner, The Boston Calendar.