Weekly Music Picks: AC Cranking Edition

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for us to claim that all shows should be played outside over the summer. Lucky for us no one listens to our suggestions on venue – so we're heading back inside where the temperature with the AC on is only about five degrees cooler than it is outside. A welcome five degrees, with a tiny bit lower humidity. This week's list hits a variety of shows, something to please each and every pair of ears out there. From Martha Wainwright opening for Gomez to classic sounds of Dave Brubeck. If we had some sort of heat relieving thunderstorm analogy to make this is where we'd use it.

Monday 6/19:
David Bazan of Pedro the Lion
To Bostonist, David Bazan is just a mild-mannered emo dude with a beard, but to the Christian rock industry, he's some kind of brooding, doubting, cussing badass. Local singer-songwriter Drew O'Doherty opens.
TT the Bear's
18+, 9:10 pm, $10
David Bazan: myspace | web site | Backwoods Nation.mp3
Drew O'Doherty: myspace | web site

Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance (through Saturday)
Every single night this week, the New England Conservatory's annual SICPP (affectionately pronounced "Sick Puppy") brings in the modern music. Pianists, percussionists and other instrumentalists, and composers, too, have descended on the NEC this week for workshops, with the happy by-product of free, un-ticketed concerts in Jordan or WilliamsHalls, Monday through Friday at 8, and a marathon show beginning on Saturday at 5:30 pm.
Please especially note Charlemagne Palestine tonight, and the Callithumpian Consort on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
New England Conservatory of Music
8pm nightly; 5:30pm Saturday
Free and open to the public; no tickets
SICPP: website
Charlemagne Palestine: website (Warning: contains monkeys)
Callithumpian Consort: website

Tuesday 6/20:
Martha Wainwright (opening for Gomez)
Last Wednesday, she brought down the sold-out house at Carnegie Hall with her rendition of "Stormy Weather." Next Wednesday, she'll be seen singing "The Traitor" in the Leonard Coheen documentary/tribute I'm Your Man. In between, Rufus's little sister sings us her own songs, opening for Gomez at the Paradise.
Paradise Rock Club
18+, 7 pm, $22
Gomez: web site
Martha Wainwright: myspace | web site | Martha & Rufus's home movie about the McGarrigle Sisters | Bloody Motherfucking Asshole .mp3

Angels in America (also Saturday 6/24)
Two performances remain of Peter Eötvös's operatic treatment of the Pulitzer-winning play by Tony Kushner. The original is a gloriously complex two-night sprawl, condensed here to a tidy two and a half hours with most of the story and all of the heart intact. Especially lovely in this Opera Unlimited production are baritone Tom Meglioranza sputtering "sue the bastard," soprano Amanda Forsythe bursting into song (if not from the ceiling) while hoisted by orderlies, and some extraordinary electronic and acoustic effects (sampling, hooting, burbling) from the tiny, intense orchestra. Talks precede both performances, and a casual Club Concert with three members of the orchestra providing background music will end the run of this amazing, important work.
Virginia Wimberly Theatre, Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (opera), Carol G. Deane Hall, Calderwood Pavilion (Club Concert) Tuesday, June 20th, 8pm; Saturday, June 24th, 3pm (opera) and 9pm (Club Concert)
$45 and $65, half-price student rush tickets two hours before concert time (cash only);
Club Concert free and open to the public
Opera Unlimited (Opera Boston + BMOP): website
Tomness, the blog of Angels in America cast member Tom Meglioranza: website

Wednesday 6/21:
My Morning Jacket with the Boston Pops (also Thursday 6/22)
Having whetted music blogger appetites with a performance of "Gideon" on Letterman, Kentucky's My Morning Jacket will perform a couple hours' worth of "greatest hits" with assistance from Keith Lockhart, et al.
Symphony Hall
$17-$74, 8pm
My Morning Jacket: myspace | web site | Phoenix interview
Boston Pops: web site
MMJ & the Pops: video of "Gideon" on Letterman

The Streets with Lady Sovereign
Mike Skinner, "the bona fide voice, not just of a generation, but of a whole class," comes to Beantown to explain why being the biggest name in UK grime and hip hop is "The Hardest Way to Earn an Easy Living." Skinner's new album chronicles the sex, drugs, and grime that followed his rise to fame. As his website notes, Skinner "has followed up a sweetly brilliant album (The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free) about the sort of thing that might happen to him if he wasn't famous, with a viciously brilliant album about the sort of things that have happened to him now he is. It's the stuff tabloids live for. Turns out, it's the stuff of great records too. "The Streets are joined by "the biggest midget in the game," London's grime darling Lady Sovereign ("fling on an Adidas Hoodie and just boogie woogie with me.")
Avalon
All Ages, $18, 8pm (tickets are still available)
The Streets: website myspace
Lady Sovereign: website (with clips, including the AdRock remix of "A Little Bit of Shhh") | myspace

Thursday 6/22:
Those Who Wait (w/ Plastic Constellations, The Living Sea)
Fresh off their 17 concerts- in- 18 days- road trip, Those Who Wait came home to Boston, got some beauty rest, drank maaaad red bull and now they're ready to roll again. If you haven't heard them yet, they're a little Sunny Day Real Estate, a tad Sigur Ros, with some Mogwai on the side, and totally amazing live. Come see them play this Thursday, get a high life with the band, make some conversation- and you'll have had a pretty productive evening: discovering an awesome new local band and making a new myspace friend (and yes they will write you back!!)
Middle East Upstairs, 18+
9pm, $9
Those Who Wait: myspace

Friday 6/23:
Final Fantasy
The Times calls Owen Pallett "The World's Most Popular Gay Postmodern Harpsichord Nerd"; his web site says "violin and looping pedal and thin, stupid vocals"; Bostonist says "(c) All of the above, minus the stupid."
TT the Bear's
18+, 9:15 pm, $9
Final Fantasy: web site | Pitchfork profile | Peach, Plum, Pear .mp3 (glorious Joanna Newsom cover)

Richard Galliano with Pablo Ziegler & New York Trio (also Saturday 6/24)
Richard Galliano is a composer and jazz musician who's worked with the likes of Joe Zawinul, Ron Carter, Jan Garbarek, and Chet Baker. But there's the catch --- Galliano plays the accordion. In addition to contemporary jazz, Galliano has made a name for himself reworking the musette, the turn-of-the century Parisian dance hall music that was France's version of the tango. He's also won acclaim for his concerts and live album interpreting the music of tango nuevo master Astor Piazzolla (four stars from downbeat). And Bostonist loves Piazzolla. Galliano is joined by Argentinian pianist Pablo Ziegler, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Al Foster.
Regattabar
$28, 7:30pm & 10pm
Richard Galliano: website
Pablo Ziegler: website

Saturday 6/24:
Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take some Time Out to catch a living legend when jazz pianist Dave Brubeck ("Take 5," "Blue Rondo à la Turk") hits Berklee with his quartet.
Berklee Performance Center
$30 - $37.50, 8pm
website | wikipedia

Sunday 6/25
Devotchka
Between Devotchka's crooning, Norfolk & Western's victrola, and like-minded locals Humanwine, we expect the evening to sound like a dimly-lit, slightly tipsy antique shop.
TT the Bear's
18+, 9:30 pm, $10
Devotchka: myspace | web site
Norfolk & Western: myspace | web site Humanwine: myspace | web site | purchase

C. Fernsebner, Matt Durutti, Victoria Daskal, and Christina Linklater contributed to this list