Thursday Happenings

Ice Cream Socials

-- WFNX hosts an ice cream eating contest. It's not necessarily Independence Day themed, but we suggest combining strawberry, vanilla, and (if they have it) blueberry. 2-5pm, Cherry Farm Creamery, 210 Conant Street, Danvers. (KS)

Drone Night

-- You can pretend that it's 1998 all over again with a showcase of bands playing what folks used to call "postrock." Cantabrigian Howard Steltzer makes cascading, bouncy electronic droney music, whereas Somervillian Brendan Murray makes drone of the sear-your-face-off variety. Space Faces, from Cambridge, uses a lot of found sound. For people with exceptionally long attention spans. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 9:00pm. $9.

Dancing Hipsters

-- The FTW party machine brings Franki Chan and Reid Speed, a pair of LA DJs, out to join hometown crews Hearthrob and Basstown. Soft pornographer Party photographer Nicky Digital will be on hand. The Roxy, 279 Tremont St., 8:00pm. $10.

Your Own Backyard

-- Channel 680 on the A.M. dial is WRKO, the flagship of the Red Sox radio network. Grab your radio, pour some charcoal on the barbecue, make a packie run, and invite everyone in your three-decker downstairs to listen to the Sox take on their former division rivals, the New York Yankees. And, hey, it wouldn't hurt Bostonist's fantasy baseball team if Pedroia actually hit for the cycle this time around. Boston-wide, 7:05pm. Costs variable.

Kerry Skemp contributed to this post.
Image labeled "Bostonist" by Flickr user JayCoxFilm.