Thursday Happenings

Image of the Roots from Myspace.

-- The Roots have an uncommonly deep back catalogue—eight studio albums—for a hip hop act, and Bostonist has always attributed that to leader ?uestlove's tenacity. (A man with that much hair must have an equal measure of tenacity.) Don't hold it against them that, as hip hop's most prominent live band, the Roots are favorites of shallow thinking white people who don't believe that samplers, turntables or synthesizers count as real instruments. Tonight they face off against Brooklyn Afrobeat revivalists Antibalas in a soundclash sponsored by Red Bull. The Roxy, 279 Tremont St., 8 p.m. $15.

Afterparties

-- As if to prove Bostonist's point, ?uestlove will keep things going after the show with a late night DJ set. With DJ Frank White. Underbar, 275 Tremont St., 10 p.m. $15.

Puppets

-- Don't get Bostonist started on the perils of political art. We like to have our politics and we like to have our art, but we'd sooner eat sushi pizza before we would combine the two. Nevertheless, the kids seem to like puppets. Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theater mount a Sourdough Philosophy Spectacle, which amounts to an extended, hectoring metaphor about the perils of "our republic." Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St., South End, 7 p.m. $12/$5.