Friday Happenings

Weird Pop

We're suckers for Vancouver pop outfit Destroyer, but, inevitably, we think the older stuff is better. Even if we didn't envy Dan Bejar's curly mane, we'd still dig that his weirdo pop sounds like an imaginary recording date featuring David Bowie, Stephen Malkmus, John Cale, and Roky Erickson. The music veers from sappy to unhinged, drearily sincere to hilariously ironic, and there's nothing wrong with that. Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., 8 p.m. $15.

Movies

it's the first big night for the Roxbury Film Festival, and the evening's centerpiece is the Dinner and a Movie event at the Haley House. It features actor Obba Babatunde, who will discuss the actor's craft, plates of barbecue, and a screening of Why Am I Doing This, a film about struggling actors in Hollywood. Haley House, 23 Dartmouth St., 6:30 p.m. More information.

Shakespeare

This year's Shakespeare on the Common finally starts tonight, and the play is The Comedy of Errors. Is now the time when we admit to our English 210 professor and to the world that we never actually read that one? Boston Common, 7 p.m., through August 16. Free.

Not Shakespeare

One play the we did read, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, is Tom Stoppard's darkly hilarious take on Hamlet, told from the point of view of two characters who (spoiler!) end up dying. Performed by Bad Habit Productions. Durrell Theater, Cambridge YMCA, 820 Mass. Ave., 7 p.m. $15/$20/$10.

Let's Play Master and Servant

According to Beavis and Butthead, "Depeche Mode" is French for "we're wusses." Bostonist still thinks that it was all downhill after Speak and Spell, but we still know the words to almost all of Depeche Mode's songs. It's not a guilty pleasure if you don't feel guilty about it. Comcast Center, Mansfield, 7:30 p.m. Admission: Large amounts.