"I lived in Boston for four years and I was never here. Call it what you will. But I'm glad tonight is the first night." On Friday night, Josh Ritter began his set in Boston's most esteemed concert hall (lined with statuary of "huge, intimidating, partially-clad figures") by singing about his native Midwest: "Idaho," Illinois in "Best for the Best," and the whole region as "story we made up to erase" in "Other Side." Ritter... [continue]

Last Sunday, Somerville's Day of Portugal made up for a gloomy afernoon with brightly-colored dresses, brightly-colored flags, and, of course, Portuguese Elvis.... [continue]

Bostonist was among the throng that lined Charles Street all day Saturday for Boston Pride's annual parade. We saw a lot of feathers, leather, strollers, recycling, parasols, Crocs, and puppies, but, more than anything else, we saw the kind of support and solidarity that make Massachusetts such a wonderful place to live. If you missed the show, catch a few glimpses in our gallery.... [continue]

Cryptacize's songs are puzzle boxes, suitable for storing something small and probably evil. Catchy, nostalgic pop elements are shifted just off-kilter enough to be eerie, embellished frequently by guitarist Chris Cohen's TV-commercial jingles for a minor-key alternative universe. Both Cohen and Nedelle Torrisi sing on their album, Dig That Treasure, but Wednesday evening's rather brief performance at the Middle East Upstairs emphasized Torrisi's disarmingly pristine satin voice.... [continue]

When we last saw Devotchka, they occupied a stage the size of a coffee table, and Bostonist was relieved that TT's didn't collapse under the weight of their sousaphone. Returning to Boston on Sunday night, they brought reinforcements, annexing the Paradise Rock Club with horn players and an actual sit-down, read-sheet-music string section. When frontman Nick Urata wasn't crooning, falsettoing, and shaking his sub-Morrissey quiff, he swapped guitars and bouzouki and, during "Curse Your... [continue]

When we arrived at the Middle East on Saturday night, Brad Caetano was on stage alone, with borrowed equipment, drumming up a storm over his looped guitar. Throughout AM/PM's opening set, which was later fleshed out with bass and saxophone, Bostonist could hear the usual Downstairs conversations roaring in the back of the room but, up front, the mood was that of a seance, interrupted only by appreciative mid-song applause. We, too, found ourselves... [continue]

Art, Shopping -- The open studios of this year's SoWa Art Walk happily overlap with the open-air crafts, fashion, and produce of the SoWa Open Market on its opening weekend. The market is at 540 Harrison Ave. (10 am-4 pm), and the art is all walkable from there (11 am-6 pm). Beer, Cheese -- A craft beer tasting at Brookline's Wine Gallery will be enhanced by the presence of cheeses from Westfield Farm. Drinkcraftbeer.com has... [continue]

Bostonist was permitted to set foot in Boylston Street's gleaming ice palace of an Apple Store this morning, in advance of its Friday opening. An Apple spokespersonage gestured and informed us that the store's floor is from Italy and that the store's employees are from the Boston area. (Bostonist recognized and was recognized by a former Diesel barista.) The staircase, we're assuming, is from the future. Mayor Menino blessed the whole endeavor and laid hands... [continue]

Bostonist had barely recovered from the New England Real Ale Exhibition when we realized that May 12th-18th was American Craft Beer Week. Established in 2006 by House Resolution 753, this week celebrates craft brewers as "a vibrant affirmation and expression of American entrepreneurial tradition" and their promotion of "the Nation's spirit of independence through a renaissance in hand-crafted beers like those first brought to colonial shores by European settlers and produced here by the Nation's... [continue]

Giuseppe Verdi's rapidly complicated, frequently histrionic, infrequently performed opera Ernani plays like a telenovela on fast-forward with the volume turned up. Opera Boston's production, which opened Friday night at the Majestic Theatre, is exactly what you think opera looks like: there's candelabra, and wigs, or hair carefully styled to look like wigs, and more red velvet than David Lynch could shake a stick at. The labyrinthine plot—a story of imperial intrigue overshadowed by a... [continue]

Bostonist would like to offer some advice for future New England Real Ale Exhibition attendees: (1) Buy tickets in advance. (2) Bring plenty of friends, and make sure they do (1). Bostonist did (2) but not (1), and consequently spent two hours over the course of two evenings waiting in line to see the inside of the Dilboy Post VFW just once. There's some incredible beer in there—eighty firkins of it (which is a... [continue]

ROFLCon invaded Cambridge over the weekend, storming MIT's lecture halls and colonizing the bars of Central Square with novelty t-shirts. Bostonist knows that the Internet is always talking to itself, about itself, but it was surreal to be in the room while that was happening. Case in point: this guy sat in front of us during a web comics panel, watching the live webcast and browsing Flickr images of the very talk that he... [continue]

Brad Neely, I Can Has Cheezburger, Red vs. Blue, ROFLCon, Stuff White People Like, the Internet... [continue]

McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, whose wunderkammer of used books was recently exiled from Davis Square (and long ago displaced from Harvard Square), reopened today in Porter Square, at 1971 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. (They're in good company here: Bob Slate—purveyor of fountain pens and rampant Moleskinery—and Stellabella Toys are right upstairs.) They describe their stock as "uncommon titles in interesting subject areas, usually in fields in which it's very hard to be gainfully employed"—or, in a... [continue]

In Mozart's delightfully farcical opera Così fan tutte, everyone is culpable. The title—roughly, "They're all like that"—refers to the fickleness of Woman, the hypothetical Fiordiligi and Dorabella in particular (sung by Leah Sapko and Kristina Reagle in Thursday's performance) but their fiancés Ferrando and Guglielmo (David Vogel and Jonathan Nussman) likewise prove themselves to be utter cads in the course of their very complicated attempt to prove the sisters' fidelity. The Boston Conservatory production, set... [continue]

Bostonist arrived at the Prudential on Saturday ready to be let down. The gatekeepers at Anime Boston 2008 had not issued us a press pass, and our +20 Cloak of Belonging is, shall we say, somewhat out of date. But, to our great pleasure, the grim, unreachable confines of Hynes Convention Center could not contain Anime Boston's faithful, who erupted into the Shops at Prudential Center. Hey, they've got to eat sometime, right? We caught... [continue]

Juventas New Music Ensemble & OperaHub present Tramps, Emails & Hemlock Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway March 18, 19, and 22 at 8 p.m., $6-$24 (20% discount if purchased through the Juventas web site) J. Jacob Krause was demanding something unusual of some singers leaning over some unusual props: more salivation directed at the laptops, please. Bostonist had slipped into Seully Hall in the midst of a dress rehearsal, where OperaHub and Juventas... [continue]

Just before midnight on Saturday, Bostonist was surprised to see Annie Clark flanked by people with musical instruments. Marry Me, her first album as the pseudonymous St. Vincent, gave us the impression that she led a cheerful army of synthesizer-wielding robots, but there she was, in the non-synthetic flesh, with a bassist and a drummer and other humans. Her songs about augury and landmines retained that spooky, clear-eyed quality and, when she wasn't singing... [continue]

Upstairs was the teeming Cambridge Common; outside, the usual smokers' conversations. "Dude, you spit on my nachos." "No, I spit next to your nachos." And downstairs, Opera Boston Underground had returned to the Lizard Lounge for another well-attended performance. Proximity has a way of making up for bar-basement acoustics. Lacking any substantial musical education, this particular Bostonist has always enjoyed hearing such oversized sounds coming from human mouths, and this was the first time... [continue]

Opera Boston Underground "Quickies" Tonight, doors at 7:00 p.m. (Bostonist suggests getting in line early), show at 7:30 p.m. Lizard Lounge (1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge) $8 cover, 21+ Opera Boston Underground is the casual, subterranean branch of Opera Boston (whose smart, cute Semele we enjoyed earlier this month) and tonight they return to the Lizard Lounge for a handful of semi-staged mini-operas, with three libretti (and one score) by the late Gian Carlo Menotti. A... [continue]