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......

Music --The Magnetic Fields, on Valentine's Day? Could anything be better for a first date, or any sort of date? They even work well for a broken heart. Well, only if you got tickets in time. Check the Craig, as this one is a hot ticket. Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, 8:00 pm, $27.50. Good luck getting in! --Drown your Valentine's Day sorrows with a night of indie rock and dancing at Viva Viva's Valentine's......

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......

The game was tucked in the dark corner of the Cambridge Common last night, away from the lamp-lined paths and trees covered with Christmas lights. From afar, it looked like some kind of goofy science project: a pair of lights darting back and forth in the night. But when you approached the field and saw the players, you realized that it was something even more bizarre. Those floating lights were frisbees. The Illuminated Frisbee Nighttime......

Bostonist loves ourselves some opera, but sometimes theaters and and concert halls and opera houses all seem too obvious. In a city where you can get it with your oysters, or your popcorn, you should be able to get it with your beer: this is why Opera Boston Underground is inevitable. Combining a cozy subterranean venue (the Lizard Lounge, under the Cambridge Common restaurant at 1667 Mass. Ave.), a negligible cover ($8), and an impeccably-curated......

The state of the sidewalks around Boston kept us on our asses this weekend. Not so much of the figurative kind where we sat at home and skipped a show because it was too hard to get around. No, more the literal kind where we kept falling down because of that damn 2" layer of ice that was pretty much everywhere. This week they tell us that the temperature is rising by week's end.......

In case you haven't heard the next week promises to show us the winter we've been missing out – only minus the snow. Cold temperatures (below freezing every day!) will be the rule according to the current outlook. Perfect time to head out to your favorite music venue. There's no better way we can think of to stay warm. This week you'll find the old, the new, the nerd, and some classical among the......

Located on Mass Ave. in Cambridge between Harvard Square and Porter Square, Cambridge Common is a pub-grub beer-bar that caters perfectly to its college-aged crowd. This isn't an upscale place, but Charlie Christopher, owner of Christopher's, Toad, and West Side Lounge, has been keeping his Red Line crowd happy for years with high-quality, low-priced food. Busy almost any night of the week Cambridge Common's patrons range from music geeks waiting to enter the Lizard's Lounge......

On Bostonist's daily commute history is often hard to dodge, from inadvertently following along the red brick line of the Freedom Trail to a simple feat like riding on “Americas First Subway.” Other bits of history show up in the most unusual places. The “hub” marker lies underneath crates of oranges at the fruit stand outside of Filenes in Downtown Crossing. Oliver Wendell Holmes first referred to the old State House (so really the......

This morning it wasn’t just Flag Day on Cambridge Common it was a birthday party for the Army. Protests broke out amidst the celebration, though the Army held ground with greater firepower. The protesters asserted that the Army was attempting to recruit more Soldiers for a "useless war." But, Bostonist isn’t really surprised that in Cambridge, or pretty much anywhere in Massachusetts, there might be some protests to go along with a celebration honoring the......