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......

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......

Awkward Lectures Cory Arcangel's best known artwork Super Mario Clouds turns the world's first scrolling video game into a digital environment of placid repetition. It percolated on the internet and spilled into the Whitney's Biennial, making Arcangel a digital art superstar. But his true calling may have been as a lecturer. Whether the topic is hacking old electronics or copyright; his willful ignorance of art history or his place in it, Arcangel always entertains.......

Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles Dante's at Firefly BBQ 9:30pm 350 East Main St. Marlborough MA Sarah Borges let out a warm laugh. "I feel like I'm spinning plates," she said. Since the Taunton native and her band, the Broken Singles, released their debut full-length, "Silver City," in 2005, the band has been busy. But it was the June release of "Diamonds in the Dark" that really set things into high gear. Thousands of......

Music --DJ Spooky's Boston domination wraps up tonight with "Subliminal Strings," in which a string ensemble plays while being sampled live. ICA Boston, 8:00 pm, $20. --For something completely different, rising alt-country act Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, fresh off a homecoming at the Lizard Lounge, will be playing at Dante's in Marlborough at 9:30 pm. Comedy In case you haven't noticed, it is Bostonist's modus operandi to remind the world that women are......

Mike Doughty proved Saturday night that the Hannah Montana scalping uproar could be easily solved if Miley Cyrus and her target audience were old enough to drink. While welcoming his audience of about 75 people to the intimate basement space of the Lizard Lounge, the singer-songwriter and former Soul Coughing front man explained that tickets to the evening’s show had sold out in one minute. There had been postings on Craigslist charging $100 a ticket.......

Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys Saturday, October 20, 8:00 pm Lizard Lounge Official Site Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, last seen on Bostonist during the closing of Somerville's Sky Bar and the Great Lowell Cable Access Television Fiasco of 2007, will be bringing their experimental goth-rock to the Lizard Lounge. Their website promises that they combine "music, shenanigans, toys, and voice to make an organic industrial texture-core Death-folk ride......

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......

This week has seen finally-blooming trees, an uncharacteristically shining sun, and Bostonians emerging from their long grey coats—just in time for some jaunty indiepop. With some help from the kindly gaylords at Total Gaylord Records, the Student Council is bringing sixteen bands' worth of twee to town for the first (Bostonist hope it's "first annual") Cream of the Pop festival, commencing this evening and continuing through Saturday. Regional darlings Smittens, Mittens, and Hands & Knees......

Sometimes even those of us who live in the rock clubs can forget how to behave ourselves. Maybe it’s some strange alchemy of alcohol and entitlement. Maybe it’s a vague attachment to the spirit of “punk rock.“ Or maybe it’s just plain rudeness. Just in case, here’s a brief refresher course on the things to keep in mind from people who know best - the ones who work there. 1) Keep Your Hands to Yourself......

Since daylight savings time kicked it's been hard to get a good nights sleep. Up too late, and up again the next day too early. This week promises to keep us in that very same groove with a list of great music coming to Boston. Who needs sleep anyway? Don't forget to give your support to Exploit Boston Radio, they've got their fingers crossed that Congress and their favor of big label music will......

Berklee and Essence have teamed up again this year to bring the best young talent out to compete in the Hip Hop Songwriting Contest. If you are, or know, an eligible teen (unsigned and between 15 and 18) the time is nigh. Deadline for submission is March 9. It's all for a good cause, helping to balance the message in hip hop music and giving young songwriters a stage and training, not to mention......

Bostonist has always had a thing for the slow cover: sometimes it takes a sparse, creeping rendition of a familiar song to make us keep pace with every word of the lyrics that used to walk on by. The Last Town Chorus's version of "Modern Love" is one of those, distilling David Bowie's deceptively bouncy pop to a stubborn, viscous anthem. (You can watch the video here, but we prefer the mp3 straight up.) Megan......

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......

This short work week is long on music. The small show battles the bigger venue this week as the students invade the city. When they come back it seems the shows start up with vigor. Lots of 18+ hit the mark – and they've still got summer money in their pockets. What's this mean? Quite possibly there will be a few more sell outs than usual as the concert funds still run high. Fair......

There is only so long that we’re going to be able to hold out before the entire list of the week’s picks will be outdoor venues. Well, that’ll probably never happen until they dome the roof at Paradise and we can rock under the stars. We are, however, ecstatic about the warmer temperatures and the daylight which stretches until late – it helps us gear up for the night’s show. After a weekend of......

Admittedly we’re a little low on the Saturday evening picks for this week. Mostly because we know we’ll still be swigging green beer by the pint – or at least too hung-over from Friday night to make it out to a show. Again this week we’ve put a little classical music for those of you that feel a little culture is good for the soul. Monday 3/13: Dilated Peoples and Little Brother Rakaa, Evidence......

This week we're trying hard to think about something other than how hard it is out here to be a pimp. Well, ok, maybe Bostonist is looking at the Oscars and just scratching our heads. We didn't know Jon Stewart could be that bland. We're still waiting to hear what Three 6 Mafia were wearing that made the camera all jakey last night. Now that we're done with the Academy we're looking back to Grammy.......

Lent, what a time to give something up. Over here at Bostonist Headquarters we're thinking hard what we're going to drop come Wednesday. It won't be our MP3 player and it won't be live music. Maybe with this, week four of the now weekly music pick running on Monday we're going to be able to give up our lack of coverage of the local music scene. With fingers crossed we're raising a pint to forty......

There are all sorts of celebrations going on this week. One year anniversaries, EP releases and, well, we threw in some alt-country just to spice it up a little bit. Bostonist is looking forward to to warmer weather, but until then we know where they might be heating things up on stages around the Hub. Some of the great shows you might find a pair or two of Bostonist's ears this week. Monday 2/20: The......

We’ve been digging out all day. After we held our ground on the second floor yesterday only to find that our exterior door was all but snowed shut when it was time to go to work this morning. A bit of shoveling later we’re turning to warm hearts not cold snow. There's a good week ahead of us, temperatures are due to rise, indoors and out. Dinner reservations are hard to come by for tomorrow,......

Mention “music festival” this weekend and the hipster friends may immediately presume you’re talking about Austin City Limits. Out hipster them and clarify that Boston, in fact, has its own music festival in the brew this weekend: N.E.S.T. (North East Sticks Together). A series of 30+ (mostly music related) events at 6 venues over 7 days, N.E.S.T. spans all genres, deeming itself “a solid cross sampling of local artists.” Though N.E.S.T. claims that it......

Sylvie Lewis posseses a sweet, clear voice and a knack for songwriting that's wry and interesting. Her first album, Tangoes and Tantrums, establishes her as a girl with a piano that's worth watching. She can sing the pretty French chansons, she can create goofy ditties, she can write one of the best songs ever, "All His Exes." If the world was right, this song would be a huge hit, as Lewis croons about a boyfriend......