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Thursday, March 28, 2024

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071213i-Joy-Street-Studios

Aggregation No. 1Experience your first Second SatARTdays. Joy Street Artists – made up of more than 100 artists working out of 86 Joy St., Somerville – has a “new, low-key” open studios event the second Saturday of every month, including artists sharing their processes, doing demonstrations and inviting questions from budding artists and fans alike. With that many studios, “you are guaranteed to find something you are interested in,” organizers said. The event takes place from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday.

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Aggregation No. 2Have a musical picnic in the park. Vision Central Square’s third annual Concert and Picnic in the Park features music is by the Berlin Hall Orchestra, a ragtime review playing bluegrass, blues and New Orleans music, as well as Central Square T-shirts on sale for the locals (or, presumably, people who just really love Central Square) and fun, bubbles and games. The concert and picnic is from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at University Park at Sidney Street between Franklin and Pacific streets, near Central Square.

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Aggregation No. 3Rock out and out and out. This weekend is full of great bands. Dead Boots (the Duxbury indie rock quartet formerly known as TAB the Band) is back, playing behind the album “Verónica” due out Tuesday. You may know this band even if you think you don’t; its music has been heard in everything from “Entourage” to “Jersey Shore” to CSI: New York.” Free digital downloads for “Verónica” go to everyone at the 7:30 p.m. Saturday show (with Midnight Spin, Blackboard Nails, The Rationales and Rachel Taylor) at The Middle East Downstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $10.

Brooklyn punk rockers Parquet Courts – fresh from playing with Henry Rollins overseas – is getting lots of love from the critics. Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene says Parquet Courts’ music is “maximum-attitude, minimum-patience: not just smart, but frantically smart” and the Austin Chronicle’s Luke Winkie also hails the “brainy rock songs” that bear a “mainline of smarts, savvy, and soul-skimming honesty.” Catch the band with Woods at 7 p.m. Saturday at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St., Central Square.

Brooklyn-based duo Japanther, the art and music project of Matt Reilly and Ian Vanek, hits Cambridge on a summer tour behind new album “Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart,” full of the band’s usual quick and catchy,  smart and thoughtful punk rock infused tunes. They’re known for their raucous live shows, including an illegal set atop the Williamsburg bridge, on the back of a moving truck and next to synchronized swimmers, BMX bikers and giant puppets. (They also played for 84 hours straight, according to their publicists, which seems impossible but certainly beats The National playing one song for a mere six hours.) Spin loved the new album’s “13 quick-hit tracks of fuzzy No Wave weirdness, all pureed together with an apocalyptic news broadcast, a monotone subway stop announcement, and a bevy of hummable, crusty melodies.” See the band with Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt and Unstoppable Death Machines at the Massasoit Elks Lodge, 55 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., with Japanther going on late. Entry is a sliding scale of $7 to $10.

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071213i-Hedwig

Aggregation No. 4See “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” onstage. The hard-rocking, gender-bending musical by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask is back at Oberon after last summer’s extended engagement – winner of Best Musical, Best Actor (J.J. Parkey) and Best Actress (Ruthie Stephens) at last year’s Broadway World local awards. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll run home and break out all your glam albums. Tickets are $25 for a table seat and $20 for standing room, with prices rising $5 when bought at the door. Shows are at 4 and 8 p.m. Sunday at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square.

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071213i-Bastille-Day

Aggregation No. 5Storm Bastille Day in Harvard Square. The square gives Cambridge its annual French kiss this weekend, led by the Harvard Square Business Association and Sandrine’s Bistro. Their suggestion is to “Indulge on French delicacies, groove to the hippest music, relax with a cold beer and celebrate France,” aided by 11-plus restaurants (including some less than obviously Gallic choices such as The Sinclair, Starbucks, Yogurtland and The Waffle Cabin, which has outposts in Princeton, Mass., and the Nashoba Valley), a beer garden and a choice handful of bands: Cask Mouse, fresh off a high-energy set at this year’s Make Music Harvard Square/Fete de la Musique; Rapplesauce, specializing in down-low funk; and, from 7 to 10 p.m., French techno DJ Kamal from the Boston French Party. It all begins at 5 p.m. Sunday on Holyoke Street in Harvard Square.