Bang on a Can’s annual Loud Weekend festival of contemporary music takes place at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., today through Saturday. This year Bang on a Can features an eclectic mix of creative, experimental, and unusual music by the likes of Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Steve Reich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jeffrey Brooks, Ted Hearne, Tamar Muskal, among others. Performers include So Percussion, Nathalie Joachim, Steven Schick, Wolf Eyes, Vicky Chow, David Cossin, Todd Reynolds, Maya Stone, Ken Thomson, and Bang on a Can All-Stars. (Thu, Jul 31-Sat, Aug 2)
Singer-songwriter Howard Fishman draws from a deep well of musical influences -- including New Orleans jazz, Brooklyn soul, country, blues, gospel, ethnic folk, and pop standards – resulting in a unique style of Americana and literate folk-rock. Fishman’s songs, accompanied by his versatile musicians, are hypnotic, groove-heavy, well-crafted musical portraits of characters who may or may not resemble the singer. Catch him at Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. (Sat, Aug 2)
Shakespeare & Company stages August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson in Lenox, Mass., now through Sunday, August 24.
Early music band Ruckus returns to Adams Theater in Adams, Mass., tonight at 8pm, for “The Scottish Corelli with Ruckus,” featuring Scottish jigs and reels blended with Corelli’s sonatas, joined by violinist Keir GoGwilt and vocalist Fiona Gillespie.
Bob Mould, best known as founder and leader of hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü, is at Assembly in Kingston, N.Y., tonight at 8pm.
The Terra String Quartet will play works by Haydn, Borodin, and Brahms at the New Marlborough Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Saturday at 4:30pm.
Eric Fraser, bansuri flute virtuoso and co-founder of Brooklyn Raga Massive, returns to Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm, with his latest project, From the Hooghly to the Hudson. Fraser performs with an octet of musicians on a variety of Indian and Western instruments, including sitar, tabla, santoor, guitar, trumpet, and drone instruments.
Tom Gold Dance, the New York City-based classical dance company founded by former New York City Ballet soloist Tom Gold, will present Le Voyage, featuring songs of Michel Legrand and others, in the Rose Footprint Theatre on the grounds of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., on Saturday at 2pm.
Pianist Blair McMillen and cellist Wendy Sutter perform a program of cello sonatas by Debussy, Ravel, and Shostakovich, alongside new works by Joel Harrison and Don Byron, at Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, N.Y., on Sunday at 4pm.
And if you are so inclined, you have two chances to catch me out and about this weekend: on Saturday at 1pm, I will be in conversation with Jonathan Gould, author of the excellent new band bio, Burning Down The House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock, at Kinderhook Books in Kinderhook, N.Y. And on Monday, August 4, at 4pm, I will introduce and lead a talkback for Midas Man, a new biopic about Brian Epstein -- the man who discovered the Beatles playing in an underground club in Liverpool and became their manager, helping them to become the most popular rock band in the world -- in the Duffin Theater at Lenox Memorial Middle & High School in Lenox, Mass., as part of the summer-long Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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