DM frontman Gahan captured everyone’s attention at the packed TD Garden on Tuesday. The singer, in perfect impassioned and overwrought voice, moved around the stage like a flamenco dancer, a ballerina, a stripper, a devilish imp, and a kindly guide across the void and into a throbbing discotheque.

The band’s first Boston concert in more than half a decade had the makings of a goth prom  — Depeche Mode on Halloween, c’mon, sublime! But Depeche Mode’s art is both too monolithic and personal, too absolutely connected to the broken parts of the world, the broken parts in us, to have even a whiff of kitsch.

Gahan and Martin Gore started the show by chanting to the crowd, to the world, into that void: “No rain, no clouds, no pain, no shrouds, no final breaths, no senseless deaths.” A new song, “My Cosmos Is Mine” is a glitchy, eerie anthem, a song that — as much as any in the band’s catalog — speaks to being crushed (it also contains the lyric: “Don’t stare at my soul, I swear it is fine.”)

The boldness and genius of the band is its constant attention to the damaged, an investigation of the existential set to electric, melodic and industrial clicks and beeps (something drawn into harsh light since the sudden passing of founding member Andy Fletcher last year). Gore wrote “My Cosmos Is Mine” right after Russia invaded Ukraine, and while the song rages against war, it also speaks to the intimate, unrelenting relationship with death we carry around.

But in this darkness, despite the confrontational lyrics and moody sonics, Depeche Mode remained a flicking candle in gloom, and that played out song after shattered-and-sharp song.

The band spent a nice amount of time with new LP “Memento Mori,” and got intense (“Wagging Tongue,” “My Favourite Stranger”). And so poppy — new tune “Ghost Again,” a clear meditation on life and death, had such a bright, buoyant hook.

But the now duo (rounded out brilliantly by the amazing drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno) also resurrected a ton of old existential — and sexual — jams, those hits goth kids and goth adults made rock standards in the ’80s and ’90s.

Gahan, intensity and playfulness positively oozing from him, took control of the audience over and over again. That big voice, those grandiose movements and his indomitable charisma, stomped and crept through the crowd for “Walking in My Shoes” and “I Feel You” and “Never Let Me Down Again” and “Personal Jesus” and…

Beside him, Gore was an ideal foil with his high harmonies, jagged guitar, vintage and modern synth pulses. And when alone — Gahan left the stage so Gore could front the band for “A Question of Lust” and a piano ballad version of “Strangelove” — he provided all the wounded tenderness and intimacy Gahan doesn’t have.

In the wake of Andy Fletcher’s death, the band may have not carried on. It would have been another loss. Without Gahan and Gore around, who will lead us into the heart of darkness and the heat of the discotheque? Who will ask big questions you can dance to do and shout along with?

DM frontman Gahan captured everyone’s attention at the packed TD Garden on Tuesday. The singer, in perfect impassioned and overwrought voice, moved around the stage like a flamenco dancer, a ballerina, a stripper, a devilish imp, and a kindly guide across the void and into a throbbing discotheque.

The band’s first Boston concert in more than half a decade had the makings of a goth prom  — Depeche Mode on Halloween, c’mon, sublime! But Depeche Mode’s art is both too monolithic and personal, too absolutely connected to the broken parts of the world, the broken parts in us, to have even a whiff of kitsch.

Gahan and Martin Gore started the show by chanting to the crowd, to the world, into that void: “No rain, no clouds, no pain, no shrouds, no final breaths, no senseless deaths.” A new song, “My Cosmos Is Mine” is a glitchy, eerie anthem, a song that — as much as any in the band’s catalog — speaks to being crushed (it also contains the lyric: “Don’t stare at my soul, I swear it is fine.”)

The boldness and genius of the band is its constant attention to the damaged, an investigation of the existential set to electric, melodic and industrial clicks and beeps (something drawn into harsh light since the sudden passing of founding member Andy Fletcher last year). Gore wrote “My Cosmos Is Mine” right after Russia invaded Ukraine, and while the song rages against war, it also speaks to the intimate, unrelenting relationship with death we carry around.

But in this darkness, despite the confrontational lyrics and moody sonics, Depeche Mode remained a flicking candle in gloom, and that played out song after shattered-and-sharp song.

The band spent a nice amount of time with new LP “Memento Mori,” and got intense (“Wagging Tongue,” “My Favourite Stranger”). And so poppy — new tune “Ghost Again,” a clear meditation on life and death, had such a bright, buoyant hook.

But the now duo (rounded out brilliantly by the amazing drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno) also resurrected a ton of old existential — and sexual — jams, those hits goth kids and goth adults made rock standards in the ’80s and ’90s.

Gahan, intensity and playfulness positively oozing from him, took control of the audience over and over again. That big voice, those grandiose movements and his indomitable charisma, stomped and crept through the crowd for “Walking in My Shoes” and “I Feel You” and “Never Let Me Down Again” and “Personal Jesus” and…

Beside him, Gore was an ideal foil with his high harmonies, jagged guitar, vintage and modern synth pulses. And when alone — Gahan left the stage so Gore could front the band for “A Question of Lust” and a piano ballad version of “Strangelove” — he provided all the wounded tenderness and intimacy Gahan doesn’t have.

In the wake of Andy Fletcher’s death, the band may have not carried on. It would have been another loss. Without Gahan and Gore around, who will lead us into the heart of darkness and the heat of the discotheque? Who will ask big questions you can dance to do and shout along with?

“I am in a whole other part of the planet and they’re playing Common, and not only Common, but old school Common,” RED told the Herald. “It was the first time I had been to Africa, returned to the motherland so to speak, and hip hop followed me there.”

Since college, Jazzmyn RED has become one of Massachusetts’ smartest, sharpest, boldest MCs — listen to recent single “The Feminist” to hear her spell it out as she booms, “brain, beauty, and bars, that’s a deadly combination.” But she’s also an activist and educator who has spent years digging into the history of hip hop. Over the next few weeks, RED will present a series of workshops, “The Hip Hop Experience,” at Harvard Art Museums — the Sunday series begins Oct. 29 and wraps up Nov. 12.

“In the first one, Music of the Movement, we go through the backdrop of hip hop and talk about the Jim Crow era and the music that pertained to that part of history, the ’60s and Gil Scott-Heron and James Brown,” she said. “Then we identify socio-political issues in the ’80s and ’90s and listen to the songs that pertain to them. We get the history context behind how we got to here.”

“The second one, The Roots, we talk solely about hip hop, how it came to be, the founding fathers, the elements of hip hop, the principles of hip hop,” she continued. “The third, The Art of 16 Bars, is the MC portion, and that’s the part I can speak to the most.”

While RED is a stunning MC, she can speak to all of this with wisdom and passion.

This century, hip hop has become a global force. RED has seen that — in 2021, she participated in the U.S. State Department’s Next Level Program and taught the history of hip hop in the United Arab Emirates and how to be an MC at Berklee School of Music in Abu Dhabi. She also knows that the roots of hip hop shouldn’t get lost as it goes global.

“It used to be that you had to discover hip hop through cassette tapes passed around communities, and now breakdancing is about to be at the Olympics,” she said with a laugh.

RED has been rapping since she was 7. But it took her a few years to realize the enormity of hip hop.

“Incrementally, piece by piece, the more I got involved in the culture and not just the craft, the more I started to see, ‘Oh, I’m part of this culture, this culture inside of the American culture, that is mine,’” she said. “We have food that’s associated with this culture. We have clothing, we have artwork, we have dance, we have storytelling. We have all the things that create a culture and it’s looked at as a music genre.”

No other “genre” has hip hop’s reach, or history, or art. And RED is the ideal person to help the world understand why this is.

For details or to book Jazzmyn RED for a workshop, visit jazzmynred.com

“The Rocky Horror Show”

Now through Nov. 26, Central Square Theater, Cambridge

This is the ultimate Halloween-ish horror musical comedy satire. It may also be the only Halloween-ish horror musical comedy satire. Mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter goes all Dr. Frankenstein looking to create a hunk. Hyjinks and songs about sexual repression ensue. Centralsquaretheater.org

Pumpkintown

Now through Oct. 31, East Hampton, CT

Looking for a wholesome Halloween? It’s no tricks and all treats at Pumpkintown. A family-friendly outing featuring a village of over 100 Pumpkinhead people and their pets. Come to see these whimsical Pumpkinheads, stay for the apple cider donuts. pumpkintown.com

Doggone Halloween

Oct. 28, Downtown Crossing

People that look like their dogs are great. But people that dress like their dogs are even better. Boston’s biggest annual Halloween-themed pet costume returns with this contest for pups and people. Humans don’t have to dress up but there is a Best Human & Dog Duo prize. Other categories include Best Costume, Spookiest Costume and Cutest Costume. Like your dog in just a leash and collar? Show up for the pet-focused vendor village. Downtownboston.org

Day of the Dead

Oct. 29 – Nov. 2, ICA Watershed

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the largest Day of the Dead festival and parade in New England, the Verónica Robles Cultural Center and the Institute of Contemporary Art team up for a unique exhibition of Day of the Dead altars. A score of local artists come together for an immersive Altar Exhibition at the ICA Watershed. icaboston.org

5th Annual Silent Halloween Skate Party

Oct. 29, Chez Vous Roller Skating Rink

At a silent skate… no one can hear you scream!!! Of course, that’s because you’ll be wearing headphones. This rolling party will feature three channels of music provided by DJ MannyReese, DJ Jammin, DJ Dex, DJ Big Papa and others. Soul Food, beer, wine and both skate and costume contests. facebook.com/bostonswerve

“The Howling”

Oct. 30, Brattle Theater, Cambridge

A free screening of a horror classic – this one has it all from a cult to the occult, sex to serial killers, and, of course, werewolves. Beyond the bonus of being free, the film comes with a discussion lead by Brandon Callender, an assistant professor of English at Brandeis University who specializes in Black queer and Black horror studies. Brattlefilm.org

Skalloween

Oct. 31, The Rockwell, Somerville

If your two favorite dances are skanking and the monster mash, we have a party for you. Dance the night away to all your favorite ska classics with locals putting on musical costumes. The New Limits as the Pietasters, Sorry, Ma! as The Clash, Battlemode as Gorillaz, and Pink Slip as No Doubt — “Spiderwebs” is a perfect Halloween song already. Therockwell.org

“Young Frankenstein” & “An American Werewolf in London”

Oct. 31, Coolidge Corner Theatre

Scary funny and scary scary. Epic and outrageous twists on Frankenstein and the Wolfman come to life from directors Mel Brooks and John Landis. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll never think about “Bad Moon Rising” the same way again. Wear a costume for a chance to win a door prize! Coolidge.org

Tina would go on to pack stadiums — she thrilled 180,000 fans at Rio’s Maracanã Stadium in Brazil in 1988 while setting the record for the largest ticketed concert by a solo artist. But look at the whole quote, she made it clear, she was a rock ‘n’ roll singer.

“She’s one of the few women of color who declared that and was able to carry that through their career,,” Kameelah Benjamin-Fuller told the Herald. “It was a pioneering move for her to really claim that. The songs that she covered, the artists that she worked with, her approach to songs, even if they weren’t written as rock songs, they definitely had a rock infusion.”

Paying honor to the icon, Benjamin-Fuller is co-producing “Simply the Best: A Tribute to Tina Turner” on Saturday at the Burren in Davis Square. The night will be co-produced by Christina Alexander, a fellow singer and Benjamin-Fuller’s co-founder of G-Rock Music, which hosts gender-inclusive rock experiences powered by women of color. Through hits and obscurities across four decades, the concert will be fueled by a band of local aces (including Red Sox organist Josh Kantor!) and benefit Roxbury’s Stone House — an organization that cares for and protects adult and child survivors of domestic abuse.

As a woman of color who also loves rock, Benjamin-Fuller found Tina Turner to be a role model.

“She’s someone who’s respected, revered, pioneering, and who did amazing things in that space,” she said.

Benjamin-Fuller might sing a song or two, but she’s letting Alexander take lead on the majority of tunes while singer Ananda Mitchell will tackle four or five songs.

“One, we wanted to get folks who could handle the material, but, two, we also wanted to showcase women of color in that lead role,” Benjamin-Fuller said.

After finding the leads, the band fell into place fast. It seems everybody asked was eager to take on Tina’s epic catalog. And the evening will dig into that catalog.

“There are songs that people expect to hear, ‘Proud Mary,’ ‘River Deep, Mountain High,’ obviously ‘Simply the Best,’ ‘Private Dancer,’” Benjamin-Fuller said. “But then we talked about the songs that we loved… I’m leaving most of the vocals to Christina and Ananda, who are amazing. (We picked) some deep cuts. We found it liberating to stretch a little bit.”

Maybe “I Might Have Been Queen” or “Bold Soul Sister” or “Be Tender with Me Baby.” There are so many possibilities with Tina.

“Unfortunately, it’s tied to the passing of an artist we revere,” Benjamin-Fuller said. “But seeing how easy it was to mobilize around Tina was touching because we have seen all these tribute shows (put on by local artists) but we haven’t really had any that have highlighted women of color in this way.”

“We still have work to do but we have seen more and more women push through these barriers,” she continued. “Hopefully the next phase of this will see more intersections of sexual orientations, race, ethnicity, diversity in our rock scene.”

For tickets and details, visit burren.com. To support Stone House, visit stonehouseinc.org

Lambert is at peak Glambert. He’s cheeky, charming, swagger stuffed in leather, and absolutely crushing an insanely difficult song to cover on stage Sunday at the TD Garden in front of a packed house.

Adam Lambert is very good at his job. And at the same time, no one can replace Freddie Mercury. And everyone knows this. Especially Adam Lambert.

The thing is Brian May and Roger Taylor are still perfect — note for note perfect! —  at their jobs, even at 76 and 74, respectively.

Rock has entered an interesting, odd phase. John Mayer can stand in for Jerry Garcia with members of the Grateful Dead. Axl Rose can fill in for Brian Johnson in AC/DC. Eagles tour with Glenn Frey’s kid, Phil Collins tours with his own kid playing his drum parts, Michael Sweet of Stryper actually logged time singing for Boston.

What are we to do? Scream “cash grab?” Skip the show? Mock the revolution for being televised, commodified, commercialized? In the case of Queen + Adam Lambert, so popular they booked back-to-back Garden parties, maybe we can miss Freddie and shout along to “Bicycle Race,” “Somebody to Love,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and rest of the hits and stone cold classics.

May and Taylor should get to play these songs (many of which they wrote) if they can still play them. And it’s shocking what they can do five decades into rock ‘n’ roll. Taylor still plays so deep in the pocket while tossing out fills that are both subtle and virtuosic. May has a bigger role to play — his guitar was always the second most distinctive thing about Queen.

May needed a few songs to heat up, but, my word, he eventually became pure fire. He took his time building up an epic groove on the extended outro of “Fat Bottomed Girls.” He showed off his delicate and lyrical side on the haunting “Who Wants to Live Forever.” He blitzed through the furious, glorious tangle of notes that made up the climax of “I Want It All.”

Of course, ears and eyes often return to Lambert (how could they not? see “disco ball Harley,” “leather swagger”).

The most dramatic, bombastic, histrionic voice to come from “American Idol” can sing every note in the Queen catalog. Sometimes Lambert can sing too much like Freddie — notably on “Who Wants to Live Forever.” But over the past dozen years he’s been doing this, he’s become wonderfully confident. Maximum commitment, eyeliner and ego, costume changes and charisma, glitter and glam packaged with the staccato attack of “Stone Cold Crazy,” the eerie and ethereal intro to “I Want It All,” and the pomp and preening of “Killer Queen.”

Label this rock star fantasy camp or karaoke with a million dollar budget. Queen + Adam Lambert have managed to build something unlikely, imperfect, amazing, endlessly entertaining, and worthy. Skip it — skip anything that isn’t a classic line up — if you want. But know what you’re missing.

For a decade, Nelsons has been exploring Shostakovich with the BSO. The project has won the maestro and symphony an armful of Grammys and may earn them a few more when the final installment of the recordings of the composer’s symphonies, featuring nos. 2, 3, 12, and 13, is released on Oct. 20. And that exploration continues this week, through Oct. 15, with Nelsons conducting Yo-Yo Ma through both of Shostakovich’s cello concertos at Symphony Hall.

Nelsons, who grew up in Latvia during Soviet rule, learned about Shostakovich as a boy in music school.

“I remember reading Russian books that said, ‘Fifth symphony of Shostakovich is a milestone, a wonderful work where the confused artist has lost his orientation and then he finds through the suffering and darkness the light of communistic ideas,” Nelsons told the Herald.

Only that’s not what Shostakovich was writing about. Later Nelsons came to understand that this titan of Soviet art did his best to undermine the glory of the regime in his symphonies.

“Thanks to the genius of Shostakovich, he managed to fool the authorities,” Nelsons said. “From the fourth symphony on, there are these qualities, the grotesque, sarcasm, irony, black humor… He understood that there was only one way, he had to keep writing and fool them.”

Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” thrilled Moscow in the mid-1930 until Stalin saw it. The day after the dictator saw the opera, the state newspaper ripped apart “Lady Macbeth.” Worried about being sent to the gulag, Shostakovich wrote “a Soviet artist’s response to just criticism.” The state approved the symphony, but many heard undertones of protest music.

These notes of protest continued even after the death of Stalin. In the end, living under one party rule seems to crush the composer. The sad and wonderful thing about the BSO recording Shostakovich’s complete symphonic cycle is you can hear that play out over a collection of CDs. But if you’re not ready to commit to all 15 symphonies, you can also hear that in one night with the cello concertos.

“The first concerto was written in this period where he was stronger, ready to, through music, fight against this idealism of nonsense,” Nelsons said. “When we look to the other concerto, Stalin is dead already, so you could think, ‘Good, Shostakovich has won.’ But what we hear in the 11th symphony, in the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and the second cello concerto is that he is getting more dark and more depressed.”

But concerto to symphony, light to dark, resistance to resignation, one thing remains true — and you can hear it in Nelsons’ work with the BSO — the composer never wrote a bad note.

For tickets and details, visit bso.org

Yes, yes, a ton of 15-year-olds dreaming of becoming rock stars. But most of them haven’t already written a song like “Kiss Off.”

Violent Femmes singer-songwriter-guitarist Gano still plays a dozen or more of the songs he wrote in high school — and he still enjoys playing them; nobody has a healthier relationship with their back catalog. On Friday, Violent Femmes will perform its entire 1983 debut (and a bunch of other songs) at MGM Music Hall.

“I started writing songs when I was 13,” Gano told the Herald. “I thought they were good at the time then later they would all make me cringe. But there’s a song, at least one song, that I wrote when I was 15 on each of the first four albums… And everything on the first album was written when I was 15 to 17. I think I might have been right around 18 when we recorded it.”

The adolescent energy of the band, its punk sneer and experimental freedom, drives the Femmes 1983 debut. Acoustic instruments played with fury, lyrics that felt like Lou Reed and the Ramones soundtracking “The Breakfast Club” (or should that be “Repo Man?”), the sound remains like nothing else in rock.

Gano and the band couldn’t stand the polished stuff that dominated the radio and it shows on “Violent Femmes.” Call it folk punk, college rock, or alternative, from “Blister in the Sun” to “Add It Up” to “Good Feeling,” the album turned a generation on to music made without sheen, synths, or Top 40 aspirations.

“There’s nothing in the music, nothing in how we recorded it, that we couldn’t have done in the ’70s or the ’60s or even the ’50s,” Gano said. “It gives it, we’d like to think, a timeless quality. It has a certain sound, a certain energy… There’s something about hearing an actual instrument, you’re hearing picks or fingers hitting strings. Things are very natural, very raw.”

At first not even producer Mark Van Hecke got what the band was going for. When he delivered the initial mixes of the LP, they didn’t work.

“We thought, ‘Oh, no, we have to be there,’” Gano said. “They started to sound, I don’t know, more correct for the times, less of that thing we had played… (We didn’t want it) to sound glossier or smoother or make it sound nicer.”

When it arrived in 1983, next to no one bought it. “Violent Femmes” didn’t make it into the Billboard 200 until 1991, when it peaked at No. 171. That same year it went platinum. (If the Billboard calculated high-schoolers passing around dubbed cassettes, it would be triple platinum.)

“It’s the only record that’s ever become a gold record without having been on the Billboard 200,” Gano said (it went gold in 1987, long before that No. 171 peak). “It continues to be popular, absolutely going through, not just older brothers and sisters, but generations. Parents to kids and now through grandparents.”

Now 60, Gano remains in love with the music, with its vitality.

“There’s nothing about going through the motions, that’s unimaginable to me,” he said of playing the songs live. “To me it feels like the intensity is still there.”

For tickets and details, visit vfemmes.com

But just a few. Other than a few minor arena-style flourishes, Iliza Shlesinger will thrill the TD Garden all on her own on Friday.

“The question is always how do you make a bigger, better show without sacrificing the comedy,” Shlesinger told the Herald. “How do I make bigger, better stand up without an act break for fly girls or a juggler?”

The answer of course is great jokes. And Shlesinger has a lot of those.

The comedian’s first-ever headlining gig at the Garden comes after a slow and steady rise. In 2008, she became the youngest ever winner on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” From there it was Netflix special after Netflix special — 2022’s “Hot Forever” was her sixth special for the streaming channel. Add in two books, a podcast, a sketch show, a couple of feature films including one she wrote, and you total a massive career ready for sold-out arenas.

Shlesinger’s rise has its roots in a mostly-remembered undergraduate degree at Emerson.

“Now you can major in things like comedy,” she said of her time at the school. “But at the time, coming from Texas, I was just the kid who made funny videos in my class. I was the girl who wrote sketches and did improv. I was just looking for an outlet for that and a film degree seemed logical.”

“I thought, ‘What’s the closest thing I can do to being funny?’ The answer was film,” she added. “Kind of like when you are super smart and kind of aimless, you get a law degree.”

Shlesinger starred with Mark Wahlberg in the Boston-set feature “Spenser Confidential.” She starred in and penned the script for the dark, funny, and totally unpredictable “Good on Paper” — an anti-rom-com that masquerades as an actual rom-com for half the film. The degree hasn’t been much help when actually making these movies.

“You know what no one has ever yelled on set, ‘Does anyone have a film degree? We need an opinion!,” she said with a laugh.

Between tour dates, specials, books and films, Shlesinger had her first baby and will have her second shortly. But she doesn’t have much downtime scheduled. After a European tour and winter break, she’ll get back up on stage with those lasers and tackle more arenas in the spring and fall.

“We already have all the fall 2024 tour dates locked in and a date set for the (next) special,” she said. “I’m just going to take a knee for a moment to give birth and then get back to the job I love doing so much.”

For tickets and details, visit iliza.com

At the end of the coming 2023-2024 season, the Boston Ballet will return to Paris (COVID clobbered touring plans after the 2019 triumphant French performances). Between now and then, the 60th anniversary season will include four world premieres, a couple dozen sold out nights of “The Nutcracker,” the return of “Cinderella,” and complete reinventions of lost classics.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen took the time to walk us through what he loves about the art form’s past, present and future.

Fall Experience, now through Oct. 15

The season opens with pieces from four different choreographers that range from Jorma Elo and the Bach Cello Suites to a world premiere from My’Kal Stromile — three of the four being with new-millennium creations. Nissinen hopes a few of them eventually achieve immortality, but notes that’s never the goal. “We don’t try to create classics, we try to create art, and some of things do eventually become the new classics,” he told the Herald. “You will fail if you try to do it the other way.”

The Nutcracker, Nov. 24 – Dec. 31

Why is “The Nutcracker” so popular? Yes, nostalgia and the Christmas connection help. But mostly it’s that it is a stunning ballet full of complex, compelling, and challenging dance. “We at the company don’t think of it as entertainment, we think of it as a serious piece of art,” Nissinen said. “I choreographed it to be incredibly difficult for the dancers for a couple of reasons. I know I have a tired company on December 31st, but I also know I have a better company.”

Winter Experience, Feb. 22 – March 3

Earlier this fall, the Boston Lyric Opera reinvented “Madama Butterfly” to reflect modern values while retaining the opera’s artistic core. Nissinen will do that with Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda.” He considers Petipa’s work a masterpiece to enchant ballet purists and full of outdated and offensive caricatures. His new version re-envisions it in one bright and thrilling act. The winter program will pair “Raymonda” with two works by Helen Pickett, world premiere “SISU” and 2007 Boston Ballet commission “Petal.”

Cinderella, March 14 – 24

Love “The Nutcracker” but it’s the only ballet you’ve seen? Here is your next step. It’s a cornerstone of classical ballet and has an absolutely awesome score from Sergei Prokofiev.

Carmen, April 25 – May 5

Know that collective exclamation that rises from the audience when the swans emerge from the fog in “Swan Lake?” You’ll get a similar gasp when 28 female dancers emerge in unison for “Kingdom of the Shades.” Paired with “Carmen,” “Kingdom of the Shades” represents another revision from the company — Boston Ballet has rejected the rest of “La Bayadère” and its outdated stereotypes. “We’re just doing this abstract pearl of classical ballet,” Nissinen said of the outtake. It represents the company’s commitment to “preserve the best of classical choreography without perpetuating culturally insensitive and offensive portrayals.”

Spring Experience, May 9–19, 2024

A perfect reflection of the Boston Ballet’s love of old and new might be a Ken Ossola’s world premiere inspired by Michelangelo’s “non-finito” sculptures Prisoners and scored by Boston Ballet Music Director Mischa Santora. Beside it will be Jiří Kylián’s “Bella Figura” and William Forsythe “Blake Works III (The Barre Project).”

If you don’t know where to start with fall wines, let us help. Here are five wines at reasonable price points for a bunch of different occasions that taste great when it’s 90 degrees and when it’s 60 degrees.

Xanadu Circa 77 Sauvignon Blanc Semillon ($18)

Yes, this wine is a mouthful (thankfully in more ways than one). This Australian twist on a favorite French blend is about 60% Savvy B and 40% Semillon. The combination of the two grapes makes for something that’s both laid-back and fruit forward, crisp and clean. The locals call it a Margaret River style wine, a unique mashup you can’t really find outside of the south west coast of Western Australia.

Conundrum White Blend ($18)

Wild wine blends can freak traditionalists out (even though Europeans have been doing it for generations). When Conundrum started adding a splash of this and a splash of that to make a new white in 1989, not many Californians were taking chances like this vineyard. Even today, with the 2021 edition, Conundrum doesn’t reveal the exact recipe (but every vintage includes Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Viognier). And every bottle comes out super refreshing. This crowd pleaser triangulates sweet, tart and dry in a way no one grape can do.

Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2020 ($18)

Mondavi is a huge reason people love California wine. The late Napa Valley champion pioneered so many styles. Here his namesake brand delivers a classic West Coast Sauvignon Blanc softened with a 10% dose of Sémillon. The result adds a creaminess and a dash of the herbaceous. A perfect starting point for somebody looking to expand their palette beyond those mass-produced $10 whites.

Honoro Vera Rosado ($11)

Do you know the best place to spend fall? That’s right, Spain! If you can’t get to the hills of Murcia this summer, close your eyes and take a sip of this rosé. Made in Jumilla, Spain out of Tempranillo and Syrah, Honoro Vera Rosado has a medium body and dryness that makes it right for sweater weather. But it is also light and fruity enough to drink in a t-shirt. Try it with a summer salad or while watching a 6:30 sunset.

San Felice Chianti Classico 2021 ($18)

If you haven’t got the message: You can drink a gin and tonic on Christmas! You can enjoy an Irish Coffee in July! You can pop the cork on a chianti whenever! Don’t be trapped into not enjoying your favorites year ’round. And San Felice Chianti Classico should be a favorite. This 2021 DOCG brings a touch of warmth to cool nights and a touch of class to BBQs. Made from native grapes, this Italian go-to has a nice medium body and works well with Greek gigantes, Spanish cheeses, or a store bought veggie burger.

The singer and songwriter from tiny Hillaryville, Louisiana, thinks about everyone the letter is addressed to.

“I think of that kid within me, still with me to this day, that kid that always wanted to do this,” Jones told the Herald from a tour van crossing the Canadian border. “I think of that kid and I tell him, tell myself, dream bigger than any dream anyone can have for you. Even if it’s just one nerdy kid out in the rural South, I just want them to know that if I can do it, they can too.”

No one can do what Jones does, he’s a wonderfully unique artist, but his point is taken.

“Wait Til I Get Over” looks back at Jones’ teen years of the 2000s growing up in Hillaryville. It’s full of honest admissions —  “That Feeling” is his ode to Black queer love — set against a backdrop of history: the legacy of Southern soul music, his grandmother’s remembrance of a town founded by eight former slaves. It’s packed with lush strings, gospel cheers, rock guitar, lonely piano figures, and Jones’ defiant and intimate voice.

Already a rising star for his work in R&B band Durand Jones & The Indications, Jones felt he had to make a deeply personal solo record.

“It was scary, I had a couple panic attacks about making this record,” he said ahead of his Sunday show at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom. “But I learned through James Baldwin that there is so much strength through vulnerability… I felt like, even though I put out three records (with The Indications), no one really knew who I was, where I was from, what things I held true and dear to myself.”

Jones poured a lot of himself into “Wait Til I Get Over.” Obviously in the lyrics, but also in the instrumentation and arrangements. That’s his tender piano under the strings of “Gerri Marie.” That’s his voice, just his voice, layered over and over again to create a choir effect on the title track.

“It was supposed to just be a demo,” he said of the vocal layering. “But when I showed it to the guys who helped me produce this record, they were like, ‘This is it. You don’t need to hire a choir.’”

Many of the album’s vocals were recorded in a single take or pulled from demos or warm up takes. They give the LP an immediacy and organic quality.

The words, the voice, the music, the rawness, they add up to a brilliant record born of nostalgia and heartache. The most aching of the tracks, the most emblematic of Jones’ message, is the aptly-titled “Letter To My 17-Year-Old Self.” In the almost avant garde soul song, he sings, “I’m trying to understand this thing/Oh, this thing called life.”

“During this dark period in my life I was trying to overcome, every morning I would go to the piano before I went to work and I would play the chords to the song and try to figure out the lyrics and melody,” Jones said. “I felt a little insecure about putting the song out, but maybe somewhere someone has some sort of similar situation or testimony. I want people to know, don’t be discouraged, perceiver. In many ways life can be like a bow and arrow. You have to be drawn back to be propelled forward. It takes a long (expletive) time but stay with it.”

For tickets and details, visit durand-jones.com

Don’t come at me with Orpheum 2022, or 2021, or 2016. Don’t tell me the band has a ten-way tie for best set (even if you are right). Wednesday was it. And here are a few dashes of why:

The band vamped on Joe Cocker’s “Woman to Woman” for five minutes letting Susan Tedeschi saunter out, full rock star entrance to open the homecoming show. Later the Boston-born Tedeschi took the ecstatic crowd to Chicago in 1966 (and the Fillmore East in 1971) with “Just Won’t Burn” — her blazing blues leads shot from her mint green telecaster signed by BB King. The whole band somehow turned the Nola stroll of “Fall In” into a Radiohead-does-Southern-rock-on–acid crescendo.

Oh, and Warren Haynes joined the band, and his fellow Allman Brothers alum Derek Trucks, for “Dreams” and “Blue Sky.”

Wednesday’s show had so much more, but a little history might be helpful to contextualize TTB’s grandest Boston show to date.

In the 2000s, Tedeschi recorded a series of tough blues albums (most of them Grammy nominated). Meanwhile, guitarist Derek Trucks led his solo group and did a ten-year stint with the Allmans. Both were doing fine. Neither knew that Tedeschi Trucks Band would be way better, and eventually way bigger.

In 2010, the married couple quit fronting their own projects and since then it’s been up and up and up — albeit over a too-slow climb. What started with three-night runs at the Orpheum Theater nearly a decade ago graduated to four-night stands in 2021 and 2022. Those shows had them playing to 10,000 plus fans. Wednesday they did that in a single night (the Garden was maybe 80% full.)

Finally the group was on the stage it’s meant for. The 12-piece lineup could spread out and jam. (Note: They are a band that jams, not a jam band, equal measures an Americana act, jazz ensemble, gospel choir, soul revue, blues traditionalists, and Southern rock outfit).

The three-piece horn section swaggered New Orleans and Memphis style, with sax player Kebbi Williams getting wonderfully weird, almost channeling Pharoah Sanders. All three backup vocalists took lead on at least a verse or two, and as usual Mike Mattison fronted the band for a couple. They all got very loud but left space for Tedeschi and keyboardist Gabe Dixon to do a lonely and soft “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

The band is so rich and full and locked in. Still, there are those who consider this the Derek Trucks show. That’s not fair, and also, the guy could easily be the world’s greatest, most-lyrical guitar player. On “Circles ‘Round the Sun,” he evoked Duane Allman and also Black Sabbath. On “Blue Sky,” he danced around the melody, touching it warmly then detouring wildly then coming back to it. For all his flash and fire, he can be exceedingly tender, as he was on “Midnight in Harlem.”

All in all, TTB is where it should be. Finding a space between catchy hooks and abstract jams, retro music so indebted to the 1960s and sounds that charge into the future. All on stage at the TD Garden.

Wonderfully, thankfully, the definition of classical music is changing. The genre can be classical (in the well, classical sense of the word) or it can be thoroughly modern, and, of course, it can be everything in between.

Take a look at these fall calendar highlights for stuff from Beethoven to Arab-Andalusian songs to something from Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon.

Opening Night with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Oct. 7, Symphony Hall

The Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 2023-24 season with old and new friends, expected and underappreciated repertoire. Maestro Andris Nelsons will conduct works by Beethoven and Mozart. But the BSO expands beyond European icons by welcoming jazz pianist Aaron Diehl’s trio to collaborate with the symphony on Duke Ellington’s “New World A-Coming” and “Tonk.” Between Ellington and the Europeans, the BSO reimagines traditional Southern dances in the Carlos Simon commission “Four Black American Dances.” bso.org

“Israel in Egypt”

Oct. 6 & 8, Symphony Hall

If an annual trip to see “The Messiah” doesn’t quench your thirst for Handel’s biblical oratorios, make sure to check out a Handel and Haydn Society performance of “Israel in Egypt.” For those who only know Handel for the Hallelujah chorus, the composer’s other big Bible-based work has everything “The Messiah” has — huge choruses, soaring strings, drama galore! Bonus points: This is the first program Jonathan Cohen will helm in his debut season as H&H’s artistic director. Handelandhaydn.org

Boston Baroque celebrates 50 years

Oct. 13-15, various locations

Our city’s baroque masters go gold this year, opening their season with an all-Beethoven night. Obviously, these concerts will include “the hits” but they will come with a twist — Symphony No. 9 will be performed on period instruments, a rare treat. Rounding out the program will be the “Coriolan” Overture and “Elegiac Song”; lending a hand will be four Metropolitan opera stars including soprano Heidi Stober and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack. baroque.boston

Rossini/Elgar/Beethoven

Oct. 20, Symphony Hall

The Boston Philharmonic gets its 45th season started with this diverse program featuring Rossini’s “Willam Tell” Overture, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Sure, go for the big names, but we’ll wager Elgar will move you just as much. Often regarded as the English composer’s masterpiece, it’s an ideal balance of virtuosity and passion, histrionic blaze and lyrical restraint.  Bostonphil.org

“Peter and the Wolf”

Nov. 11, Symphony Hall

Everyone has taken a turn narrating Sergei Prokofiev’s orchestral fairy tale. And we mean everyone – Viola Davis, Alice Cooper, Kirstie Alley, David Bowie, Weird Al… With luck, Weird Al will sit this one out and let the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra handle the piece all on its own. Family-friendly and full of visuals kids can follow along with. bso.org

“Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe”

Nov. 14, Longy’s Edward M. Pickman Hall

So many programs claim to cover a lot of ground. Ha! Try this: Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman and Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe have put together an evening of 16th- and 17th-century Italian and English works, traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian songs, 20th-century and contemporary compositions, and plenty more. Celebrityseries.org

Now any list like this is purely subjective, but, c’mon? Really? Lumped together the members of Mac can’t make the Top Ten? Stevie can’t even crack the Top 50 on her own?

For decades, these lists — often led by Rolling Stone — have tried to turn the subjective opinions of male writers into an objective truth about the superiority of male artists. As Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner made clear this week, too many men can’t listen to female artists without thinking, “Oh, this is fine, but it sure ain’t Dylan or Jagger or Springsteen or ZZ Top or…” (Earlier this week, Wenner told a New York Times reporter that women and people of color weren’t “articulate enough on (an) intellectual level” to discuss rock ‘n’ roll).

Wenner and his peers should listen to everything on Nicks’ new boxed set, “Complete Studio Albums & Rarities.”

On Saturday, at her show with Billy Joel at Gillette Stadium, Nicks will play the hits, oh so many hits: “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Landslide,” “Gypsy,” “Stand Back,” “Edge of Seventeen,” and, fingers crossed, a duet with Joel on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” But Rhino Records’ 16-LP set “Complete Studio Albums & Rarities” offers so much more than a single setlist.

There are too many gems to dig up here so start with just four, four you won’t hear at Gillette but should spend time with, especially if you think ranking Nicks (with or without Mac) on any list at No. 83 is a crime.

“Outside the Rain”

For fans of Nicks’ ’70s work with Fleetwood Mac (read: nearly everyone) and fans of Tom Petty’s early ’80s sound (read: also nearly everyone). On this deep cut from her solo debut, 1981’s “Bella Donna,” Nicks’ voice rises to a shout right on the word “change” as she sings, “Maybe you thought that I’d never change/But you know I’m changing, you’re wrong.” That perfect rasp, climbing from resignation to defiance, rises right as the Heartbreakers’ guitars and keys crescendo.

“I Sing for the Things”

“You say I have everything/Well, I’m living on dreams and chains/But I sing for the things money can’t buy.” Good God, this is an amazing opening line to a song. But wait, it gets better! On this little lost mid-tempo ballad from 1985’s “Rock A Little,” in a tender whisper that pulls you in close, she sings, “I’ll take off my cape for you/I’ll take down my hair for you/Anything you want me to do, my love.” The track never builds, never climaxes, never cheapens its intimate magic with bluster or big production.

“Trouble in Shangri-La”

Those who choose to see Stevie as a gypsy, witch, mystic, siren, dryad, fortune teller, high priestess, dark princess, and/or grand rock goddess will love her title track from her 2001 album. It’s just right for spinning in scarves and shawls of lace, chiffon, and velvet. The song finds a welcome space between her folk singer roots and new millennium electronica as earthy guitars mix with pulsing synths.

“Soldier’s Angel”

A burning stomp of a song. This dirge from 2011’s “In Your Dreams” features Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and vocals, but it doesn’t sound like Mac. It’s closer to a seething Neil Young or simmering Led Zeppelin. Like “I Sing for the Things,” “Soldier’s Angel” never gets cheap. It resists pop, resists sweet turns while relishing framing a meditation on battle with raw vocals and guitar.

Art rock should probably navigate the unexpected, embrace experimentation and flirt with the odd while never forgetting pop craftsmanship.

If you’re digging this definition so far, here are three new, wildly-different art rock vinyl reissues for you to dive into.

“The Lexicon of Love,” ABC

This little masterpiece is art rock that’s pop. Pop that feels like a new romantic opera. Romance both intimate and epic.

In 1982, ABC’s dramatic songs, lead singer Martin Fry’s dramatic voice, Trevor Horn’s dramatic production and Anne Dudley’s dramatic string arrangements came together on this meditation on heartbreak and rejection. The whole thing is wonderfully overwrought, dripping with strings and synths, horns and hooks – see best known tracks “The Look of Love” and “Poison Arrow.”

Fry has said he was aiming for Cole Porter remade for the modern New Wave scene. Sure, that’s not bad. But the LP also seems like something Pink Floyd would do if the band was in love with being lovelorn and wanted to dance that ache away.

“Pretzel Logic,” Steely Dan

Where “The Lexicon of Love” sees a band desperate for romance, Steely Dan seems desperate to keep romance at arm’s length.

In 1974, songwriting geniuses Walter Becker and Donald Fagen populated the third Steely Dan LP with characters living night by night. These shifty, shady, sly rogues steal guys’ girls, gun down people in the rain, and pawn gold rings for fleeting pleasure. Sure, they could have a change of heart (but won’t).

Between tales of the desperate and depraved, these jazz heads add the best guitar solos money can buy (note, money could buy flabbergastingly awesome guitar solos in the ’70s). Feel free to ignore the dark lyrics and obsess over the knotty chops of the LA studio cats all over this album. Musically rock doesn’t get as slick, cool and sophisticated at this. (And “Pretzel Logic” isn’t the only Dan returning to vinyl, Geffen/UMe is slowly reissuing all the classic albums in the coming months.)

“Rain Dogs,” Tom Waits

Steely Dan’s characters not tragic enough for you? Looking for session musicians who favor ugly over clean? You are going to flip for “Rain Dogs.”

The middle installment of a thematic trilogy with “Swordfishtrombones” and “Frank’s Wild Years” — also recently reissued by Island/UMe —1985’s “Rain Dogs” has Waits doing hobo jazz. That’s not a genre? Fine, this LP is carnival noir or its stray dog folk or maybe beat poetry set to a German organ grinder’s caterwaul.

No established genre or hastily invented genre can encapsulate this album. A liquored up jockey, World War II veteran who plays accordion in a slaughterhouse, and somebody dying their hair in the bathroom of a Texaco fill these wicked fairy tales. Musicians score the chaos with a cacophony of guitars played sideways, drunken horns, and what has got to be somebody hired solely to shake a bag of rusty nails at the edge of the noise.

Oh, and the songs are somehow full of striking beauty and catchy melodies.

It all felt so new because, well, it was so new.

For 30 years, Peter Gabriel didn’t look back. Then he looked back a lot.

From his early days in Genesis to 2002’s “Up,” he charged forward. He dressed like a flower. He rebelled against Top 40, then went Top 40, then rejected Top 40 again. Along the way, he added a tinker’s cart of instruments to rock ‘n’ roll: sabar drums, ney flute, Chapman Stick. Then Gabriel seemed to discover nostalgia, and did a covers record, a symphonic record of old songs, a tour celebrating 1986 blockbuster “So,” a “hits” trek with Sting.

But in January, Gabriel started releasing a new song every full moon. Eventually, they will add up to new album “i/o.” On Thursday, they added up to Gabriel’s freshest set list in two decades at a crowded TD Garden.

Over the nearly three hour performance, complete with intermission, he did 22 songs. Half of them new, all welcome editions to his catalog.

Beyond the ballad of “Playing for Time,” he mixed some light industrial booming and banging with an earthy acoustic guitar refrain on “Panopticom.” He dug into ambient strangeness (without ever getting lost in dissonance) on “Four Kinds of Horses.” With “ Live and Let Live,” he conjured a song that moves between a delicate, flittering firefly and a primal thump.

After woodshedding since the turn of the century, Gabriel has emerged with at least 11 charismatic songs meant to be played by his ace band. The core that powered so much of Gabriel’s live history is intact — guitarist David Rhodes, bass legend Tony Levin and master drummer Manu Katché. Augmenting every rhythm and melody were half a dozen other players who handled horns and strings, whistles and mandolins, keys and keytars.

The music came with twisting, rectangular video screens beaming out work created for the tour by a score of visual artists. There were lights, and mirrors, and techs in bright orange jumpsuits (the band dressed in all black). The spectacle totaled what Gabriel fans have come to expect.

Of course, most didn’t come for the lights or new songs (even if most seemed to dig them). They came for the titanic trumpet wallop of “Sledgehammer.” And the epic battle between resignation and optimism that is “Don’t Give Up” (singer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson proved the sublime counter vocal). And the drums of “Red Rain,” singalong of “In Your Eyes,” and emotional release of “Solsbury Hill.”

But old songs often feel dead when packed into a set with just more old songs. When framed by vital, pulsing new stuff, Gabriel’s classics felt more alive than they have in two decades. Which is, not surprisingly, the last time Gabriel toured a studio album of his originals.

It’s an irrefutable fact. The Boston theater knows this and will put everything from “Frozen” to “Fat Ham” on stages over the fall theater season.

“Assassins”

Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, Lyric Stage

Those who thought Stephen Sondheim had no new ground to tread by 1990 were proved spectacularly wrong with “Assassins.” With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, this dark, comic musical looked at successful and failed presidential assassins John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley, Jr. Unlike anything Sondheim had done, so, basically, like every other Sondheim work. Lyricstage.com

“The Taming of the Shrew”

Sept. 15 – Oct. 1, the Modern Theatre at Suffolk University

So… Taming of the Shrew… in 2023… Fear not, in the hands of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project this is sure to be a hit, a hoot and boot in the rear of stereotypes. After a night of boozing and harassing ladies, Christopher Sly wakes up to find himself “The Shrew,” forced to navigate a world he used to rule. Around him an all-female/non-binary ensemble carries him through the oppressive patriarchy he helped keep in place. ActorsShakespeareProject.org

“POTUS”

Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, Calderwood Pavilion

Presidential sex scandals and a global calamity. Sound familiar? Sound too familiar? Don’t worry, this Broadway show has been described as “9 to 5”-meets-“Veep.” Laugh at the madness of our past (present? future?) as seven wise and weary women try to save America from a problematic president. Speakeasystage.com

“Fat Ham”

Sept. 22 – Oct. 22, Huntington Theatre

Juicy has a lot on his plate already: He’s a queer Black man trying to make it in the South. Then his father’s ghost shows up at a barbeque and tells Juicy he must avenge his murder. Just months ago, this transformation of “Hamlet” blew minds on Broadway. huntingtontheatre.org

Disney’s “Frozen”

Oct. 25 – Nov. 12, Citizens Bank Opera House

We’ll forgive you if you’re unfamiliar with this obscure Disney movie. It only made a trillion dollars at the box office and redefined how the world views snowmen. Anyway, all the songs your kids sung a trillion times in 2013 plus a dozen new tunes help expand this film into a full-fledged Broadway musical. BroadwayInBoston.com

“The Rocky Horror Show”

Oct. 26 – Nov. 26, Central Square Theater

Let’s do the time warp again! Richard O’Brien’s camp classic and musical comedy tells the kinky tale of a couple of squares who get mixed up with mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” looking to create a perfect man. Centralsquaretheater.org

“The Real James Bond… was Dominican”

Nov. 8 – Nov. 12, Emerson Paramount Center

James Bond creator Ian Fleming spent a lot of time in the Caribbean learning about playboys, pirates and ne’er-do-wells. One of his favorites was Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat, international polo champion, race-car driver, pilot, and spy. When a James Bond-obsessed Dominican boy in Queens discovers Bond’s roots, his world is forever changed. Join performer Christopher Rivas as he recreates his journey of discovery. artsemerson.org

Chan also believes the 120-year-old Puccini opera should be reclaimed and reinvented by Asian and Asian-American artists.

Best known for his work in ballet and as a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an organization  committed to eliminating offensive stereotypes of Asians on stage, Chan makes his opera directing debut with the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Madama Butterfly.” The production, which runs Sept. 14-24 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, is the culmination of a massive exploration of the legacy of “Madama Butterfly” undertaken by Chan, the BLO team and a dozen others.

“We can say that ‘Madama Butterfly’ is inherently racist and sexist, but we could also ask, ‘How can we save it? What else can this work be?’” Chan told the Herald. “Three years ago, scholars, performers, directors, historians, and folks from all across the opera ecosystem took a look at this work asking what are problems with it and what is a way forward for it.”

The problems were obvious. Puccini had never been to Japan so he populated “Madama Butterfly” with hurtful and dangerous caricatures. Those caricatures were more often than not played by white actors in yellowface. Puccini also leaned into orientalism to make the opera more “exotic.”

“Orientalism is when you have an outsider, such as a European artist, setting a story in an exotic, other place while having a disregard for any cultural realities of that place,” Chan said.

The way forward involved destroying the orientalism trope by moving the setting to America. The BLO’s version brings the story of Japanese-American nightclub performer Cio-Cio-San and American Naval Officer B.F. Pinkerton to 1940s San Francisco and a California prison camp during a time when World War II amplified racial prejudices.

“No one wears a kimono on stage, there are no geishas, nobody is demure,” Chan said. “Nobody is culturally Japanese in this story. Everybody is American… In some ways, this is no different than any other reimagining [for the stage] whether it’s a Shakespeare play or an opera with a new setting. We’re just continuing the grand tradition of reimagining classic works.”

The reworking doesn’t extend to Puccini’s score. The music remains untouched (likely to the relief of a large number of opera diehards).

“There are a couple little changes, like ‘I’m the luckiest girl in Nagasaki’ becomes ‘I’m the luckiest girl in San Francisco,” Chan said. “But otherwise, if you close your eyes, you can’t tell the difference between this and any other opera house performing ‘Madama Butterfly.’”

Then Chan quickly adds: “Although I think our singers are fantastic.”

Many of those singers finally get to embrace “Madama Butterfly” in a way they never could. The performer playing matchmaker Goro, Rodell Rosel, told Chan this was the first time he’s played the character as himself and not with the affectations of an Asian caricature.

“He’s so brilliant and it works for the character and you can tell that he’s loving it,” Chan said. “It works because it feels real.”

For tickets and details, visit blo.org

“I remember a Sex Pistols song coming on the jukebox, and then a Chic song coming on the jukebox,” Taylor told the Herald ahead of Duran Duran’s Wednesday TD Garden concert with Chic and Bastille. “I was like, ‘I love both of these songs, I love them equally, but I can’t tell anybody.’ ”

Taylor laughs at the memory. Back in late ’70s punks and disco kids were like Jets and Sharks. Nobody could find an overlap between the two scenes and sounds. Well, nobody except Duran Duran.

“Punk had generated this incredible energy, it had printed and pressed thousands of young, barely-able-to-play musicians who just wanted to be part of this movement,” Taylor said. “As it got broader it morphed into what we call new wave, and new wave had a beat.”

On Duran Duran’s 1981 self-titled debut LP, the band made something that had punk’s sneer, new wave’s hypnotic and electronic beat, disco’s bass and drum thump, pop’s sharp hooks, and art rock’s weirdness (go listen to “The Night Boat” to hear it all at once on maybe the world’s most underrated song). Duran Duran hasn’t stopped since.

In 2021, four decades in, the core four of John, singer Simon LeBon, synth wizard Nick Rhodes, and drummer Roger Taylor, made an album true to Duran Duran’s original mission statement. New LP “Future Past” feels utterly contemporary (in part thanks to a guest list that includes Swedish pop star Tove Lo, English hip hop champ Ivorian Doll, Japanese oddball indie act Chai), yet always sounds like Duran Duran.

John Taylor says the band has an overarching principle that guides the band through creating enduring art and memorable pop year after year.

“The key ingredient is respect,” he said. “It’s not just friendship, it’s not just sibling rivalry, it’s not just a business partnership. It’s all of these things… (But) respect is what is most important. And how could you not respect these guys? They’ve been showing up for this thing we do for 40 years.”

“I’ll often look across at one of my bandmates and go, ‘I really don’t like you but (expletive), man, do I respect you,’” he added with a big laugh. “And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I’m sure they look at me the same way some days.”

Duran Duran is the rare band where every member matters — ask any fan who their favorite member is and you’ll get five different answers with a few electing to name original guitarist Andy Taylor. The group depends on each guy to bring their unique talent to the table then have enough ego to assert his self but enough humility to know when to let someone else take the lead.

“The most important thing we’ve done collectively is (create) this band,” John Taylor said. “Pride is a dangerous feeling to have. But again, you can respect what we have achieved together and appreciate how unusual it is.”

John and the boys have earned the right to be proud. And as for unusual, the proof of that can be heard on “Duran Duran,” “Future Past,” and everything in between.

For tickets and details, visit duranduran.com

“It’s about the intersection of Grecian gods and Yoruba gods out of Nigeria, who will sometimes war against each other so you have a story of an epic nature,” Bowen told the Herald. “But then you have a demigod who is birthed as a result of an assault by Zeus. That demigod grows up and has an internal conflict about the nature of his being… Vengeance comes into play, so does hubris, so does the nature of family, so does healing.”

“And then, on top of all this you, you have basketball,” he added with a laugh.

There’s a lot going on in “The Half-God of Rainfall,” which runs from Sept. 8 to Sept. 24 at the American Repertory Theater. But deftly unpacking complex stories and equally complex emotions is a specialty of playwright Inua Ellams — the author’s 2018 play at the ART, “Barber Shop Chronicles,”  covered deception, betrayal, honestly and little flashes of reconciliation at set in barber shops across Africa and one in London.

In “The Half-God of Rainfall,” Ellams synthesizes his own experiences on the court and his youth in Nigeria, England and Ireland with a story about Demi — half Greek god, half Nigerian mortal — who grabs the attention of two pantheons with this journey from Nigeria to the NBA playoffs. Along the way, it explores colonialism and masculinity, sexual assault and female empowerment.

While explaining the piece, Bowen, who plays Yoruba god of thunder and lightning Sàngó, makes sure to highlight both the grand scale of the tale and its earthly and intimate concerns.

“It feels like something that parallels the ‘Odyssey’ or something of that nature,” Bowen said. “But these characters that seem larger than life, at the end of the day, they’re still dealing with human conflicts. Even in my limited knowledge of Greek mythology from elementary school, I remember their human qualities. They’re still jealous, they still love, they still lust.”

Bowen spent plenty of time digging into the history of Yoruba orishas, or godly spirits. In his role as Sàngó, Bowen wanted to make sure to honor the Yoruba culture with a dynamic performance informed by research. He didn’t need to spend much time on the basketball part of the narrative.

A longtime Boston actor, Bowen rose through the local theater scene in productions with the Actors Shakespeare Project, graduating to other companies, and eventually won great acclaim for his performance in 2012’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the Huntington. He’s spent the last few years working out of New York City but still lives-and-dies with the Celtics.

“I bleed green and grew up playing basketball, played in high school, so that part of the production was really seamless for me,” he said.

It’s good to hear that something was simple for Bowen because so much of “The Half-God of Rainfall” is a world away. And yet, of course, it’s all universally human too.

For details and tickets, visit americanrepertorytheater.org

During his storied professional career with the Bruins, Neely spent a lot of off nights in Boston’s comedy clubs.

“I really enjoyed watching live standup,” Neely told the Boston Herald. “I preferred to do that over going to a movie so I’d go with a couple teammates to comedy clubs.”

Neely dug the whole rising Boston comedy scene — a crowd of comics that included Steven Wright, Steve Sweeney, and Lenny Clarke. But there was one younger comic who he really wanted to check out.

“I got to know (comedy booker) Mike Clarke, Lenny’s brother, and I said, ‘Listen, if Denis Leary ever comes into town to do anything, let me know, I’d love to see him,’” Neely said. “He said, ‘As a matter of fact he is doing a comedy benefit in Worcester.’”

Neely made the trip west, loved the set, met Leary at the show, and the two became fast friends. That friendship continues to this day through the Cam Neely Foundation’s annual fundraiser Comics Come Home.

This year’s benefit, Comics Come Home’s 27th edition, will pack the TD Garden again with sets from Leary, Bill Burr, Marc Maron, Rachel Feinstein, Tammy Pescatelli, Orlando Baxter and more including Mass. legends such as Lenny Clarke. General ticket sales begin at 10 a.m.  Aug. 24 at Ticketmaster.com and 100% of the proceeds go directly to The Cam Neely Foundation’s efforts to address the most immediate needs of cancer patients and their families.

Back in 1995, Neely couldn’t envision what Comics Come Home would grow into. He was just happy Leary agreed when he pitched him on doing a charity show for his newly formed foundation.

“I just assumed he would do a 40 minute set or an hour set or something like that,” Neely said. “But his idea was to get all these local comedians, whether they were still here or from here, and invite them back home to do 10 or 15 minute sets.”

“We did it at the Orpheum, then eventually so many people wanted to come that the Orpheum got too small,” Neely continued. “Then we moved to Agganis Arena. Then, for the 20th anniversary, Denis said, ‘Do you think we could get the Garden?’ I said, ‘I’m sure we can get a date at the Garden, but we want to make sure we can sell it out.’ And sure enough we did.”

Over its 27 years, the show has become a sort of rite of passage for up and coming New England comics — Leary has always done an excellent job booking a mix of superstars, established locals and younger comics. This year is no exception (you can’t get bigger than Bill Burr). Neely points to soon-to-be-huge hometown talent Alex Edelman in an example that highlights what a landmark event Comics Come Home has become for the Boston scene.

“Alex was a rookie at the event last year,” Neely said. “His story is that he went to one of the Agganis shows we did, fell in love with stand up comedy and became a comic.”

For more information and to donate to the Cam Neely Foundation, visit camneelyfoundation.org

One thing that’s not up for debate: Buoys of Summer are Boston’s best nautical-themed cover band.

With Buoys set to set sail at the Sinclair on Aug. 25, we asked the band’s singer and bassist, Davina Yannetty, to get controversial with the yacht rock catalog and grade a few standards. She didn’t flinch, offering up what is yacht and what is not, what is perfect and what belongs trapped at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones’s locker.

“Rosanna,” TOTO

Grade A-

Pros: The groove is, if you’ll pardon my use of jazzer slang, totally cookin’. The drums, the piano, the bass – you can’t beat ‘em!

Cons: It’s an absolute workout to play! This is, famously, the song I used to audition every member of the group. I figured if they can do this one, they can do anything else I need them to do.

“How Much I Feel,” Ambrosia

Grade B-

Pros: Beautiful vocal harmonies on the choruses, and a nice, smooth groove.

Cons: While it’s very smooth, there’s something about this song that just doesn’t hit that yacht rock button for me.

“Peg,” Steely Dan

Grade: A+

Pros: This song literally has it all. Folklore. Made-up slang. A tight groove. Michael McDonald on backing vocals. Jay Gradon’s guitar solo (after Becker and Fagen went through seven other session guitarists).

Cons: Have you ever tried to sing the backing vocals on this song? Ouch. Also, I kinda hate when Donald Fagen says “when you smile for the camera/I know I love you better,” because it reminds me of a man telling a woman how she’d “look so pretty” if she just smiled. I’ve made a lot of memes about it. As I always like to say: To love Steely Dan is to make fun of Steely Dan.

“Dreams,” Fleetwood Mac

Grade: C-

Pros: I love this song. A lot. I love the entire “Rumours” album a lot. This track has a nice, chill vibe that would mesh well among other yacht rock songs. Plus, it’s a rare Fleetwood Mac song about a relationship ending. (A little yacht sarcasm for you!)

Cons: This is a controversial opinion to some, but this one just isn’t yacht rock to me. While there’s some overlap in the ’70s SoCal sound and yacht rock, that’s not happening here. It’s more of a straight soft-rock song.

“What a Fool Believes,” The Doobie Brothers

Grade: A+

This is it. The gold standard. The mold. The blueprint. This is the yacht rock song. Michael McDonald’s flawless vocals intertwine so perfectly with the Captain-and-Tennille-inspired keyboard parts, and there’s a steady feel on the drums to keep it all together. You feel so warm and content listening to the smooth music that you forget that it’s a song about someone getting their heart broken. s.

For tickets and details, visit sinclaircambridge.com

“I love a big music festival,” In Between Days festival director James Macdonald told the Herald. “There’s something truly magical about 40,000 people singing the same song. It just happens that’s not an experience I like to create professionally.”

Macdonald joined In Between Days in time for its second, greatly-expanded-but-still-manageable festival this weekend at Quincy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. As someone with Massachusetts roots (his resume includes work with Life Is Good and Guster), Macdonald was attracted to In Between Days’ emphasis on local music, vendors and vibes.

“We’re right on the Red Line, equally close to two train stations as Boston Calling is to Harvard Square, truly an event that’s accessible,” he said. “And there’s a lot more to this festival that says, ‘Boston this is for you, this is part of the community.”

Macdonald says being part of the community means booking homegrown talent. The 2023 fest was mostly booked before Macdonald came on, but it reflects his wisdom. Of the event’s 24 bands, 12 are from New England and have strong Boston ties including Weakened Friends, Mint Green, Dutch Tulips, Carissa Johnson, Dwight & Nicole, Kat Wright and Quincy’s own Gypsy Moths.

“Trying to show people that we are part of Boston comes with supporting local music and local vendors,” Macdonald said.

Beyond great sets from international forces such as Modest Mouse and the Beths and all those worthy locals, the festival grounds will feature popup shops from Rhode Island’s Little City Thrifty Vintage Market network. That means good tunes can come with new-to-you retro threads or classic vinyl (that you can drop off at the bag check so you don’t have to carry a stack of LPs to front of the stage to see, say, Sunny Day Real Estate).

From top to bottom, In Between Days is meant to differentiate itself from the megafest. And it’s doing a good job with that goal.

“I like to have a festival that you can wrap your head around, and wrap your arms around,” Macdonald said. “There’s a trend at some festivals to have more, more, more. More types of tickets. More stages. More everything. Sometimes simplicity goes a long way.”

“Not to get too heady about it, but the world is very busy, we’re all very busy, complication at our music festivals isn’t always the thing,” he added.

Not all the answers are simple but some are: Put your fest next to T stops and put a dozen hometown acts on stage.

For tickets and details, visit inbetweendaysfestival.com

Most Americans remember the band for 1985 smashes “And We Danced” and “All You Zombies.” But others love the Hooters for songs that missed the charts, well, the American charts.

“‘Johnny B’ was the song that broke us in Germany, ‘Satelite’ got us our 15 minutes of fame in the UK, after which we were basically done, and ‘500 Miles’ is really the big one in Sweden and Norway,” band co-founder Eric Bazilian told the Herald.

“We kept having bigger hits in smaller countries,” Bazilian added with a laugh.

When the band came up with its setlist for its current tour – its first U.S. tour in years – with Rick Springfield, it didn’t even include European hits “Johnny B” or “500 Miles.” The tour, which Springfield specifically recruited the Hooters for, stops at the Lynn Auditorium on Sunday.

Now if you’re from Philly, and in your 50s or 60s, you may have a whole other set of favorites.

Before going global, the roots rockers were a ska/reggae band tearing up the Pennsylvania-Delaware-New Jersey tri state area. Recently, the Hooters indulged in a flashback to those days with new album “Rocking & Swing,” a positively skanking and cranking LP that mixes fresh songs with tunes they played in their club days.

“[Hooters co-found] Rob [Hyman] and I started in Baby Grand, which was sort of like Steely Dan on steroids, and after that we wanted to something for the audience, something for people to dance to, something that was a party, that would keep people coming back,” Bazilian said.

British ska had just crashed American shores and, long before Boston went ska crazy with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Bim Skala Bim, the Hooters helped break the style in the States. But by the 1985 breakthrough album “Nervous Night,” the Hooters began to evolve.

“As we introduced more of the folky instruments, on later records (1987’s) ‘One Way Home’ and (1989’s) ‘Zig Zag,’ we really got away from ska,” Bazilian said. “But we always wondered if we would get back to it.”

From ska to roots rock, opening the 1985 Philadelphia Live Aid concert to playing with Roger Waters at the Berlin Wall in 1990, to dotting the charts across Europe, the Hooters have had an unlikely run. When you consider Bazilian and Hyman’s work outside the band, their careers are even more unique.

If you ask someone what their favorite song by Bazilian or Hyman is, you might hear “And We Danced” or “Johnny B.” Or you might hear something they wrote for someone else – Bazilian penned Joan Osbourne’s “One of Us,” Hyman co-wrote “Time After Time” with Cyndi Lauper.

So many songs, so many favorites. Even Bazilian has an underdog Hooters tune he’d like to nominate.

“‘South Ferry Road’,” Bazilian said. “That’s my knee jerk reaction.”

It’s a great song – find it on the excellent back half of “Nervous Night.” Although there are a lot of great ones. Just ask people in Philly, or Berlin, or Scandinavia.

For music, tour dates and details, visit hootersmusic.com

Back in the day, Earth, Wind and Fire were untouchable – the sharpest, coolest, most pop savvy of the funk kings. Richie was with the Commodores and not yet the breakout star. Now Richie is the bigger icon – with the closing spot on the duel headlining bill – but not much else has changed.

Earth, Wind & Fire started the night bright, bold, loud, proud, funky, freaky, and fabulous. And that just describes their threads. Hey EWF, the ’70s called, the decade wants you to know it’s positively thrilled with your look, and sound, and energy, and vibe, and horn section. (Late band founder Maurice White would be thrilled too – the legacy is in the good hands of brother Verdine White and longtime members Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson.)

In just over an hour, EWF crammed in everything it needed to. The band proved it could tear the roof off the sucker with a fast and furious opening one-two-three punch that connected “Shining Star,” “Let Your Feelings Show,” and “Serpentine Fire.” It dropped in a few sweet ballads, the best being “After the Love Has Gone.” It reminded Boston that nobody triangulates tight pop, bottom-heavy disco and deep soul (see “Boogie Wonderland” and “Let’s Groove”). Oh, and “September” is ain’t bad.

Lionel Richie never gave much thought to triangulating genres. For Richie, it was all tight pop, all the time. The move made him a god in the ’80s, and he was only too happy to relieve those days with 20,000 ecstatic fans.

To start his set, Richie rose up through the floor at the end of a catwalk at the center of the arena. In a gleaming white jacket. Singing “Hello.” (Because of course he did.)

From there the pop got groovy (the Commodores’ “Brickhouse”) and rockin’ (“Running With The Night”). The pop got (momentarily) overshadowed by pyro, lights and lasers. It got a few bars to relax into its earthy singer-songwriter roots when Richie sat behind a white grand piano to sing Commodores classics “Easy,” “Sail On,” and — at a whole different grand piano at the end of the catwalk — “Still”

But it mostly shimmered, a set of perfectly glossed up ’80s mid-tempo numbers and ballads that crushed the adoring arena. And Richie just rolled right through them, a catalog unlike any other, “Truly,” “Stuck on You,” “You Are,” … The sheer amount of lite, Top 40 pop the man has is staggering. Even the heavy stuff such as “Dancing on the Ceiling,” was effervescent (note “Dancing on the Ceiling” can only be called heavy when it’s sandwiched between  “You Are” and “Three Times a Lady”).

At 74, Richie can still get down — he did a block of far-out Commodores tunes — but his wheelhouse has always been towering, syrupy, sublime and earnest pop. He knows that. He closed with a truly heartfelt “Say You Say Me,” a wait-is-he-really-doing-this-yes-I-think-he-is “We Are the World,” and perfect encore  “All Night Long (All Night).”

And one of the definitive songs about the fight to form U.S. labor unions during the Great Depression.

And one about street hustlers, one about a lovestruck, gambling truck driver headed to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and another that collects a gaggle of oddballs into a setting inspired by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

These tales — “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “King Harvest,” “Life Is a Carnival,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Weight” — were penned by Robbie Robertson. The chief songwriter and lead guitarist for The Band, Robertson, who passed away Wednesday at age 80, practically invented the Americana genre.

When The Band retreated to Woodstock, New York, in 1967 to compile the tracks that would become its debut LP “Music from Big Pink,” psychedelia was raging. London was swinging, the Beatles sang “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire. But Robertson and The Band had different ideas.

“I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday — that had this lost-in-time quality,” Robertson once said.

How about a century ago? Robertson’s compositions seemed to bring to life broken Confederate soldiers, battered Southern farmers, randy cowboys under the stars, and a hundred characters more out of Mark Twain then the Summer of Love.

Robertson was just a 16-year-old rock ‘n’ roll kid when he started playing with Canadian-based singer Ronnie Hawkins in 1960. But relentlessly touring behind Hawkins turned him and his Band-mates into seasoned pros. Half a decade later, the guys graduated to backing Bob Dylan on his first electric tour. Robertson then had the wonderful audacity to emerge from an apprenticeship with one of the world’s best songwriters as, well, one of the world’s best songwriters.

Behind Robertson’s catalog, and his lyrical and economical guitar solos, The Band rejected the sonics of the ’60s. By the ’70s, other artists had followed its lead. The Grateful Dead stopped jamming (for a moment) and recorded folk-rock classics influenced by Robertson’s style in “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead.” Groups such as Little Feat and the Eagles absorbed the country and Southern influences — four of five Band members were Canadian despite their aesthetic.

Robertson had the rare humility to end The Band before it lost its mojo. That end was captured spectacularly in Martin Scorsese-directed 1976 concert film “The Last Waltz.”

But Robertson never stopped writing little masterpieces. He penned film scores for other Scorsese films. He released a series of stunningly diverse and strange solo albums. With Cayuga and Mohawk ancestry, Robertson was the ideal choice to create the soundtrack for the documentary film “The Native Americans.”

Of course, Roberson was an ideal choice to write anything from a Civil War lament to a tune about Carmen and the Devil walking side-by-side.

“I thought it was kind of silly,” Bailey told the Boston Herald. “I didn’t dislike it. But it wasn’t like I thought it was all that. Honestly, I was wrong.”

“September” is all that. But it can be tricky at the moment of conception to know what will be a smash and what will flop, even for a band with eight No. 1s, nine Grammys, and more than 100 million albums sold worldwide.

“There are songs that you say, ‘Oh, this is a hit,’ and then it never sees the light of day,” Bailey said with a laugh. “And then there are other songs that you say, ‘This is OK,’ and it shoots to the stars. We were only trying to make music that we enjoyed, music that spoke to people. We never imagined those songs would  become as historic as they’ve become.”

Fans will get the chance to sing along to those songs when EWF’s co-headlining tour with Lionel Richie stops at the TD Garden on Friday.

Recent years have seen EWF pair with some equally iconic acts including Santana last year and Chic in 2017 – Bailey says a tour with Steely Dan would be on his bucket list (his, and millions of other’s). But the 2023 jaunt is extra fun as EWF toured with Richie’s old band the Commodores in the ’70s.

“We knew each other and actually played a couple gigs together,” Bailey said. “I remember one in Kansas City… It was in our heyday. Both bands were big and we sold out the stadium.”

“Who would have thought, 50 plus years ago, that we would still be doing this in any form or fashion?” he added.

Bailey says he was destined to make music, but never imagined he’d do at this level or for this long. The singer (and songwriter) joined the band in early ’70s and saw the group rise for a decade through “Shining Star” and “After the Love” and “Let’s Groove.” While the band took breaks, its music never went away. And its sound can still be heard in contemporary pop (see Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” Bruno Mars’ “Treasure,” and Lizzo’s “About Damn Time”).

“It’s a compliment that you hear different things that are reminiscent of what you did,” Bailey said. “But music is one of those things that, since the beginning of time, we are borrowing from one another. So they are doing what we did (and borrowing). We borrowed from what we were listening to, the jazz greats, the pop greats, r&b, blues, and we just gave it our twist.”

And yet, it’s not every artist whose twists – silly or sublime – get played decade after decade.

For tickets and details, visit earthwindandfire.com

With his eclectic interests, just about the only band that scratches every music itch is the Grateful Dead. But it’s still surprising that Joe Russo’s Almost Dead tribute project has lasted 10 years.

“It’s kind of insane that this is still a thing,” Russo told the Herald with a laugh.

Russo started the band on a lark, a one-night-only event, but fans wanted more, and more, and more. Over a decade, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead has grown from club dates to 5,000-seat venues – JRAD performs at Leader Bank Pavilion on, Aug. 12.

As a kid in the ’80s, Russo dug the heavy and hard stuff: Zeppelin, Sabbath, Iron Maiden, KISS, and Rush. Later, he got serious about jazz and improvisational music in the 2000s with the Benevento/Russo Duo (keyboardist Marco Benevento plays in JRAD along with guitarists Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger and bassist Dave Dreiwitz). Russo finally got to know the Dead’s music when Bob Weir and Phil Lesh hired him in 2008 to play in Furthur – not because he knew the catalog, but because he’s an awesome drummer.

Since then, he’s found a freedom in that catalog.

“The liberties we are allowed to, and encouraged to, take with the song book is in the band’s DNA,” Russo said. “The stuff the Grateful Dead did destroying any kind of formulaic approach to their music is the open door that allows us to do what we do. The beautiful thing that’s built into (the Dead’s music) is an acceptance of making it different every time.”

“The stuff that Marco and I used to do sounded nothing like the Grateful Dead,” he added. “But they are both part of a shared belief system in improvisation and not being afraid to go off script. Honestly, this band has become such a playground for us to explore, maybe more than any other project I have been in, which is funny because, on paper, it’s a Grateful Dead cover band.”

What makes JRAD so unique is that nobody in the group wants to do this full time but everybody adores doing it part time. The 40-ish shows a year the band does gives everyone room to do a lot of other stuff. Over the past few years, Russo has recorded and/or toured with indie rock stalwarts Craig Finn, Cass McCombs and the Fruit Bats. Next up is new project Selcouth Quartet.

“We made a record in Iceland in January, that was something, and I’m so thrilled about it,” Russo said of Selcouth’s October-due debut album. “I’m kind of going back to my roots of instrumental jazz. We went into the studio not knowing what it would be and walked out five days later with an album.”

Not knowing what’s going to happen seems to be a running theme with Russo’s career, and, not coincidentally, the music of the Dead.

For tickets and details, visit joerussosalmostdead.com

“I just remember looking down and she was giddy,” Benatar told the Herald of spotting the pop star in the crowd. “I didn’t know her, we’d never met, so it was just so fun to look down and see her having such a great time.”

“She was in the front row and dancing,” Giraldo added. “Then when we were leaving she came up and said, ‘I want you two on the road with me. I want you to play dates with me this summer.’”

True to her word, Pink booked Benatar & Giraldo as support at some of her biggest shows – the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will play Fenway Park with the “Just Give Me a Reason” singer July 31 and Aug. 1.

Pink’s enthusiasm for Benatar acknowledges the trailblazers legacy. Part of a generation of pioneers from Joan Jett to Ann and Nancy Wilson, Benatar came up in an era when music industry executives – almost exclusively male – tried their best to restrict female artists’ freedom. Her partnership, first professional, then romantic, with Giraldo was seen as something dangerous in the late ’70s.

“The record company and especially management started to realize that our alliance was too strong,” Benatar said. “They thought they could control me better if he wasn’t there… That was the sexism that was present. They were thinking that the only reason I was strong was because I had him. I was strong before I had him.”

The two clicked instantly – Benatar remembers she was hooked on Giraldo’s sound from the first chord he played. Not everyone felt the chemistry.

“Disco was still very vibrant (in 1979) and here we come with a girl singer in a rock band and there’s a lot of guitar on the record,” Giraldo said. “We had a very difficult time getting the records played on the radio. They wouldn’t play ‘Heartbreaker’ because they said there was too much guitar on the record.”

There was not too much guitar on the record. And Pat Benatar’s grit and glory won over millions of ears and hearts

After the first album, Giraldo took over as producer and the pair married in 1982.  While Benatar hasn’t released an album in 20 years, she and Giraldo have never stopped writing (she estimates the pair have a hundred songs stockpiled).

Will they get to another album? Neither one will commit but don’t rule it out. Life has just been too jam packed (they even debuted a theater production, “Invincible: The Musical,” in 2022, which included old hits and new songs) as they celebrate 44 years of making music together.

“I’m 70, (Giraldo) is going to be 68, and we look at each other every day and go, ‘What the hell?’” Benatar said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever been busier. It’s crazy… But we’re grateful for that. We love to work. I wish I had a little more time to see my grandchildren but I see them enough.”

For tickets and details, visit benatargiraldo.com.

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