Editor’s Note: Welcome to V3 Weekend, Vanyaland‘s guide to help you sort out your weekend entertainment with curated selections and recommendations across our three pillars of Music, Comedy, and Film/TV. It’s what you should know about, where you need to be, and where you’ll be going, with us riding shotgun along the way.
Music: Travis at Royale
The first two months of the year are usually the saddest (or maybe we’re just cold), so it makes sense that Travis are here to deliver a necessary dose of musical melancholy. Fran Healy’s veteran Scottish indie rock band released 10th album L.A. Times last summer, and now, aided by a new pub-ready single called “Avalon,” bring the Raze The Bar Tour of North America to Boston’s Royale tonight for a proper sing-along. The aforementioned “Avalon” was part of the L.A. Times recording session with producer Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck, Phoenix), and Healy says this about it: “I owned a small sailing boat for a couple of years while in L.A. and wrote some songs in it. ‘Avalon’ is one of those songs. So, Catalina island is an island off the coast of Los Angeles. Its main port is called Avalon and is a sailing destination from L.A. …In the song the real place of Avalon becomes mythologized and the journey to it, taking 14 years, is a nod to part of our journey as a band and the realization that the destination, this mythological place, was in reality, the journey all along.” And here we are.
TRAVIS + AKIRA :: Saturday, February 15 at Royale, 279 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6 p.m., 18-plus, $39.50 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
Comedy: Andrew Santino at The Wilbur
Your partner doesn’t want flowers this Valentine’s Day weekend; what they really want — and need — is some laughter. Mic’d Up understands this on a year-round basis, and serves up a two-night swing with Andrew Santino tonight and Saturday at The Wilbur: “Santino has four sold-out shows on the docket, as well as a brand new batch of jokes and stories that, as history has shown us with the Chicago native, will surely get the house shaking from the jump. Since his last trek to the city, which came at the literal end of 2022 when he closed down the Wilbur on New Year’s Eve, Santino has continued his ascension through the comedy game with a consistent touring schedule, as well as appearing in the Netflix series Beef, reprised his role as Mike in Lil’ Dicky’s hit FX series Dave, and even scored a few voice acting roles like Ten Year Old Tom, Fairfax, and Royal Crackers. Let the magical Cheeto dust sprinkle over you with Santino at the helm, and maybe even etch out some of your Valentine’s date plans to include some of the most expertly crafted comedy in the game today.”
ANDREW SANTINO :: Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: Times vary, $49 to $69.50 :: Advance tickets
Film/TV: ‘Crash’ at The Brattle
The Brattle is speaking to our unhinged and carefree youth these days. After screening Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me last weekend as both a Super Bowl alternative and an already-on-the-calendar tribute to the late David Lynch, the Cambridge indie cinema this weekend serves up a relic from the hyper-sexual and fetishized ’90s through Crash. Not to be confused with another film of the same name, the David Cronenberg-directed 1996 Canadian erotic thriller film based on J. G. Ballard’s 1973 neo-futurist novel had some kind of effect on those who first saw it three decades ago, marveling at the actions of a wild cast that stars Deborah Kara Unger, Elias Koteas, Holly Hunter, James Spader, and Rosanna Arquette. IYKYK, but if not, here’s The Brattle setting it up: “For an extremely alternative Valentine’s Day treat, join us for one of David Cronenberg’s most infamously perverse films. When disaffected film producer James Ballard (Spader) is involved in a fatal car accident, he and his wife are drawn into an underground group that fetishizes car accidents and their victims.” Stay off the Mass Pike after watching this one.
‘CRASH’ :: Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 16 at The Brattle, 40 Brattle St. in Cambridge, MA :: 9 p.m., $15 :: Event info and tickets