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: Murder By Death at the Paradise Rock Club
Murder By Death are calling it quits after nearly 25 years of indie rock and roll, but not before the Indiana sextet, whose name is derived from the 1976 Robert Moore film, set out on a year-long farewell tour. Part of the North American run of more than 40 shows is an appearance at our very own Paradise Rock Club this evening with Laura Jane Grace as support. The news of the band’s farewell comes two years after the release of As We Wish, and one final album will be out to coincide with the tour. “This band has always been a jumble of contradictions,” says guitarist Adam Turla in a statement that can be read in full — and we recommend it — over on their homepage. “On the one hand, we’ve had a long-running career where we got to make art for a living. But on the other, we have always eluded any kind of traditional success… When I reflect on how good our career was and how lucky we were, I’m left with just gratitude for the small team of folks who have worked with the band and this grassroots fan following that has lifted us up the entire time. I feel like we owe any and all our success to you.” Revisit our our 2015 interview with Turla as we prepare our farewells.
MURDER BY DEATH + LAURA JANE GRACE :: Friday, June 27 at the Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Ave in Boston, MA :: 6 p.m., 18-plus, $54 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
Music: TREE at Brighton Music Hall
It feels like only yesterday TREE was holding court down in the expansive field of Bellforge Arts Center for the Rat Reunion, and now the longtime Boston music fixture brings it closer to home for a celebration Saturday at Brighton Music Hall. It’s the second-annual “homecoming” for the hardcore-punk band led by Dave Tree, and the lineup is a festival-like offering of heavy sounds, featuring noise-rock trio Miracle Blood; sludgy doom duo Mollusk; punk rock powderkegs Scümbari; New York’s Incendiary Device, fronted by Drew Stone of New York Hardcore Chronicles; and hosted by filmmaker, podcaster, and stand-up comic Tommy O’Deed. “Last year I was excited to play back in Allston and my idea of mixing older and newer bands and blending styles really worked,” Tree says. “We got out both the seasoned fans and the younger kids and really brought the scene together. So, we had to have another great lineup of bands this year with the same idea: Blending the old with the new and keeping everything fresh. I’m lucky to be friends with members of every band playing which makes it special for us. We are all family and we play from the heart.” Put the rock back in Allston Rock City.
TREE + MIRACLE BLOOD + INCENDIARY DEVICE + SCÜMBARI + MOLLUSK + TOMMY O’DEED :: Saturday, June 28 at Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave. in Allston, MA :: 6 p.m., all ages, $29 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
Film: ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ at The Brattle
Pride Month is still popping off, despite the all bigots’ worst intentions, and it goes out with a bang this weekend as The Brattle serves up Vanyaland fave Love Lies Bleeding this evening at the indie Cambridge cinema. Film editor Nick Johnston previewed the film ahead of Sundance 2024, and then reviewed it out in Utah, calling it “blood-soaked and brilliant”, marking the romantic thriller starring Kristen Stewart and the forever-underrated Jena Malone as a must-see. It holds up, and feels even sweatier on the big screen. Here’s the word from our Sundance preview: “One of the movies most fucked-over by the pandemic was Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, which was the kind of horror-hit that A24 normally cashes in on in the summer months that was ultimately relegated to a streaming service that practically no one subscribes to. But Glass’s talent and skill was noticed by critics and festival attendees alike, and she’s used that momentum to make what sounds to be an insane motion picture. It’s a gay love story between two women (Stewart and Katy O’Brian) that is also a pic about female body builders that is also a Las Vegas crime movie.” We’re in.
‘LOVE LIES BLEEDING’ :: Friday, June 27 at The Brattle, 40 Brattle St. in Cambridge, MA :: 9 p.m., $15 :: Event info and advance tickets