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: NICE, a fest in Somerville
Blurting out the details for this weekend’s NICE, a fest, is kinda like Tim Robinson at the drive-thru trying to pay it forward and backwards on I Think You Should Leave. But instead of 55 burgers, 55 fries, 55 tacos, 55 pies (and so on…), it’s a seemingly endless list of bands, artists, vendors, sponsors, and — most important of all — vibes. The third-annual NICE packs a sonic wallop across Somerville’s Davis Square, with 74 performances over multiple stages, kicking off last night and running through Sunday (July 23).
“It’s so important to me that Boston has an all-local fest,” says organizer Alex Pickert. “We are often overlooked as a big music scene but I’m here to prove to you that the despite the lack of venues and practice spaces in the city, the Boston Music Scene is alive and THRIVING! There is something on this lineup for every type of listener, rock, indie, pop, hip-hop, punk, and everything in between. This is gonna be another NICE summer.”
NICE, a fest :: Thursday, July 19 to Sunday, July 23 at Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square in Somerville, MA and The Rockwell, 255 Elm St. in Somerville, MA :: Festival info
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Comedy: Pauley & Ducharme at Off Cabot
The Cabot is straight poppin’ this weekend, as the Beverly venue welcomes Andy Summers tonight (July 21), and you can read all about it via our exclusive 617 Q&A with The Police guitarist. But The Cabot’s comedy stage, Off Cabot, brings the heat as well, as Bernadette Pauley and Al Ducharme double up for two nights of laughs tonight and Saturday (July 22). Here’s word from Mic’d Up: “Two for the price of one is already a great time, but to have those two be a pair of killer comics that know each other better than anyone in the room, and also know how to get the room going quickly? You just can’t ask for more than that.”
PAULEY & DUCHARME :: Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22 at Off Cabot, 9 Wallis St. in Beverly, MA :: 7 p.m., $30 :: Advance Tickets
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Film/TV: Barbenheimer at the movies
We’ve all bought in to the hype machine, and we’re all totally cool with it. The unlikeliest pop culture pairing since Gwen and Blake hit the big screen this week, as Barbie and Oppenheimer (read the Vanyaland reviews via the links) crash cinema with a buzz not seen in a long while. It’s no longer a matter of which side we’re on in the great Barbenheimer showdown of 2023, but more the order of our double feature: Barbie first, then Oppenheimer, or Oppenheimer then Barbie? The former follows our own human paths, as the innocence of childhood soon gives way to the atrocities of man, while the latter allows us to shake free from this mortal coil through mass annihilation and wake up in a pink-tinted fantasy land. Is this heaven? Is this cinema? Is this all we have to look forward to? Hit me like a bomb, Barbie, come on get it on, and then let’s all move on to Saw Patrol in September.
‘BARBIE’ + ‘OPPENHEIMER’ :: Now playing; check local listings (you know how the internet works)
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