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: Akon at House of Blues
Akon is the legend; the legend is Akon. The global R&B superstar born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam is currently on The Superfan Tour, where the Senegalese-American artist, producer, and philanthropist is busting out nothing but hits from his 20-year catalog, leading up to summer’s Afro Freak EP. Now he comes to Citizens House of Blues on Sunday (November 12), part of a North American tour that finds Akon back on the stage. And we say that because his work off it is nothing short of legendary: It’s been reported that Akon has raised nearly $1 billion to finances various endeavors in Africa, including the “Akon Lighting Africa” project, which helps create sustainable energy programs through solar power, and the futuristic new city in Senegal called Akon City, which will run on cryptocurrency called Akoin and be centered around Akon Tower. He also just dropped a new collab with AMIRROR called “Far Away”; get into that below.
AKON: THE SUPERFAN TOUR :: Sunday, November 12 at House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St. in Boston, MA :: 6:30 p.m., all ages, $57.50 to $79.50 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
Comedy: Atsuko Okatsuka at The Wilbur
It’s always a treat when Atsuko Okatsuka rolls into town, and now the Los Angeles multi-hyphenate — comedian, actor, writer, social media wiz, #DropChallenge co-creator, viral superstar, grandma champion, bowl cut enthusiast, and on and on and on — makes her way to The Wilbur for a pair of shows tonight (November 10), the latest stop of her Full Grown Tour. Mic’d Up gave an early head’s up that Tremont Street is the place to be: “After such a titanically successful debut special [2022’s The Intruder], Atsuko Okatsuka makes her way back to The Wilbur with even more high octane stories that will surely have us in the edge of our seats. When it comes to storytellers in the industry, there’s an awful lot of them, but not many of them can boast to be better at the game than the superstar on the rise.
ATSUKO OKATSUKA :: Friday, November 10 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6:30 and 9 p.m., $25 to $75 :: Event info and advance Tickets
Film/TV: Found Footage Festival at The Brattle
Halloween programing has ghosted us, and Christmas movies don’t feel right. So while we wait for slasher flick Thanksgiving to fill our turkey-sized November void, two dudes are coming to town to show off some found footage from the lost archives of life. The Found Footage Festival Vol. 10: Popcorn Classics hits Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre tonight (November 10), when V.C.R. stands for Very Crucial Recoveries (sorry, we just made that up). Here’s the word from The Brattle: “Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) have over 11,000 VHS tapes in their collection and will take viewers on a guided tour through their latest and greatest finds, including rare footage from a short-lived video dating service featuring 1987’s most eligible bachelorettes, a questionably sexy striptease video called ‘Males In Motion’, and a mysterious New Age seminar called ‘Elimination: The First Step’.” Pop it in.
THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL :: Friday, November 10 at The Brattle, 40 Brattle St. in Cambridge, MA :: 9 p.m., $16 :: Event info :: Advance tickets