"I lived in Boston for four years and I was never here. Call it what you will. But I'm glad tonight is the first night." On Friday night, Josh Ritter began his set in Boston's most esteemed concert hall (lined with statuary of "huge, intimidating, partially-clad figures") by singing about his native Midwest: "Idaho," Illinois in "Best for the Best," and the whole region as "story we made up to erase" in "Other Side." Ritter......

EdgeFest: Amanda Palmer Collaboration with the Boston Pops Symphony Hall 8 p.m. tonight Ticket information If you are passing by Symphony Hall tonight - or attending Palmer's EdgeFest collaboration with the Boston Pops - you will be able to see how Palmer's 2008 style fuses with the original plans hatched by Symphony Hall architects McKim, Mead, and White back in 1900. The Boston-based musician, who will close her two-night Pops partnership this evening, has long......

The Boston Pops announced today that Symphony Hall will, on June 27, play host to a show that could very well be one of the highlights of the summer concert season here in Boston. Josh Ritter, singer-songwriter and Bostonist favorite, will grace the Symphony Hall stage for a special creative partnership with the Pops. It's the latest in a series of innovative collaborations for the Pops, who will team up with Natalie Cole, Natalie Merchant,......

Upstairs was the teeming Cambridge Common; outside, the usual smokers' conversations. "Dude, you spit on my nachos." "No, I spit next to your nachos." And downstairs, Opera Boston Underground had returned to the Lizard Lounge for another well-attended performance. Proximity has a way of making up for bar-basement acoustics. Lacking any substantial musical education, this particular Bostonist has always enjoyed hearing such oversized sounds coming from human mouths, and this was the first time......

Bostonist was on the phone with our buddy Keith on Thursday, chatting about the upcoming Boston Pops spring season. The initial season announcement had just crossed our desk at Bostonist HQ, and we wanted to see what Keith thought of a spring and summer that will include jazz, Broadway, a season-long tribute to Leonard Bernstein, and appearances by Natalie Cole, Natalie Merchant, and Amanda Palmer. By Keith, of course, we mean Keith Lockhart, who is......

Opera Boston Underground "Quickies" Tonight, doors at 7:00 p.m. (Bostonist suggests getting in line early), show at 7:30 p.m. Lizard Lounge (1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge) $8 cover, 21+ Opera Boston Underground is the casual, subterranean branch of Opera Boston (whose smart, cute Semele we enjoyed earlier this month) and tonight they return to the Lizard Lounge for a handful of semi-staged mini-operas, with three libretti (and one score) by the late Gian Carlo Menotti. A......

Some people dig Beethoven. Others love Beethoven. Astronaut Stephanie Wilson apparently thinks Beethoven and the Boston Symphony Orchestra are so out of this world that she's determined to take the music into orbit. Wilson, a Pittsfield native preparing for her second trip into space for NASA, is planning to bring a page from Beethoven's 9th Symphony ("Ode to Joy") onto the space shuttle Discovery later this month. A fan of the symphony and its annual......

Bostonist knew that with Wednesday night's Boston Pops EdgeFest finale would come a chance to see local talent (and Bostonist favorites) Mieka Pauley and Chad Perrone, but it wasn't until shortly before we braved the heat en route to Symphony Hall that we discovered that we were in store for another Boston music treat - three-fifths of the Ryan Montbleau Band (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ryan Montbleau, bassist Matt Gianarros and Laurence Scudder on viola), who closed out......

The Boston Pops are mixing things up with the lineup for EdgeFest, the now-annual collaborative endeavor between indie/alternative musicians and the symphony. The Pops sent out a news release today that said the planned "M Ward and Friends" shows on June 26 and 27 have been postponed, so as to allow everyone to have enough time to "create the best possible arrangements for this unique collaboration." That said, those looking forward to seeing some music......

After a few weeks of uncertainty, the legal battle between the two men involved in the Brawl at the Hall last month took about as much time to resolve in the courtroom as it took for the pair to be escorted out of the Boston Pops' opening night festivities - about ten minutes. Michael Hallam, 44, and Matthew Ellinger, 27, agreed in a closed-door hearing to not press charges against each other in connection to......

Get 'em in. American Idol is over for this season, but the Popsearch is just beginning. The Boston Pops PopSearch2007 has extended the deadline until midnight tonight. In case you forgot to mail your entry into the talent competition, or you just now realize that you really want your moment in the spotlight, you've got about eleven hours to get it in. As we've mentioned before the ages old organization of the Boston Pops has......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

It seems safe to assume that opening night to the 122nd Boston Pops season could be described at least as somewhat of an abnormality. A shout of "Rock This Bitch" doesn't typically ring through the perfect acoustics of Symphony Hall, let alone serve as an acquiesced song request. We've never heard anything about traditional Opening Night audience fistfights. And, with all due respect to those who have sat in with conductor Keith Lockhart and his......

First Keith Lockhart got himself an official website. Then the Boston Pops started teaming up with pop/rock/alternative musical acts. Now Keith and Company are taking to YouTube for some "American Idol"-style action. The Boston Pops - not your average orchestra! Lockhart sent out a call to amateur singers everywhere today, via a YouTube posted on the Pops' new YouTube group. From his seat at a piano within the Conductor's Room at Symphony Hall, the cool......

We were starting to worry that the day's music news would contain little but the downright nasty word that Keith Richards cut his father's ashes with cocaine and actually snorted the concoction up his million-years-old nose. Thank you, Boston Globe, for allowing us to turn to a different Keith. A local Keith. A younger Keith. A Keith who, as far as we know, hasn't snorted anyone up his nose. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops......

Bostonist didn't realize that the news about Keith "I wear leather pants" Lockhart and Ben "I don't wear pants" Folds' Boston Pops partnership was new -- word of the May concert at Symphony Hall has been circulating through Folds fan circles for some time now. But Sarah Rodman's news on Boston.com's Exhibitionist blog today did set our hearts aflutter. With all the early buzz, there was a worry that perhaps tickets had already gone on......

Garrison Keillor will be at Symphony Hall tomorrow at 3pm. Tickets are available through the celebrityseries.org website. Garrison Keillor, the man behind Prairie Home Companion and the inspiration behind Robert Altman's last movie will be speaking in Boston tomorrow. Why does Bostonist like Keillor so much? He's the literary equivalent of Yo La Tengo, sounding for all the world like gentle souls yet proclaiming in an album title, "I am not afraid of you, and......

It may be the holidays, but it's been a terrible weekend for the entire city. First was Friday night's Dorchester drive-by that left three wounded, one critically. Last night, two people were stabbed outside Symphony Hall while the Holiday Pops merrily carried on. And then there's yesterday's news of some idiot who held up a priest with a hunting knife - inside the St. Francis Chapel. On top of that incident is the attempted kidnapping......

It's a good week to take the whole week off. Well, is there such a thing as a bad week to take off? Grilled meats will be invading your pores for the first time in such a heavy dose since Memorial Day, which was only about a month ago. In addition to this weeks picks for some of the great shows creeping up on us in Boston we'd like to point you over to......

Last week My Morning Jacket played two dates with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. A small set of the Pops had been on Letterman backing up the Pops earlier in the month for a preview performance. The CBS set is a far cry from the Symphony Hall setting the full Pops gig allowed. After Wednesday's show a couple of recordings were floating around the internets, but they went up and down. Thursday's show new......

Located a the intersection of Symphony Hall and BU’s Huntington Theater, it’s a mystery why, on a recent Friday night, Betty’s Wok and Noodles was nearly empty. Could it be that the “Bernstein on Broadway” series is putting the population off their dinner? Do thespians dislike fusion cuisine? No immediate answers present themselves, but nevertheless the truth remains: empty restaurant + Friday night = bad sign. Betty’s has been around since 1999, and their menu......

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for us to claim that all shows should be played outside over the summer. Lucky for us no one listens to our suggestions on venue – so we're heading back inside where the temperature with the AC on is only about five degrees cooler than it is outside. A welcome five degrees, with a tiny bit lower humidity. This week's list hits a variety of shows, something......

Time to hit the gym. Time to work off the 19 hot dogs and 12 hamburgers ingested over the last four days. Well, maybe the gym isn't going to do it. Throw down a couple of bucks this week and dance, sweat, and otherwise work off that weight as you listen to some great tunes – played live – around Boston this week. Tuesday 5/30 Lifestyle with What Time is It Mr. Fox, and The......

There is only so long that we’re going to be able to hold out before the entire list of the week’s picks will be outdoor venues. Well, that’ll probably never happen until they dome the roof at Paradise and we can rock under the stars. We are, however, ecstatic about the warmer temperatures and the daylight which stretches until late – it helps us gear up for the night’s show. After a weekend of......

Yesterday the employees of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were steps away from the Red Sox and Fenway Park when the first pitch was thrown at home for the Sox’s 2006 season. Long noted as a rather eccentric, er, crazy woman Isabella Stewart Gardner did have one thing right – a passion for the Olde Towne Team. After sporting a white headband with the words “Oh you Red Sox” written in red lettering to......

Admittedly we’re a little low on the Saturday evening picks for this week. Mostly because we know we’ll still be swigging green beer by the pint – or at least too hung-over from Friday night to make it out to a show. Again this week we’ve put a little classical music for those of you that feel a little culture is good for the soul. Monday 3/13: Dilated Peoples and Little Brother Rakaa, Evidence......