Entertainers aim to keep us on our toes, a former ballplayer seeks a measure of redemption and a big holiday gets an early start.
Monday, June 27
The UEFA European Championship—a.k.a. the EURO—is nearly as significant in soccer terms as the World Cup. This is because, like the Cup, the EURO happens just once every four years and, like the Cup, many of the world’s best national teams compete.
And, like the last World Cup, this year’s EURO is being broadcast to New Haven soccer fans via a communal setup in Pitkin Plaza (pictured in part above, during the 2014 World Cup). Today’s matches, deciding the last two teams to make it into the quarterfinals, feature a clash of titans (Italy v. Spain) at noon local time and an underdog tale (England v. Iceland, whose team has never made it this far before) at 3 p.m. Free.
Tuesday, June 28
“Livin’ takes time,” Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund sing on “Kept,” one of up-and-comer Stolen Jars’s flagship songs. In the case of the Stolen Jars headliner tonight at Lyric Hall, livin’ takes a couple of hours or so starting at 9 p.m., when local band Olive Tiger, mixing “melody-driven orchestral sounds” with strong vocals, confident drums and some cleverly deployed electronic tactics, kicks things off, and where Decasa, a Hartford-based “funk-punk” act built around a raw, rebellious guitar sound, has a go before its Stolen Jars’s turn. $8. 827 Whalley Avenue, New Haven. (203) 389-8885.
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Wednesday, June 29
On June 5, the New Haven Museum opened its summer season at the Pardee-Morris House (325 Lighthouse Rd, New Haven), welcoming visitors each Sunday afternoon from noon to 4 p.m. Tonight, NHM re-engages another summer tradition surrounding the centuries-old farmhouse: its Twilight Concert Series, where setting up blankets and chairs is encouraged, and where food can be brought from home or bought from Frank Andrews’s mobile wood-fired pizza oven, and where tonight’s act, The Alehounds, which goes on at 7, brings a tradition of its own: Irish folk music. Free to attend.
Thursday, June 30
If you were paying attention to pro baseball in the 1980s or ’90s, the name Lenny Dykstra probably rings a loud bell. A three-time all-star, 1986 World Series champion and 1993 runner-up for National League MVP, Dykstra is also a legendary troublemaker—from using steroids to driving drunk; from writing bad checks to defaulting on mansions; from deploying shady business practices to facing a laundry list of criminal charges, some of which stuck. But trouble is the life force of celebrity tell-alls like Dykstra’s new House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge, which Stephen King has reportedly called “one of the best sports autobiographies I’ve ever read,” and copies of which Dykstra will be signing today at 7 p.m. inside R.J. Julia Booksellers (768 Boston Post Rd, Madison; 203-245-3959). Tickets to the event, which include a copy of the book, cost $30.
Friday, July 1
From 10pm ’til close, Stella Blues (204 Crown St, New Haven; 203-752-9764) hosts the next Sunken Disco, a “night of underground electronic music… from nu disco and funk to mashups and house,” with “a friendly vibe and a mission to make you dance,” plus a will to subvert “the dominance of commercial EDM and Top 40 in the local scene.” Indeed, based on a sampling of their sampling, it’s clear the night’s DJs—Norrin, BlackEye and Peludo—aim not just to please but to surprise. $5.
Saturday, July 2
Satisfying the avarice component of its season-long “Seven Deadly Sins” theme, Yale Summer Cabaret presents Antarctica! Which Is To Say Nowhere, an adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi by company member Miranda Rose Hall. Directed by Elizabeth Dinkova, Antarctica! is a “biting satire” centered around a man who’s happy being average—at least until “his ambitious wife Rena convinces him that he can conquer an entire continent,” and “his greed leaves a trail of disaster in its wake.” Tickets to tonight’s 8 p.m. performance, one of 11 between June 30 and July 10, cost $30, with discounts for students and Yale faculty/staff. 217 Park Street, New Haven. (203) 432-1567.
Sunday, July 3
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s Fourth of July fireworks in New Haven? Enjoy tonight’s 9:30 fireworks in Madison, where “the main public viewing locations are from Surf Club Park, East Wharf Beach and West Wharf Beach.”
Can’t wait for today’s fireworks in Madison? Enjoy yesterday’s in Orange. Located on the town fairgrounds (525 Orange Center Rd), the annual Independence Day Concert & Fireworks Display—starring “exciting, high-energy” Queen tribute act Queen Flash—starts at 6:30 p.m., finishing with the ’works at 9:30.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
