There's an interesting show at House of Blues in Boston on Saturday night as '80s pop-punk rocker Billy Idol comes to town. He's not doing any advance interviews so we didn't get a chance to find out for sure what he's going to perform, but here's hoping his setlist includes at least the following hits: "Cradle of Love," "Dancing With Myself," "Flesh for Fantasy," "Sweet Sixteen," "Eyes Without a   Read More >>

New Year's resolutions take many forms, but for concert-goers, getting a new calendar also means circling must-see dates for the shows that cannot be missed.   Read More >>

If you've been performing for close to a half century as part of the one more well-known acts in music, chances are you've had a lifetime of experiences onstage. That's the case for John McEuen, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band who has also plied his trade as a solo artist and will perform in that capacity on Friday night at the Bull Run Restaurant in Shirley.   Read More >>

NASHUA -- Experience New Orleans Carnival-style music closer to home with the Squeezebox Stompers at the Riverwalk Café, 35 Railroad Square, on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 8 p.m. The band will perform their spicy blend of Cajun, Zydeco and Mardi Gras music, as they have throughout New England for more than 10 years.   Read More >>

If you turned on MTV in the late 1980s, you found yourself awash in a sea of hair bands with everyone from Poison to Warrant to Skid Row playing one after the next. It seemed like the domain of Hollywood and the Sunset Strip, thanks to groups like Motley Crue and Guns 'n' Roses, but the Boston area had a very prominent participant on shows like MTV's "Headbangers Ball.   Read More >>

GROTON -- Lawrence Academy presents an evening of bluegrass music with Ari & Mia on Friday, Jan. 16, at 6:30 p.m., in the Conant Gallery of the Richardson-Mees Performing Arts Center. Cellist Ariel and fiddler Mia Friedman are a Boston-based sister duo that blends a background of classical training with the traditions of Southern and Northeastern fiddle music and the early American   Read More >>

This is the time of the year when things tend to slow down a bit on the live music scene, with the lone highlight this weekend a Cherry Poppin Daddies show Thursday night at Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, so I thought it would be fun to look ahead to next weekend.   Read More >>

BOSTON -- Music and baseball join forces on Saturday, Jan. 10, as Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein and Hall of Fame baseball journalist Peter Gammons host the 15th anniversary of the Hot Stove Cool Music Boston charity concert to benefit the Foundation To Be Named Later at the Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Avenue.   Read More >>

Once you get through New Year's Eve, there's a bit of a musical hangover this weekend that will keep most of the area's stages dark and somewhat quiet, so it seems like as good a time as any to take one last look back at 2014.   Read More >>

You'll probably read this a few hours before you open the presents left under the tree by Santa Claus and long after you've finished up your Hanukkah celebration. Yet, it seems that as soon as Christmas and Hanukkah are in the rear-view mirror, most adults begin looking ahead to how they'll spend New Year's Eve and where they'll count down the hours, minutes and seconds until 2014 is behind us   Read More >>