As usual, a midsummer week with the Sox out of town has a lot going on. If you’re in the city and looking for the kind of fun with good drinks, great people, and excellent music check out the would-be calendar:
MONDAY JULY 9 : SPIN THE BOTTLE with Garrett Harker
The Master Blaster of Harkertown makes a rare PRC appearance at Brick & Mortar in Central Square as the latest host/DJ in their Monday night “Spin The Bottle” series. From 9:30-closing, the man behind Eastern Standard, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and The Hawthorne will unearth the treasures of his musical collection – or just play dance music for the enthusiastic and gorgeous. The bar features his personally selected cocktail list. I’m looking forward to it.
Details/RSVP on Facebook: Spin The Bottle welcomes the Sweet Stylings of Garrett Harker
WEDNESDAY JULY 11: THE PEOPLE’S KARAOKE at Highland Kitchen
If you’ve never been before, you should immediately cancel all other commitments. If you’ve been to our nights at Highland before, I don’t need to explain. Join Ed McNamara and I for good times, friendship, and voices raised in song. I’ll say your name and make awkward jokes, he’ll work your mix and make you sound beautiful. We start at 10pm.
THURSDAY JULY 12: TJ PLAYS SONGS JOSH CHILDS WILL LIKE at Trina’s Starlite Lounge
You can look back and check out the earlier events post here, but in short I’ll be spinning tons of near-obscurities and pop eclectica from 9pm to closing at Starlite. Shazam your new favorites all you want, but you’re probably better off saving battery power and just asking what’s on. It’s a fun low-key summer night with friends and cocktails, and occasionally it becomes a full-house dance party if the mood is right.
Details/RSVP (or don’t, whatever) on Facebook: TJ Plays Songs Josh Childs Will Like; You Can Come Too.
FRIDAY + SATURDAY JULY 13-14: HOPE NUMBER NINE
The fun capades make a trip to New York City for the biannual conference of people I talked to very slowly over a computer and a device called a “phone line” in my youth. HOPE is the Hackers On Planet Earth conference, held at the Hotel Pennsylvania and also the terrible Irish bar across the street.
It’s sort of like a reunion for all the people you remember wearing black t-shirts, pogoing around to They Might Be Giants, and rarely playing lacrosse in high school. Except most of us still talk all the time using an ancient internet science called irc.
I think it will be quite fun, though perhaps daunting to outsiders. HOPE Number Nine.
SUNDAY JULY 15: THE BIG PARTY at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks
Meet and greet with the art elite! Graham Wright’s Opus Affair takes over Boston’s finest record store and rock club turned restaurant and hotel bar Sunday Afternoon for a first-ever event they can only call The Big Party. One $75 ticket gets you into a Gatsby-style 1920′s garden party with food, drinks, games, prizes, entertainment, music, and much more. At this time I will not confirm the rumor of an unofficial People’s Karaoke afterparty at an undisclosed Chinese restaurant to be named later.
Details & tickets: The Big Party
Looks like a great week. The Sox return Monday.