Owner Jack Zheng officially opened Saloon 139 in March, leasing property that formerly housed Smokestack Urban Barbecue. Further back, diners may remember when Niche Hospitality opened its first restaurant, Block Five, in the same spot.

The inspired pairing of the B-52s and Devo was not only a match made in new wave heaven but it was, quite possibly, also the best double concert bill this season.

"It's just joyful, fun music. It's so good in such a (difficult) time," Large said of the show as something to put people in the right spirits."

“I think it's the prettiest maze we have done to date. It all looks very lovely. It shows well in the daytime,” McNamara said. “Many years, it looks good at night but, during the daytime, it was kind of a mess. To me, when I walk out there during the daytime I think it looks beautiful.”

A two-hour performance will bring Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to life at the Hanover Theatre with visual highlights and favorite moments from all three seasons of the animated TV series along with a live, 18-piece orchestra performing the show's original Emmy-winning score.

A few things to do in the Worcester area in the week ahead ...

“There's such a deep history there that a lot of people connect with, so being able to come together and listen to the music and see the games and be with people who appreciate the culture is the win for us.”

“To my surprise, no one had called something ‘Woostock’ before,” musician Anthony Bisceglia said. “I Googled it because I honestly thought it had been used at some point for something, and I couldn't find anything out there.”

Billed as "New England’s biggest and best animal welfare festival," Pet Rock Fest will include live music, lots of pet themed events, vegetarian food, games, children's activities, vendors and animal-welfare organizations. The message is "kindness to all animals."

"I’ve been told that my columns resonated best with my readers when I wrote from the heart — something I always hope to do."

Thanks to the only New England appearance of “Punk In The Park,” eight veteran punk outfits and a pair of up-and-comers performed at the Palladium, and the result was all-out anarchy (in a good way). The show was in the Palladium's outdoor venue.

"If you've seen the 2008 film, "Doubt," you will already have insight into the troubling tale about to unfold in The Hanover Theatre Repertory stage production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, "Doubt: A Parable," at the Jean McDonough Arts Center's BrickBox Theater."

"It’s the 50th anniversary of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' and nostalgia has me in a bit of a 'Time Warp.' A jump to the left, and it’s 1988, and an awkward, more-anxious 16-year-old version of me accompanies a friend to a late-night 'Rocky' showing at the Balboa Theatre in Newport Beach, CA."

This week in listen up, new music from Jafet Muzic, Eva Davenport and Morgan Alyse ...

"Boasting the call-and-response, one-two punch of local guitar legend Cliff Goodwin and local punk legend Mike Lynch, the Silverbacks is made up of a virtual who's who of Worcester's best musicians and veterans of the rock 'n' roll trenches."

"Lately, it seems like everyone on my social media feed is hanging around Brussels Street. The cobblestones, breweries (both kombucha and beer), vintage fashion, farm-to-spoon ice cream, and charming café provide a distinct Diagon Alley vibe."

“Every show is its own unique experience. There’s no formula, no two nights are the same. We try to savor each moment on stage as if it could be our last, because in a way, that intensity keeps us honest and grounded,” Bentley wrote in a Sept. 18 email to Worcester Magazine.

Lead guitarist Bryan Bassett and the band still have plenty of mojo working when it comes to enjoying performing live. "It's almost like breathing now," Bassett said during a recent telephone inteview. "I still get the same buzz I got from playing it (guitar) in a basement with an amplifier."

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler joined Joe Perry, as well as Aerosmith's other guitarist, Brad Whitford, onstage with a very powerful rock lineup already that also included Aerosmith's low-key keyboardist Buck Johnson.

“I think there's been so much misinformation about the vaccination process and the dangers of COVID that there are a lot of people saying, 'What the heck, I've gotten it twice before and nothing happened,'” Hirsh said. “People are a lot more cavalier about the virus.”

"None of my students were live then," Shea said. "This is definitely the (John F. Kennedy assassination) of my generation. "Now, I'm teaching 9/11 safety-wise, to people who didn't live it. They are probably online researching it. So, it's interesting, the time lapse, almost 25 years."

This time of year "always provides a kind of dreamlike feeling for walking in the woods: fall surely beckons, but warmth clings to the land, even as sunlight grows more golden, more serious."

 "Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience" opens at the Mercantile Center Sept. 11 with hopes that the exhibition will make a great impression.

Frances, who is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, graduated from Clark University in Worcester with a major in global environmental studies and a minor in music in 2019. While here she was a part of the music scene in Worcester, performing at venues such as the former Beatnik's on Park Avenue.

"In the midst of the renovations and search for a new executive director, the shelter has also been working with the city to finalize a new contract through which the shelter assists the animal control officer with services, including the care of stray, sick and abandoned animals."

"In the passage, Jesus is literally granting his own particular inner peace to his disciples. He is submitting it to them in a way that others either could not, or would not. He was attempting to transmit it to them. They would receive of it only to the degree of their choosing."

That idea will come to Worcester Sept. 13 at the “Fast & Furious”-inspired Envisions Show, as models show off streetwear next to parked supercars outside the Fuel America coffee shop on Grove Street for an end-of-summer celebration featuring several other local streetwear brands.

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A neighborhood institution in Worcester, Ed Hyder’s Marketplace at 408 Pleasant St. celebrates its 50th anniversary in December. Pre-anniversary events beginning in September help kick off the celebration, generating buzz and excitement.

Cian Walsh's parents run an Irish dance school in Cork, Ireland. "That's exactly how I started, when I was five or six," he said. "It's in the blood." Walsh is now principal male dancer with "A Taste of Ireland — The Irish Music & Dance Sensation."

"It's a museum on the move, in homage to the first responders who rushed to the burning wreckage of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a jet that crashed into a rural Pennsylvania field, after passengers attempted to seize control from the hijackers."

Queer AF, nicknamed “the Met Gala of Central Massachusetts,” is a dizzying event, with nearly 80 models walking the runway, wearing designs from both national and local designers, including headlining designer Utica, of the current season of “Project Runway" was positively phantasmagoric.

To generations of kids and adults who worked, played, danced, met future sweethearts, or relived the magic through the eyes of children and grandchildren, Whalom Park has not faded, even after the park's dismantling in 2006.

Iglehart, who won a Tony for playing the Genie in "Aladdin," is currently in the hit musical "& Juliet" at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway, but he'll find a way to make it to his Sept. 12 Broadway in Worcester appearance at the BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Arts Center.

“I had that concept for a little while, thinking it might be a love song about the bad times of a relationship, but then I started writing the song and it took on a new meaning based on where everything was in the world.”

“It’s not nothing to think of. It's quite a bit of money that people spend on fruits and vegetables, and because it's in addition to their regular SNAP balance, it helps people choose fresh fruits and veggies in addition to the staples,” Carter said. “They don't have to choose.”

"I spent the last 15 years of a 30-year career in the WPS as an English Language Arts teacher in secondary schools. I had more struggles with high school kids using phones during instruction than any other obstacle to success."

“This year, in the spirit of everything we're doing and what's happening politically, we committed to going big,” Conner said. “We decided we were going to pull out all the stops this year for Pride because we're not sure what to expect moving forward.”

If someone had asked Charlton native Erica Vanstone how she envisioned life after college, roller derby, much less as the head of a major roller derby organization, would not have made the list.

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The Grammy-nominated rapper and Worcester native dropped “ADHD 2,” the full-length sequel to 2020 album “ADHD,” in July. A month later, he came home for a 37th birthday celebration Aug. 17, when the city renamed a section of Dewey Street where he grew up as “Joyner Lucas Avenue.”

Today in Worcesteria: A nice little walk around the Common. "It’s a warm summer night Aug. 22, and I wind up a long workday by stepping out onto the Mercantile Center’s back patio to grab a beer before heading over to the Common to check out the first night of roller skating of the season."

The concept at NU Chicken is simple really. The menu features Nashville-style hot chicken, known for its spicy, crunchy flavorful crust. The restaurant uses all-natural, hormone-free chicken and fries it in 100 percent avocado oil, setting it apart from fried chicken competitors.

Fitchburg Arts Community is a 68-unit "artist-preference affordable housing community" located in three historic buildings in downtown Fitchburg.

"If your favorite dinosaur is stegosaurus, as it should be, then you would surely know that feeling, when the prettiest of the four-footed herbivores went from depictions with grand, chubby hind legs to long, sleek ones."

"This event historically brings thousands of people from all across the state of Massachusetts along with folks from surrounding states such as New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, to name a few," Denis said. Some years the turnout has been 6,000 to 7,500 people, she said.

A few things to do in the Worcester area in the week ahead ...

The series gets underway on Sept. 16 with a talk by New York Times bestselling essayist, poet and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib. Season highlights will also feature music ranging from chamber to folk and jazz, dance, and puppet theater. Eight events are open to the public.

The museum Aug. 18 held its first official "all access" tour for visitors who are blind or visually impaired, welcoming the group into the Fuller Gallery of Industrial History.

Rockers The Acacia Strain set to play its 40th show at Worcester Palladium!