Just announced: "Hey, we're not actually dead!" edition

As pop-punk continued its inexorable circle around the toilet bowl, Chicago band Smoking Popes reunited in 2005 to show there’s still a fresh breath or two left in the style. Started in the early ’90s, the group always stood out, thanks mostly to Josh Caterer’s literate croon. A bad move to a major label left the Popes gutted around the turn of the millennium, but not before a string of strong albums and tours with Jimmy Eat World and Morrissey made their name.

With last year’s Stay Down, Smoking Popes showed it was back as a creative force and not just as Clinton era nostalgia opportunists. Now the group is coming to Turner Hall for a show May 15 with Maritime. Tickets are $12 and go on sale at noon March 6 at the Pabst and Riverside box offices. Here is Smoking Popes performing the title track from Stay Down.

Speaking of things that used to be popular 10 years ago and then were supposed to be dead … Sinbad is coming April 25 to the Pabst Theater. Rumors of Sinbad’s death proved to be greatly Wikipediaed last year, but the resultant publicity—along with his public debunking of Hillary Clinton’s “Bosnia sniper” story—surprisingly breathed new life into the comic’s career, giving him the biggest boost he’s had in years. It’s not as though Sinbad has exactly disappeared since his mid-’90s heyday. He still appears in bit parts—mostly in straight-to-video films and low-rated sitcoms, though his appearance on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia pretty awesome—and Comedy Central even put him on its list of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups Of All Time. It’s just that Sinbad’s unchallenging, family-friendly observations seem to come from a more innocent, optimistic age—albeit one that’s nice to retreat to from time to time. Tickets are $35 and go on sale March 6 at noon. Here is Sinbad talking about family and “Canadian miles.”