In Boston, the Pops’ Hatch Shell performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, with its eye-popping pyrotechnical peroration, is synonymous with the Fourth of July. This Fourth, the song remains the same. Starting at 9 a.m., celebrants will be admitted to the Esplanade to stake out a scratch of land. Last year’s post–September 11 rules still apply: no more circus-tent-size tarps for saving seats for everyone you know, and blankets may not exceed 8 by 10 feet. The wristbands required for entrance will be handed out until the area reaches capacity — authorities expect that to be around 2 p.m. No wristbands will be given out after 6 p.m. The concert begins at 8 p.m.; the fireworks start at 10:30 p.m. The Pops will be joined by the 360-member Mormon Tabernacle Choir and pop-country prodigy LeAnn Rimes. And this year, for the first time, a portion of the concert and the fireworks display will be broadcast nationally, on CBS from 10 to 11 p.m. It’s all free; visit www.july4th.org or call (888) 484-7677.

If plopping down in front of a picnic seems primitive, you can celebrate your patriotism well above the masses on the grass. The Top of the Hub Restaurant is offering a four-course dinner, a simulcast of the Pops concert, and an unparalleled view of the fireworks from 52 floors up. That’s at 6 p.m. at the Prudential Building, 800 Boylston Street. Tickets are $175; call (617) 536-1775. And from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Top of the Hub Skywalk Observatory, "18th-century storytellers" from Old Town Trolley tours will offer a "Birdseye View of Colonial Boston," a skyscraping tour of Boston’s history. Tickets are $4 to $7; call (617) 859-0648.

Back on the concrete: Boston by Foot presents "Footloose on the Freedom Trail: From the Common to the Constitution," a three-hour guided walking tour that’s rarely offered in its entirety. Visit Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, the Old State House, and the USS Constitution, the world’s oldest floating commissioned warship. That one meets at 9 a.m. on the (new) State House steps on Beacon Street. Tickets are $12; call (617) 367-2345. Guides in 18th-century garb from the Freedom Trail Foundation lead "A Walk into History" starting at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. from the Boston Common Visitors Center. Tickets are $6 to $12; call (617) 227-8800.

From sky to land — and on to sea with a cookout aboard the Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships off Long Wharf, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 to $65; call (617) 742-0333. And "Old Ironsides" gives the annual 21-gun salute at noon off Castle Island in South Boston. That’s free; call (617) 227-1528.

The blues are as American as it gets, and the Fourth marks the second night of the annual Harpers Ferry Blues Challenge. That’s at 9:30 p.m. at 158 Brighton Avenue in Allston; call (617) 254-9743. At the Middle East, Lost City Angels, who took the Best Local Punk Act category in the Phoenix/FNX Best Music Poll, headline a show with the Street Dogs, Death on Wednesday, and Every Forty Seconds. That’s at 472-480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, and the cover is $9; call (617) 864-EAST. And at the Comedy Connection, Jamie Kennedy, of the WB’s The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and Malibu’s Most Wanted, does stand-up at 8 and 10:15 p.m. That’s in Faneuil Hall, at 245 Quincy Market. Tickets are $25; call (617) 248-9700.

Getting back to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery reads the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old Statehouse at 10 a.m. That’s at State and Devonshire Streets, and it too is free; call (617) 227-1528.