October 29, 2004
Rock and Pop Listings
selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy rock and pop concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music.
* PURNA DAS BAUL, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park near Exit 9E, Grand Central Parkway, (718) 760-0064 or (212) 545-7536. Purna das Baul is the best-known singer among the Bauls of Bengal, a sect of wandering mistrels whose repertory has been handed down for centuries: rousing, clear-cut folk tunes driven by handclaps and drums. Tomorrow afternoon at 2; admission is $25, $20 for World Music Institute members. JON PARELES
* CALIFONE, Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc., 101 Richardson Street, top floor, near Meeker Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 302-4702. This tangled-roots indie-rock group finds unexpected connections between wriggly, freeform experiments and rattling, everything-in-the-junkyard folk music; the leader Tom Rutili loves to leave an unexpectedly pretty song half-buried in the debris. (Fans of weird, late-period Wilco should seek out Califone's lovely 2003 album, "Quicksand/Cradlesnakes.") The band's performance celebrates the opening of "Series Two and Three," an exhibit of "artwork from some of today's finest independent musicians," including Devendra Banhart, Tara Jane O'Neil, Jon Langford, Jad Fair and Mr. Rutili himself. Tonight at 10, with Bro. Danielson; admission is $10.
KELEFA SANNEH
* CHOCOLATE GENIUS, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Marc Anthony Thompson, a k a Chocolate Genius, writes desolate, telling, unsparing songs full of goodbyes. His husky voice brings long-suffering passion to his twilit ballads, while his banter between songs can switch into comedy. Sunday night at 9:30; tickets are $15. PARELES
* FELIX DA HOUSECAT, Avalon, 660 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780. His new-wavey recent album, "Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever" (Emperor Norton), is something of a disappointment: it has plenty of tongue-in-cheek glamour and a even a handful of smartly written songs, but his continuing obsession with the sights and sounds of 1980's nightlife is starting to seem like a joke in search of a punchline. Still, tonight you can expect the usual: one of the country's most entertaining D.J.'s, spinning a casual set full of robotic dance tracks and vocal-driven originals. Tomorrow night after 10; admission is $35, with costume, $25. SANNEH
* CONVERGE/CAVE IN, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Two Massachusetts bands stake out their own directions for the evolution of hard rock. Converge plays high-speed, high-impact rock that merges the fury of hardcore with the precision of math-metal. Cave In reaches back to psychedelia for ringing guitars and expansive melodies, adding its own kind of emotional turbulence. Tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30, with Between the Buried and Me opening; tickets are $12.
PARELES
CYPRESS HILL, Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-1224 and Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville, N.J., (732) 238-5500. In a nagging singsong that has grown steadily less amusing as the years roll by, B-Real of Cypress Hill tells tales of pot-smoking, gunplay, paranoia and more pot-smoking. The formula is nearly threadbare. At Roseland tonight at 6:45, with the Alchemist and Lordz of Brooklyn opening; admission is $30. At Starland Ballroom tonight at 8; tickets are $23. PARELES
* OSCAR D'LEON, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. Oscar D'Leon, a suavely forceful singer and a bass-twirling bandleader from Venezuela, leads a high-powered dance band that holds on to the best aspects of 1970's and 1980's salsa. Tomorrow night at 10; admission is $25, members, $10.
PARELES
* DRESDEN DOLLS, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Keyboards, drums and Amanda Palmer's flamboyant voice are all the Dresden Dolls need to plunge into songs full of desperate passion and gothic extravagance: sometimes brutal, sometimes comic, always riveting. Tonight at 10:30, with Count Zero at 9:30 and the Ditty Bops at 8:30; admission is $15. PARELES
* STEVE EARLE, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, Manhattan, (212) 353-1600. Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Steve Earle's America is a place full of mavericks, outcasts and stubborn hope. His voice is scarred and raspy and his band is well rooted and far-reaching, playing generous sets that range across country and rock, from bluegrass to psychedelia. With the election impending, he's likely to draw on his politically tinged songs like the title track of his new album, "The Revolution Starts Now" (Artemis). At Webster Hall tomorrow night, with the gutsy country-rocker Allison Moorer sharing the bill; doors open at 6, and tickets are $30. At the Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night at 10:15, with the raunchy country evangelism of Tammy Faye Starlite at 9; tickets are $35. PARELES
THE FLOWERS, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. A 35th-anniversary reunion for this pioneering dissident rock band from what was the Soviet Union. Tonight at 11:30; tickets are $50. PARELES
GOGOL BORDELLO, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Gogol Bordello, led by a gruff and extravagantly mustachio'd Ukrainian singer, Eugene Hutz, calls itself a gypsy punk band. Translating Eastern European cabaret to the Lower East Side, its songs work up to a frenetic oom-pah that's the makings of a rowdy party. Tomorrow night; doors open at 8, with Slavic Soul Party and Main Squeeze sharing the bill; tickets are $23.50 in advance, $25 tomorrow. PARELES
* GREEN DAY, Continental Airlines Arena, the Meadowlands, Route 120, East Rutherford, N.J., (201)935-3900. Green Day put punk-pop on the charts a decade ago, and just in time to prevent the style from becoming completely twerpy, they have released "American Idiot," no less than a rock opera about modern American culture that's as passionate as it is ambitious. Tomorrow night at 7:30; tickets are $33. PARELES
HALLOWEEN CREEPSHOW, Spirit, 530 West 27th Street, near 10th Avenue, Chelsea, (212) 268-9477. A Halloween day installment of the long-running New York City rock 'n' roll DJ party (its name won't be appearing in these pages any time soon), starring a fistful of D.J.'s and — one hopes — some cleverly-attired revelers. In the main room, you can expect to hear "possessed rock 'n' roll, puke-green punk, nosferatu new-wave & devilish disco": the usual, in other words. Here's hoping for at least one tasteless Ray Charles costume, and at least one even-more-tasteless Christopher Reeve. Sunday night at 10; admission is $20, or $15 in advance. But be warned: even if you have a ticket, you have to get dressed up or you won't get in. SANNEH
HERMAN'S HERMITS/MICKEY DOLENZ/GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS/SPENCER DAVIS GROUP, Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y. (516) 334-0800. From both sides of the Atlantic, 1960's oldies reflecting the aftermath of the British Invasion. Tonight at 8; tickets are $41.50. PARELES
* BRUCE HORNSBY, Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824 or (212) 545-7536. Bruce Hornsby, who spent much of the 1990's touring as the pianist with the Grateful Dead and its spinoffs, and the experience transformed his own music. Even in earnest songs, he's freer and more playful, letting loose his two-handed virtuosity so that songs dance through jazz, gospel, country, Latin music and rock. Tonight at 8; tickets are $35 and $45. PARELES
INTI-ILLIMANI, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 576-1155. Inti-Illimani, from Chile, is fond of both traditional Andean music and the hybrids that layer together native American, Spanish and African elements. With traditional flutes, panpipes, percussion and charango (small guitar) alongside clarinets and fiddle, the group's repertory includes new songs in courtly, old-fashioned styles along with traditional tunes. Tonight at 8 and 10; tickets are $25. PARELES
JET/THE DONNAS, Supper Club, 240 West 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 921-1940. Choose your 1970's throwback: the early part of the decade for the swaggering, riffing AC/DC revival of Jet or the late 1970's of the Runaways for the punk-pop of the Donnas. Tonight at 8; tickets: $25. Sold out; returns may be available.
PARELES
* LADYFEST EAST, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. A punk-inspired festival featuring a wide range of music, art, film, poetry, theater and comedy by women. (For a full schedule, and for information on festival passes, visit www.ladyfesteast.org.) Tonight at 8, the headliner is the barebones blues-punk band the Gossip; tickets are $13. Tomorrow night at 7:30, the headliner is the Butchies, known for their (sometimes deceptively) straightforward punkish love songs; tickets are $13. Sunday at noon; the headliner is the Richmon, Va., emo band Del Cielo; tickets are $10. SANNEH
* MEDESKI, MARTIN AND WOOD/ANTIBALAS, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 564-4882. Medeski, Martin and Wood's jams can take them in any direction, from old-fashioned funk organ trio to free jazz, but they know how to keep the dance floor happy. Antibalas gets its funk by way of Nigeria, where Fela Kuti concocted Afrobeat to meld politics and propulsion; it's a large band that has made Fela's burly grooves its own. Sunday night, doors open at 6; tickets are $32. PARELES
PBS, B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Broadcasting funk from New Orleans, PBS is the Funky Meters minus the keyboardist Art Neville; it includes George Porter Jr. on bass, Russell Batiste on drums and Brian Stoltz on guitar, with some guest musicians. Tonight at midnight; tickets are $25. PARELES
* ROBERT RANDOLPH AND THE FAMILY BAND/KAKI KING/CITIZEN COPE, Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-1224. Until a few years ago, Robert Randolph did most of his performing at the House of God church in Orange, N. J., playing gospel songs on pedal steel guitar. But Mr. Randolph's group has emerged into the secular realm of jam bands, which have embraced both his rip-roaring virtuosity and his gift for making his instrument sing without a word. Sharing the bill are Kaki King, a virtuoso acoustic guitarist, and Citizen Cope, who songs often moan like slow Southern rock. Tomorrow night at 6:45; admission is $25. PARELES
* DANNY TENAGLIA, Ikon, 610 West 56th Street, Manhattan, (212) 582-8282. Mr. Tenaglia is one of the city's greatest and most reliable — and most relentless — house music D.J.'s. Expect a long, delirious night: Mr. Tenaglia is beloved not only for his catholic approach to dance music, but for his extraordinary stamina, too. Tonight after 10; tickets are $25 in advance, more at the door. SANNEH
* GLENN TILBROOK AND FLUFFERS, THE SMITHEREENS, MARSHALL CRENSHAW, GRAHAM PARKER, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Survivors from the pop side of new wave rock gather in a concert that should be filled with smart lyrics and succinct tunes. The lineup features Glenn Tilbrook, who was the higher, smoother singer and half of the songwriting partnership of Squeeze; the Smithereens, who put just a little punk muscle into folk-rock; Marshall Crenshaw, whose songs seem to roll off the guitar in a casual blend of pre-1970's styles, and Graham Parker, once a cantankerous pub-rocker whose recent songs come to terms with the disappointments and contentments of adulthood. Tonight at 7; admission is $60. PARELES
* ANGIE STONE/ANTHONY HAMILTON, Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad Street, Newark, (973) 643-8009. On albums, neo-soul is hemmed in by trying to sound like brittle, hop-hop-flavored rhythm-and-blues. Onstage, singers can get more intimate and more dynamic. Angie Stone sings her tales of tough-minded affection with gutsy directness, not bothering with distracting vocal gymnastics. Anthony Hamilton's version of neo-soul doesn't bother with vocal gymastics. Mr. Hamilton, who sings about love, loyalty and growing up in the South, and on stage he lets loose the revival-tent fervor of old Southern soul. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $56.50 and $76.50.
PARELES
* SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800. Gospel, blues, African rhythms, protest songs and the joys of harmony are the enduring touchstones of this a cappella group of women, who never forget to leaven righteousness with pleasure. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $23 to $68. PARELES
SWITCHFOOT, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 564-4882. A little grunge, a little new wave and a lot of positive thinking and Christian imagery add up to the songs of Switchfoot, which has a religious answer for its existential yearning. Tonight at 7, with the Honorary Title and the Format opening; tickets are $22. PARELES
TABOU COMBO, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Tabou Combo has been around since the 1960's; it transferred the lilt of the Haitian compas from big bands to a small group with guitars and keyboards, and it suavely segues funk and salsa back to the gentle bounce of the compas. Tonight at 11, with Zin; tickets are $22. PARELES
* TIGER LILLIES, Peter Jay Sharpe Theater, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, Manhattan, (212) 864-5400.If Kurt Weill had come out of English music halls, and had some grotesque nightmares along the way, his music might sound like the macabre and bouncy tunes of the Tiger Lillies. It's a trio that features Martyn Jacques's hooting accordion and piercing falsetto in tales of outcasts, addicts, hustlers and ghouls, perfect for Halloween. Sunday at 8; tickets are $25, $23 for members. PARELES
THE WAILERS, B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Three members of the band that backed Bob Marley — Al Anderson on guitar, Earl Wya Lindo on keyboards and Aston Barrett on bass — are still the core of the Wailers, whose rhythms transformed reggae and rock forever. Tonight and tomorrow at 8; tickets are $20 in advance, $25 the day of the show. PARELES
* THE WALKMEN, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, Manhattan, (212) 353-1600.The Walkmen, one of New York City's finest bands, put a frazzled edge on songs that have absorbed New York rock from the Velvet Underground and electric Bob Dylan to the Ramones and the Contortions. They have the jangle of too much caffeine after too little sleep, in songs that sound like arguments that won't end. It's brawny, bristling rock with a point to every loose end. Tonight, doors open at 7 and the Hackensaw Boys and Walking Stalking Walters share the bill; tickets are $20. PARELES