December 10, 2004
Rock/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.
* BLACK KAT VS. ONE LOVE HI PAWA, The Rock, 1219 Rockaway Avenue, at Foster Avenue, Canarsie, Brooklyn, (917) 312-2044; www.dancehallreggae.com.. A reggae soundclash, where teams of D.J.'s compete to see who has the best and most obscure records — they often rely on specially commissioned one-of-a-kind "dubplates." Sounds pretty straightforward, but these nights often veer toward exhilarating chaos: records get played in five-second snippets, hypemen taunt their opponents, bloodthirsty fans search for any excuse to scream — or, almost as often, to boo. Tomorrow night is an international grudge match: Black Kat, from Jamaica, takes on One Love Hi Pawa, an Italian crew that seeks to overcome its geographical disadvantage through clever selection (One Love began one recent clash by playing the theme from "The Godfather") and sheer pluck. Tomorrow night after 10; admission, $25 in advance, $30 tomorrow.
KELEFA SANNEH
BOY GEORGE, Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780. A dance party led by the new-wave veteran Boy George, who long ago reinvented himself as a celebrity D.J. Don't go expecting to hear golden oldies: his frenetic, slightly playful sets draw heavily from house music and gesture occasionally toward the synthetic sound of electro; you may be surprised to find out how serious he is about making people dance. Here's hoping the dancers are just as serious; on his Web site, he complained about one recent New York gig, writing, "If an audience ain't `Up 4 it,' there's not much I can do." Tomorrow night after 10; tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. SANNEH
BOYZ II MEN, Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516) 334-0800. In the 1990's, back when boy bands were singers above all, close a capella harmonies and sinuous, Stevie Wonder-style lead vocals made million-sellers of Boyz II Men. Sunday night at 7, with Keyshia Cole opening; tickets are $40. JON PARELES
* CANDIDO AND GRACIELA, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 576-1155. Latin music revolutionized New York swing and jazz in the 1940's. Candido, an improvising powerhouse on conga drums, and Graciela, who sang with Machito and His Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, were on the scene then and recently made a new album together, "Inolvidable" (Chesky). Tomorrow night at 8 and 10; tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, with a one-drink minimum.
PARELES
CHER/VILLAGE PEOPLE, Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, N.Y., (631) 888-9000. Cher hung in on the pop charts from 1960's folk-rock to 1990's dance pop, and she has never stinted on spectacle. This is her latest farewell tour. The Village People were a disco pageant of gay male archetypes whose songwriters came up with durable anthems like "Y.M.C.A." and "Macho Man." Sunday night at 7; tickets are $35.25 to $128.25. PARELES
DARK STAR ORCHESTRA, Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville, N.J., (732) 238-5500. The Dark Star Orchestra is a Dead Head jam band that takes its repertory seriously. It doesn't just play the songs; it recreates full-length Dead sets as played (and bootlegged) from long ago. Tonight at 8; tickets are $18. PARELES
DIKKI DU AND THE ZYDECO CREW, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 576-1155. Dikki Du is Troy Carriere, who comes from an accordion-playing Louisiana family that also includes his brother Chubby and his father Roy. He's gone into the family business, leading a zydeco band that adds some funk to the two-steps. The group is presented by Let's Zydeco (www.letszydeco.com), which offers a dance workshop before the live music starts. Sunday night at 7:30; admission is $15, with a one-drink minimum. PARELES
* RICHARD FEARLESS, the Music Gallery, 49 Ann Street, 2nd Floor, near Nassau Street, Lower Manhattan, www
.enablernetwork.org. This producer, from the sometimes-rowdy, sometimes-bleary, sometimes-both electronica act Death in Vegas, is to play a DJ set at a party devoted to acid house, Detroit techno, Miami bass, "Italo-space-disco" and other dancefloor-friendly forms of machine music; it should be a long, raucous night. Tomorrow night at 10, with JDH, Cowboy Mark and Paradoxx; admission is $6. SANNEH
HOWARD FISHMAN, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Howard Fishman has been poking around America's musical basements and attics., looking for droll insights. His group can riffle back through the decades, all the way back to the 1930's, without getting stuck in revivialism. Tomorrow night at 7:30; tickets are $12, with a two-drink minimum.
PARELES
DICK FOX'S HOLIDAY ROOTS OF ROCK, Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516) 334-0800. Oldies and Christmas songs from the Del Vikings, the Original Chantels, the Mystics, the Passions, Vito Picone and the Elegants, Jay Siegel and the Tokens, the Classics and others. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $41.50. PARELES
LARS FREDERIKSEN AND THE BASTARDS, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Lars Frederiksen is a member of Rancid. With his other band, the Bastards, he plays straightforward, old-fashioned buzzsaw punk: fast, loud and fascinated by mayhem. Roger Miret and the Disasters share the bill. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $15. PARELES
LES GEORGES LENINGRAD, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. This willfully ridiculous Montreal band makes a clangy, often propulsive racket, drawing inspiration from the dissonant dance music that came clattering out of New York's no-wave scene a quarter-century ago. Tonight at 9, with COMA. and the Frequency; tickets are $10. SANNEH
IAN HUNTER, the Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, N.J., (732) 502-0600; the Downtown, 190 Main Street, Farmingdale, N.Y., (516) 293-7700; B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Ian Hunter led Mott the Hoople, an English band that deserves to be remembered for more than the band's hit, "All the Young Dudes." In his own songs, he tinctured the yearning and posturing of glam with some of Bob Dylan's earthiness. His latest band, the Rant, includes James Mastro from the Bongos on guitar and Graham Maby, from the Joe Jackson Band, on bass. At the Stone Pony in Asbury Park tonight at 8; tickets are $20. At the Downtown tomorrow night at 7:30, with Soozie Tyrell opening; tickets are $22 to $40, with a seated two-drink minimum and a one-drink minimum at the bar. At B.B. King Blues Bar Sunday night at 8, with Soozie Tyrell opening; tickets are $25.50 in advance, $27 on Sunday, with a $10 food or drink minimum.
PARELES
IVY QUEEN, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. Reggaeton, the Puerto Rican hybrid of hip-hop and dancehall, is as much a male bastion as hip-hop, but one proud exception is Ivy Queen, who's as tough and articulate as her male counterparts. Tonight at 10; admission is $30 for men, $15 for women, $10 for members.
PARELES
* KHONNOR, the Tank, 432 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 563-6269. This young singer-songwriter and noise-collagist is responsible for one of the year's most pleasant surprises, a hazy, homemade-sounding album called, "Handwriting" (Type), which places his half-whispered confessions (or, sometimes, jokes) over and under and alongside engrossing electronic textures. Khonnor is to headline the Transelectronic Winter Festival, a promising laptop-centric night co-starring RJ Valeo, Goldmund, Praveen and the D.J. Michael Venezia. (Visit www.transelectronic.org for more information.) Tomorrow night at 9; admission is $7. SANNEH
MEMPHIS, Rothko, 116 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, Lower East Side, www.rothkonyc.com. Early next year, the lovely (but sometimes vicious) Canadian indie-pop group Stars is to release an American version of its enthralling new album, `Set Yourself on Fire.` Fans who can't wait can visit Rothko tomorrow night, where Stars' playfully petulant frontman, Torquil Campbell, is to perform with Chris Dumont: they call themselves Memphis, and the duo recently released a casual and often charming debut album, "I Dreamed We Fell Apart" (Paper Bag). There's only one Pet Shop Boys cover ("Love Comes Quickly'`), but you might swear you hear more. Tomorrow night at 11, with Andrew Kenny, from the hypnotic indie-rock minimalists American Analog Set; tickets are $8. SANNEH
* NEULANDER, Rothko, 116 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, Lower East Side, www.rothkonyc.com. Earlier this year, this appealing electro-pop duo released "Smoke + Fire" (Disko B), full of gleaming, precise pop songs built from the least possible number of electronic sounds; at its best, the music evokes both the monomaniacal meticulousness of minimal electronica and the slick nonchalance of mainstream new wave. Tonight at 10, with Snaz, from the self-consciously sleazy post-disco duo Captain Comatose, as well as DJ Unkown, Plexus, Dan Selzer, Lisa (Bubbles) Hsu, and others; tickets are $8 in advance, $12 at the door. SANNEH
RADIO 4, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236. Radio 4, part of New York City's rock renaissaince, looks back to the early 1980's, when punk, funk and politics added up to potent dance music with a conscience. Tonight at 8, with the Occasion and French Toast opening; admission is $10. PARELES
* JOSH RITTER/OLLABELLE, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. The old folkie staples — a guitar, a gruff voice, a good eye — still work for John Ritter, a young songwriter who finds extravagant romance in the everyday. Ollabelle is a group that reaches back to rural gospel and blues for songs like "John the Revelator" and "Elijah Rock," setting out to modernize them without losing the spirit. Tonight, Mr. Ritter at 10:30, Ollabelle at 9:30 and Willy Mason at 8:30; admission is $16. PARELES
DUKE ROBILLARD, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 576-1155. Duke Robillard is a guitarist and a suave singer whose blues lore goes back to the swing and jump-band blues he used to play with Roomful of Blues. Lately, he has backed Bob Dylan in the studio. Tonight at 7:30; admission is $22, with a one-drink minimum. PARELES
ROMEIKO ENSEMBLE, St. Mary's Times Square, 145 West 46th Street, Manhattan, (212) 545-7536. This 22-member ensemble of singers and musicians from Turkey, Greece and the United States performs ancient Byzantine chants, the stately court music of Constantinople and mystical Sufi music from the Ottoman Empire. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $30.
PARELES
* NICKY SIANO, APT, 419 West 13th Street, near Washington Street, the Meatpacking District, (212) 414-4245. There's only one problem with "The Gallery: The Original New York Disco 1973-77" (Soul Jazz), a new compilation by this pioneering D.J.: it's a grab bag, not a nonstop mix. Still, the tracks are predictably excellent (prepare to be floored — not for the first time, perhaps — by the Pointer Sisters' slow-motion strut, "Yes We Can Can"), and there probably won't be any complaints when Mr. Siano celebrates the CD at APT, the cramped nightclub (it's more like a bar) that still books better dance D.J.'s than any space in the city. Tomorrow night at 9, with Citizen Kane; admission is $8. SANNEH
UMPHREY'S MCGEE, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Umphrey's McGee has been moving up the jam-band circuit with its melding of the Dead and the Allman Brothers along with streaks of jazz and funk. Tonight at 8; tickets are $18.50.
PARELES
MAX WEINBERG 7, B .B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. The house band from Late Night With Conan O'Brien, led by the drummer from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is a tightly arranged jump band. Onstage, it proves it can play not just mid-show snippets but full-length songs. Tomorrow night at 8 and 10:30; tickets are $30, with a $10 food or drink minimum. PARELES
KELLER WILLIAMS, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600. The guitarist and singer Keller Williams has been working the jam-band circuit, using loop and echo effects he turns his 10-stringed guitar into a full band. His mild voice has more than a touch of James Taylor, but his fast fingers delight the kind of fan one of his songs describes as a "Freaker by the Speaker." Tonight, doors open at 6:30; admission is $20.
PARELES
Z-100 JINGLE BALL, Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 465-6741. Pop 2004 is on display at this radio-station extravaganza, which tosses together rhythm-and-blues, pop and rock. Performers include Destiny's Child, Ashlee Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Good Charlotte, Maroon 5, Ryan Cabrera, Vanessa Carlton and others. Tickets are $25 to $230.
PARELES
JOHN ZORN'S MASADA, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. John Zorn wrote Masada, a book of 100 klezmer-flavored tunes, back in 1994, and various ensembles have brought out their jazz and chamber-music sides. This September and October, he multipled his Masada repertory, adding a Book Two of 240 tunes. He will introduce them this weekend with musicians including Jamie Saft (keyboard), Ben Perowsky (drums), Erik Friedlander (cello), Ikue Mori (drum machine/power book), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Marc Ribot (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Greg Cohen (bass), Trevor Dunn (bass), Shanir Blumenkranz (bass), Jon Madof (guitar) and Mathias Kunzli (drums). Tonight and tomorrow at 8 and 10 p.m., $20. PARELES