March 25, 2005

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.

A GUY CALLED GERALD, 69 West 14th Avenue, at Avenue of the Americas, www.enablernetwork.org. This British producer and D.J. helped propel Manchester acid-house scene in the late 1980's; thanks in part to him, the electronic sounds of Chicago and Detroit found more appreciative audiences overseas. Since then, Gerald has veered toward a more eclectic - and, quite often, less powerful - approach; his new album, "To All Things What They Need" (Studio K7), is a rather vague-sounding disc full of syncopated tracks that gesture toward soul music. Expect a good party, regardless. Tomorrow night after 10, with Carter Reece and Cowboy Mark; admission is $8 before midnight, $12 after. KELEFA SANNEH

BARDO POND, NO NECK BLUES BAND, Asterisk Art Project, 258 Johnson Avenue, near Bushwick Avenue, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, toddpnyc.com. A night of free rock featuring a pair of veteran acts. Bardo Pond, from Philadelphia, specializes in heavy, cyclical songs, letting big, dusty guitar riffs come round again and again. The local band No Neck Blues Band makes music that sounds (and sometimes is) accidental, letting homemade grooves rise up out of chaos or silence and then disappear again. Tonight at 8, with SubArachnoid Space and Psychic Ills; admission is $10. SANNEH

JUDY COLLINS, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway at 74th Street, Upper West Side, (212) 496-7070. With her clear voice and ear for picking songs, Judy Collins was a hitmaker in the 1960's and a catalyst for the careers of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, among others. She added her own songwriting to her repertory and has continued to delve into everything from Stephen Sondheim to Christmas songs. Tonight at 8; tickets are $43 and $53. JON PARELES

CROOKED FINGERS, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. As the leader of Archers of Loaf, Eric Bachmann wrote gnarled indie-rock songs. Lately, on the new Crooked Fingers album "Dignity and Shame" (Merge), he has turned to more straightforward songs in the territory of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, with weary but determined folk-rock that asks questions like "Why won't you fall back in love with me." And he can still stir up the guitars. Tomorrow night at 8, with the Dears and Liz Durrett opening; tickets are $16. PARELES

CRYPTOPSY, B. B. King Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. This Montreal-based extreme metal band specializes less in riffs than in atmospheres: the warp-speed drumrolls of Eric Langlois seem almost decorative when one of the group's fragmented songs goes roaring by. While some extreme metal bands pride themselves on sounding ruthless, Cryptopsy isn't nearly single-minded enough for that: the group's precise tantrums switch directions every few seconds. Sunday night at 8, with Skinless, Cattle Decapitation and the Autumn Offspring; tickets are $17 in advance, $20 at the door. SANNEH

MARIA DE BARROS, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village, (212) 243-4940. The best-known music from Cape Verde, the islands off Senegal, is a style called morna, the lilting and pensive songs carried worldwide by Cesaria Evora. Maria de Barros sings some mornas, but she also sings other Cape Verdean styles - including bright, driving funanas - to carry her thoughts on love, tradition and women's strength. Tonight at midnight and 2 a.m.; admission is $20. PARELES

DAVID DRIVER SINGS SCOTT WALKER, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. The songs Scott Walker wrote in the 1960's were strange, melodramatic rambles through innocence and despair, and David Driver is ready to lead their latest rediscovery. Mr. Driver's husky baritone is a good replica of Mr. Walker's youthful voice, and he'll be backed by the adept Loser's Lounge band. Tonight at 7; tickets are $15. PARELES

DROPKICK MURPHYS, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place at 15th Street, Union Square, (212) 777-6800. Formed in Boston in 1996, Dropkick Murphys play gruff punk with some rowdy Irish roots and offer no mercy for posers or phonies. Their sing-along choruses are more like shout-alongs, and they have plenty of people to shout; the band's first two shows this weekend are sold out. Sunday night at 8, with the Casualties and Brain Failure opening; tickets are $22.50. PARELES

FLOETRY, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Cooing melodies meet socially conscious rapping in the English duo Floetry, which allies a rapper, Natalie Stewart, and a singer, Marsha Ambrosius. They boast, preach positive thinking and delve into love, articulating uncertainties along with lust. Sunday night at 8; tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. PARELES

JENNIFER GENTLE, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Jennifer Gentle is a crypto-retro-rock band from Italy that just released a confounding and charming album called, "Valende" (Sub Pop). Whispery acoustic ballads crashland on top of wriggly rants, and neopsychedelic soundscapes give way to playful, off-center pop songs. Here's hoping the band is even more confounding onstage. Tonight at 9:30, with Child Ballads and Dead Meadow; tickets are $12. SANNEH

GOOD FRIDAY GOSPEL, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue at 32nd Street, (212) 465-6741. Hezekiah Walker, Fred Hammond, Bebe Winans, Donnie McCluskin and many more are to converge upon this subterranean theater for an Easter Weekend concert - expect lots of joy and even more noise. Tonight at 8; tickets are $34.50 to $54.50. SANNEH

GROOVE COLLECTIVE, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. Brooklyn's long-runnning acid-jazz band looks back to the smoothly percolating funk-jazz of the 1970's and adds touches of 1990's hip-hop, making easygoing party music for a broad coalition of listeners. Tomorrow night at midnight; tickets are $10. PARELES

ROBYN HITCHCOCK, Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703. Tightly wound melodies and unsprung narratives meet in Robyn Hitchcock's songs, which bridge the psychedelia of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and the archtypal English "nonsense" of Edward Lear. Behind the whimsy is an acute observer of love, death and the entire evolutionary continuum from plants to bugs to humans. Onstage, Mr. Hitchcock free-associates stories that can be as improbably touching as his songs. His most recent album was produced by David Rawlings, the musical partner of Gillian Welch, and the stripped-down settings reveal the genuine yearning in songs about, among other things, a man's romance with his television set. Tomorrow night at 7, with Amy Miles opening; admission is $15. PARELES

PATTI LABELLE, North Fork Theater at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, L.I. (516) 334-0800. Nothing exceeds like excess in the singing of Patti Labelle. She tears into her love songs with the over-the-top emotionality of a well-traveled soul diva, soaring toward the heavens or growling to get earthy. Melvin George shares the bill. Tonight and tomorrow at 8; tickets are $60. PARELES

JOHNNY PACHECO, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, (212) 239-2672. The flutist and bandleader Johnny Pacheco celebrates his 70th birthday. He was born in the Dominican Republic, but fell in love early with Afro-Cuban music, and he has been a prime mover in New York Latin music since the 1960's, when he helped start Fania Records. He went on to lead the Fania All-Stars, the band that defined New York salsa. His guests include the singers Willie Colón, Adalberto Santiago, Ismael Miranda and Cita Rodriguez along with the cuatro (Puerto Rican guitar) master Yomo Toro and the timbales player Roberto Roena. Tomorrow night, doors open at 10; admission is $30, advance reservations are $35 with a two-drink minimum. PARELES

HENRY ROLLINS, Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (212) 563-0480.Henry Rollins was a pioneering West Coast punk as the singer of Black Flag, and he explored more complex music with his own Henry Rollins Band. But he also tours, as in these shows, as a storyteller without a band, getting laughs and stunned silences as he talks about memories, odd situations and untimely deaths. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at 8 p.m.; tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door. PARELES

MELVIN SPARKS BAND, Lucille's Grill, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Before it was called acid-jazz, the blues and funk-rooted jazz that the guitarist Melvin Sparks plays was called soul-jazz. Born in Texas in 1946, Mr. Sparks has recorded with the organist Jack McDuff, the saxophonist David (Fathead) Newman, Lonnie Liston Smith and Charles Earland; his current group is showing jam-band fans how steamy the old grooves can be. Sunday night at 8; free admission PARELES

TETINE, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston, South Village, (212) 243-4940. The harsh slums of Rio de Janeiro, called favelas, have generated their own party music at events called funk balls, or bailes funk, where deep Miami-style bass lines meet singsong tunes, samba rhythms, Jamaican dancehall cechoes, sampled gunshots and blunt, raunchy lyrics. It's a raw Brazilian take on electro, techno and hip-hop from people with, almost literally, nothing to lose. This show is probably the first Carioca funk event in New York City. Tomorrow night at 1 a.m.; admission is $10. PARELES

TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Toots Hibbert was the first Jamaican singer to put the term reggae in a song title; his "Do the Reggay" came out in 1968, when the rhythm was brand new. He is reggae's long-running soul man, applying the gruff, gospel exuberance of Otis Redding to tales of prison, love, dancing and redemption. Tonight at 8; tickets are $25. PARELES

STEVE VAI, Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824. Steve Vai's hard-rock guitar instrumentals are all about speed and precision as he makes the scales whiz by and the high notes wail. Look for the guitar calluses on the hands of audience members. Eric Sardinas opens tomorrow night at 11:15; tickets are $27.50 and $37.50. An 8 p.m. show is sold out. PARELES ANDY VAZ, Café Deville, 103 Third Avenue, at 13th Street, (212) 477-4500. Andy Vaz, a rigorous minimalist, delights in letting his micro-compositions twist and mutate as they go - his artful dance music seems designed both to focus and dissolve the mind. Tonight after 10, with Kevin McHugh; admission is free. SANNEH WRECKLESS ERIC, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. In the late 1970's, the English label Stiff Records had a stable of eccentric, hard-nosed rockers that included Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and an electric-guitar-strumming Wreckless Eric, whose memorable hit was "The Whole Wide World." He's done some hard drinking and hard thinking in the intervening decades, and has the songs to show for it. Tomorrow night at 7; admission is $10. PARELES