ACROSS THE NARROWS: CONEY ISLAND AND STATEN ISLAND (Tomorrow and Sunday) A two-day, mostly indie, rock event. Highlights of tomorrow's show at KeySpan Park on Coney Island include the Pixies, Gang of Four, Built to Spill and Rilo Kiley. Sunday's KeySpan bill features Beck, Belle and Sebastian, the Polyphonic Spree and the Raveonettes, among others. Tomorrow's lineup on Staten Island includes the Killers, the New York Dolls, Interpol and British Sea Power, along with Tegan and Sara. On Sunday, the bill includes Oasis, Jet, the Doves, the Lemonheads and Kasabian. Doors open at noon, KeySpan Park, Surf Avenue, between West 17th Street and West 19th Street, Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Richmond County Bank Ballpark, 75 Richmond Terrace, St. George, Staten Island, www.ticketmaster.com; $100 for a two-day pass good for two shows, one in each site; $55 for one show.

(Laura Sinagra)

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI, DR. DOG (Monday) With its hip choral flourishes, kicky grooves and pep-rally shouts, the quirky collective Architecture in Helsinki makes happy baroque pop. The shaggy Philly lo-fi rockers Dr. Dog open. 9 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $12.50.

(Sinagra)

BECK (Thursday) Back to retro-ironic rock form after a while spent making sincere anti-folk music, the self-aware soulman Beck Hanson aims to reclaim his mid-90's role as pop's forward- and backward-looking prince of pastiche. 7 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 279-7740; $42. (Sinagra) BRASS BAND BENEFIT FOR NEW ORLEANS (Sunday) A group of brass bands, including McCollough Sons of Thunder, the Hungry March Band, Jambalaya Brass Band, Slavic Soul Party!, Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band and Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars, convene for this Hurricane Katrina benefit show, with a theme of music from New Orleans, the birthplace of the form. 7 p.m., Jan Hus Church, 351 East 74th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-6743; $15. (Sinagra)

JOHN BUTLER TRIO (Tonight) John Butler is an Australian guitarist who, like Ben Harper, turns thoughtful songs into guitar and slide-guitar excursions. 7:30, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Jon Pareles)

CAPLETON (Monday) With his machine-gun flow, the dancehall veteran Capleton denounces the hell of corruption he finds all around him. He also has softer romantic and spiritual sides, but it's tough to imagine him letting his guard down. 8 p.m., B. B. King's Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $22 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra)

GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC (Tonight and tomorrow night) George Clinton's long-running band has become an American institution, using funk to subvert and outflank any Puritan reflexes. The band is large enough to be a party all on its own, with ranks of guitarists, singers, horn players and keyboardists to pump out songs that encompass decades of American musical history. As P-Funk's leisurely jams amble from bubbling-mud funk to slow-grinding blues-rock to bits of doo-wop, jazz and hip-hop, the music is tight and loose at the same time. At 8, , Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5305;$40 to $50. (Pareles)

THE DECEMBERISTS (Tuesday) Colin Melloy's songs about child queens, heartsick spies and vengeful seafarers duking it out inside a whale hold up well alongside his love songs, so formally sturdy that even when bittersweet they seem to have hope mixed into their mortar. 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $23 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra)

EAST VILLAGE OPERA COMPANY (Wednesday and Thursday) The Canadians Peter Kiesewalter and Tyley Ross blend opera and rock to form something that is decidedly not rock opera. The band includes a string section and performs classical arias like "La donna é mobile" and "Ave Maria," adding electronic percussion, guitar solos and flamboyant 80's keyboard antics. 7:30 p.m., Joe's Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200; $20. (Sinagra)

ELECTRIC SIX, MORNINGWOOD (Tonight) Detroit's Electric Six plays manic garage rock that surges with disco-punk. Dick Valentine can howl with the best of them, but it remains to be seen whether lineup changes will affect the high energy level. At 9, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $15. (Sinagra)

ROBERT FRIPP, PORCUPINE TREE (Tomorrow) Mr. Fripp, the King Crimson guitarist, is the inventor of the spacey, droning combination of tape loops called "Frippertronics." Porcupine Tree's melodic psychedelic prog rock has a metallic edge. 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100; $32.50 (Sinagra)

BEBEL GILBERTO (Tonight through Sunday night) Bebel Gilberto, the daughter of the bossa nova singer Joćo Gilberto, updates bossa nova with touches of electronics and substitutes her own ebullience for her father's preternatural coolness. At 8 and 10:30, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 475-8592; $30 (sold out). (Pareles)

DAVID GRAY (Wednesday) Mr. Gray's voice has a sharp, nervous quaver that keeps him sounding frayed and unpretty. He sings about tears and flames, seashores and rainy nights, strumming an acoustic guitar over his band's syncopated vamps; he owes a lot to Van Morrison. 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212) 247-4777,; $29.50 to $54.50. (Pareles)

HEARTLESS BASTARDS, WE ARE WOLVES (Tonight) Because of her primal yowl, the southern Ohio singer and guitarist Erika Wennerstrom is often compared to Robert Plant and Polly Harvey. The hungry stomp of her power trio, Heartless Bastards, is heavy enough for classic rockers and post-ironic enough for hipsters looking for bar band sincerity. The Montreal trio We Are Wolves opens. At 9, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $10. (Sinagra)

THE HOLD STEADY, THE ORANGES BAND (Tonight) With hipster savvy and bar rock swagger, the Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn spews an almost unseemly amount of pop culture references in a voice that recalls Bruce Springsteen's. The pleasantly droney pop rockers the Oranges Band open. At 9:30, Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703; $12. (Sinagra)

INTERPOL (Sunday) The dashing dark suits and dirgy post-punk rock of Interpol verges on haute Goth. But despite resonant baritone vocals that conjure Joy Division gloom, it is a groovy pop band at heart. 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $31. (Sinagra)

NORAH JONES (Thursday) Norah Jones's voice may seem hesitant, yet on two hugely popular albums, she has quietly defined an adult pop that's touched by jazz, folk and country but beholden to none of them. She plays here at the T. J. Martell cancer research organization's Humanitarian Awards Gala. Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, in the Marriott Marquis Hotel, (212) 833-5444; $1,000. (Pareles)

THE KILLERS, BRITISH SEA POWER (Tonight) Maybe it's their Las Vegas roots, maybe it's the singer Brendan Flowers's glam goof charisma or maybe it's their nostalgic preference for 80's MTV. Whatever the reason, the Killers are the pop smash of the neo-New Wave boomlet. British Sea Power puts a dreamy spin on dark new wave with its insistent baritone vocals and bright guitar lines. At 6:30, Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Parkway, Wantagh, N.Y., (516) 221-1000; $35. (Sinagra)

JOHN MAYER TRIO, CHARLIE SEXTON (Thursday) Along with his songwriting chops, the sloe-eyed singer and guitarist John Mayer brings to the folk-rock sphere a winsome combination of earnest, sexy questing and easygoing humor. Charlie Sexton made his first record at 16, when he was hailed as a sort of new-wave roots rocker. Since then, he's played with Bob Dylan and produced for Lucinda Williams, and this year is preparing to tour with John Mayer. His own songs increasingly tend toward personal alt-country. 8 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070; $45.50. (Sinagra)

O.A.R. (Monday) This jam band plays the sax and guitar reggae-inflected rock beloved by fans of the Dave Matthews Band. 7 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street; ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-7171; $35. (Sinagra)

PAUL MCCARTNEY (Tonight and tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday nights) The ex-Beatle and former leader of Wings offers nostalgia to baby-boomers and graceful tunes and tidings of love to everyone else, in a voice that's perpetually guileless. At 8, Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $54.50 to $279.50. (Pareles)

METRIC (Wednesday and Thursday) Led by the vibrant, articulate singer Emily Hanes, this band finds fresh uses for new-wave brio. Ms. Hanes's shuddering alto functions alternately as a weapon and a whip-cracking come-on. Wednesday at 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $16 in advance, $18 at the door. Thursday at 8 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236; $14. (Sinagra)

NADA SURF (Thursday) These Brooklyn alt-rockers tumbled into obscurity after a mid-90's MTV hit, then re-emerged in 2002 with the lovingly "Let Go" (Barsuk), which squints nostalgically at imagined childhood bliss through a snowy pane. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sinagra)

THE RAVEONETTES (Tuesday) Clearing away the garage noise of their debut, this Danish duo now strives for pure 60's pop classicism. Their latest material incorporates rock history, from girl groups to surf rock to punk, as well as historic rock in the form of cameos by Ronnie Spector, Suicide's Martin Rev and the Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker. At 8 p.m., Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703; $15.

(Sinagra)

GILBERTO SANTA ROSA (Tonight ) Salsa singers, or soneros, have borrowed a few ideas from Latin pop in recent years, ordering arrangements that are detailed for the radio as well as the dance floor. One of the most dynamic salsa performers is the trumpet-voiced, improvisatory singer Gilberto Santa Rosa, who holds on to the fundamentals: brassy, hard-swinging declamations of love songs and soaring improvisations traded with the band. 8 p.m., the Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $55 to $130. (Pareles)

SOCIAL DISTORTION (Tomorrow, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday) Social Distortion came out of the Southern California punk explosion of the late 1970's and stuck around. By now, its buzzsaw chords and minor-key melodies have taken on a tinge of roots rock, and Mike Ness has moved from singing about youthful frustrations to pondering adult choices and consequences. 7 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-7171; $29. (Pareles)

TLEN-HUICANI (Sunday) The harpist Alberto de la Rosa leads this Mexican folk group, whose name means "the singers." Its members play music specific to Veracruz - from the lolling huasteco to the more rapid Southern jarocho - as well as other Latin American styles. 7 p.m., Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; $26. (Sinagra)

ARMIN VAN BUUREN (Tonight) Though the Dutch trance DJ and producer Armin Van Buuren tends toward instrumentals and atmospherics, he never forgets his main duty: keeping those bodies moving, Ibiza-style. The extended set is a specialty. Doors open at 10, Crobar, 530 West 28th Street, Chelsea, (212) 629-9000; $30 in advance, $40 at the door. (Sinagra)

ZAP MAMA (Tuesday) This Afro-Belgian vocal group has grown ever more experimental through the years; its latest internationalist forays have moved into the realm of the remix, collaborating with programmer-producers. 8 p.m., S.O.B.'s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940;$23. (Pareles)