The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 5/13/13

Categories: Listings, Live

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Maybe R. Kelly will pop up for Phoenix's show at the Apollo on Monday night? We can dream.
Support live music and check out one of these 10 shows this week.

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The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 5/6/13

Categories: Listings, Live

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Little Boots will shake things up at Music Hall of Williamsburg this Tuesday
Here's your carefully crafted guide to blowing your paycheck this week.

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Iceage, White Lung + Parquet Courts - Bowery Ballroom - 4/20/13

Categories: Live

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Photo: Devon Maloney

Better Than: Wherever Bjork wasn't (!!)

A punk show at Bowery Ballroom (in this day and age, anyway) is always more show than punk. Especially when the bill stirs the hearts of critics yearning for a spiritual rebirth of the genres that have fed them since childhood; especially when industry types catch wind and flock to the gig to hang out indifferently in the basement bar even during headlining sets; especially when the bands themselves are adjusting their brand of rage to account for their growing success. Especially when the sold-out crowd is moshing and Vine-ing in equal measures. Still, if that mélange has any power whatsoever in the era of buzz bands, Saturday night's stacked bill showcased the best of it.

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The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 4/22/13

Categories: Listings, Live

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Michael Gira-approved Akron/Family hit up Bowery Ballroom Wednesday night
Here are the top 10 concerts around the city this week, in no particular order.

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Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band - Barclays Center - 4/16/13

Categories: Bob Seger, Live

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Kelly Schott
Better Than: Pretending today's music has got the same soul. (Couldn't resist.)

Bob Seger is summer nights and long drives. His songs capture the romantic suburban fantasies of middle America that star drive-in movies and stolen moments of youthful passion. He's a Midwestern boy through and through and he brought those open-fielded, sun-soaked memories of youth and freedom to Brooklyn last night, making an older crowd seem like a group of enthusiastic kids in the process.

See also: Q&A: Kurt Vile on His Favorite Bob Seger Song and the Neil Young Solo That Changed His Life

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Muse - Madison Square Garden - 4/15/13

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Ashley Mungo
Better Than: The last two times I've seen the band perform live.

With similar amounts of conviction, Muse can weave between whimsical space rockers to heavy metal gods to frenzied, late-'90's alt rockers that dabble in soft doses of dubstep. The transitions are so subtle sometimes that, upon reflection, the idea of all these fighting genres coexisting in such a neatly presented package seems insane. But maybe Muse are kind of insane.

See also: Is Muse's Song For The Olympics The Most Ridiculous Piece Of Music 2012 Has To Offer?

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The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 4/15/13

Categories: Listings, Live

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Let Widowspeak captivate you on Friday night at KFBK.
We asked the members of the Free Credit Report band to pick their favorite shows of the week. We then ignored their answers, and picked our own. Here they are. Ten of them.

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Hot Chip - Roseland Ballroom - 4/9/13

Categories: Last Night, Live

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Hot Chip
Roseland Ballroom
4/9/13

Better Than: About 90% of whatever's usually going on at Roseland Ballroom. Like, what was the last show you've been to there? I've been to two in four years.

In 2013, most people making dance music in the mainstream don't really look like Hot Chip. Avicii's blonde Swedishness. Tiesto's muscular Eurotrash. It's easy to forget there are all these indie bands out there that are heavily indebted to and make liberal use of multiple traditions from the dance music canon, and that these artists might look like Hot Chip, half of whom appear anemic and half of whom are kinda frumpy. Frontman Alexis Taylor came onstage in all-white suit, doing that whole shirt buttoned all the way up without a tie thing, which immediately evokes memories of David Byrne-type neurotics. Multi-instrumentalist Al Doyle emerged with some tunic shirt dress number going on. With EDM's current sleek and sexy Top 20 moment, these dudes look like a throwback to the strange looking electronic music purveyors of the past, from Kraftwerk to Gary Cullen, er, Numan.

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Green Day - Barclays Center - 4/7/13

Categories: Green Day, Live

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Credit: Kelly Schott
Better Than: This by 2,000 light years.

"Life is not fucking pretty right now. Believe me, I can testify to that shit." This was Billie Joe Armstrong's call to arms. Shouted in the middle of performing "Letterbomb," he wanted the audience to let go with him for just a couple of Sunday evening hours and live in the moment. Begging us to forget work, school, and the outside world, his request was as much a plea to help free each of us as it was one to help free him from the full weight of the aftermath of a very public meltdown.

It's difficult to forget what happened last fall at the I Heart Radio festival in Las Vegas, where Billie Joe traversed the fine line between rock star antics and some level of mental instability. Maybe that line has always been how much the world actually gets to see. Video of the incident spread quickly and suddenly, and the singer admitted to a struggle with addictions and demons that were never quelled. Now out of treatment, he has rejoined the band to make up for a series of postponed dates and lack of support for the trio of albums they released last year.

See also: Live: Green Day Get A Little Less Serious At The Studio At Webster Hall

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The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 4/8/13

Categories: Listings, Live

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Fleetwood Mac will make "Dreams" come true with the MSG stop of their reunion tour on Monday night.
Here are the 10 best shows around the city this week, in no particular order.

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