What to watch in New York this month
- By Hazel Sheffield -
- May 04, 2012
It’s been a miserable few days in New York. You can feel summer trying to break through the static in the air but instead it cracks the sky with lightning and endless rain. It just so happens that next week is one of the best weeks for live music in this city in a long time. The Beach Boys are at Beacon Theatre for two nights, if you can bear the sight of poor Brian Wilson perched centre stage on a stool (and get tickets). Rufus Wainwright is at BAM on Wednesday and the Mark Lanegan Band will play Webster Hall on Thursday. Someone called DJ Dog Dick plays Death By Audio on Friday, if you’ve heard of him. And that’s not even counting our best five, below. Remember to take an umbrella.
Spiritualized
Terminal 5, Monday May 7, 2012
Spiritualized are what Girls want to be when they grow up. The only constant bandmember, Jason Pierce (formerly of Spacemen 3), has concocted another lovely, string-riddled epic in new album ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light’, which might just be his best since the defining ‘Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space’. From the new record ‘Hey Jane’, the NSFW video above, is a sprawling ten-minute track that never feels long.
Florence and the Machine
Radio City Music Hall, Tuesday May 8, 2012
Never was an album title so accurate as Florence Welch’s debut ‘Lungs’. From auspicious beginnings singing in pub toilets in Camberwell (if the legend is to be believed) Welch and her healthy bellows have crossed the Atlantic and conquered America. Expect adoring crowds when she performs at Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday. Hear her latest outing, the soundtrack to ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’, above.
M83
Terminal 5, Thursday May 10, 2012
Anothony Gonzalez hits New York on the North American leg of his headline tour. The Frenchman’s expansive sixth album ‘Hurry Up We’re Dreaming’ stretched across two discs upon release last year. You’ll remember the endless whooping on ‘Midnight City’ – one of the biggest tracks of 2011. Watch the video above.
Zola Jesus
Guggenheim Museum, Thursday May 10, 2012
The people at New York’s Guggenheim Museum are putting their atrium to good use with three concerts in support of an exhibition of John Chamberlain’s sculpture. Zola Jesus is the third and last, following Grouper and Cold Cave in previous weeks. Ticket holders get a private viewing of the exhibition before those icy synths ring out in the chamber.
M. Ward
Webster Hall, Friday May 11, 2012
There’s some lovely songwriting on M. Ward’s new album ‘A Wasteland Companion’, including the lo-fi skiffle of ‘Watch The Show’ and the big, light strumming of ‘The First Time I Ran Away’, where Ward’s voice drifts and cracks like those dark clouds over New York. Worth the ticket.
Let us know what gigs you are looking forward to this month on Twitter or Facebook.
By Hazel Sheffield. Blogs at HazelSheffield and tweets at @hazelsheffield
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