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D4vd – Terminal 5 – August 19, 2025

D4vd had a string of viral hits and EPs before his acclaimed debut LP, Withered, filled with bedroom pop and R&B, dropped back in April. And on Tuesday night, the 20-year-old Queens native was back in NYC to headline a packed Terminal 5.

(D4vd plays Brooklyn Steel tonight.)

(D4vd plays Roadrunner in Boston on 8/28.)

Photos courtesy of DeShaun Craddock | dac.photography

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Babe Rainbow Bring Their Beach-Vibes Dance Party to Music Hall of Williamsburg

Babe Rainbow – Music Hall of Williamsburg – August 14, 2025

For most of their set at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night, Babe Rainbow had an image of a surfer projected behind them that would slowly drift in and out of focus and jitter across the screen, giving the effect of sitting on a beach watching surfers out in the distance. Then from time to time the visual went a little bizarre, splashes of psychedelic color and chaotic weirdos doing who knows what before getting back to the surfer riding a forever perfect wave.

The Australian quartet’s set followed a similar musical narrative with a gauzy, sun-bleached stoner-surf groove interspersed with short spurts of weirdness and chaos before getting back on that wave. They opened with “Supermoon,” off 2018’s Double Rainbow, beachy guitar from Jack Crowther riding Elliot O’Reilly’s big ocean waves of bass while lead vocalist Angus Dowling sang, “Come closer” to the packed room. They dabbled with back material as well as songs from this year’s Slipper Imp and Shakaerator. “What Is Ashwanganda” was a study in overlapping rhythms with sampled drum loops adding pops to the groove, and Dowling adding tambourine and maracas, all riding a disco-bass funk.

“Monkey Disco” pushed the laid-back dance pulse even more, the surfer turning weird just as the band turned a corner, going incendiary for a blissful moment. “Peace Blossom Boogy,” as the name suggested, was a ’60s-flower-power anthem for the modern day, the guitar giving a little extra bite added to the Ringo-esque drumming, the crowd singing along to the half-nonsensical lyrics. The no-worries-man dance party seemed to fit the room’s Thursday night mood, dancers and smilers, riding that perfect wave into the weekend. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photos courtesy of Hillary Safadi | @hillasafadi

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Charles Wesley Godwin – Webster Hall – August 9, 2025

Charles Wesley Godwin’s just-launched North American tour brought the West Virginia country-folk singer-songwriter to the East Village on Friday night to fill a sold-out Webster Hall with the sounds of his newest EP, Lonely Mountain Town.

Photos courtesy of Hillary Safadi | @hillasafadi

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Brings New Music to Sold-Out Pioneer Works

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Pioneer Works – August 8, 2025

Will Oldham, better known as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, has crafted genre-defying music for more than three decades. Some have described his music as Americana or lo-fi, or even freak folk. Anchoring his music is a unique voice that harkens to his Kentucky roots and a pensive delivery that has drawn fans like the late Johnny Cash and Spanish singer Rosalía, who have each covered Oldham’ “I See a Darkness.” Back in 2000, Oldham contributed backing vocals for Cash on his cover, and it was then that he met producer David “Ferg” Ferguson. They reunited for Ferg to produce this year’s The Purple Bird, BPB’s 13th studio album, which many reviewers called a country album. 

Oldham brought his latest to Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works on Friday night. Taking the stage to a sold-out crowd, he was joined by a pair of violinists, saxophonist Jacob Duncan, guitarist Blake Mills and a mandolinist. With its recognition of the serious state of the world , the endearing “Shorty’s Ark” set the evening’s whimsical tone. The playful song of marching animals is a reminder of the importance of conservation. A cover of the Clark Sisters’ “Is My Living in Vain?” followed, the unique rollicking version had him stomping along. 

The set continued with more tracks off The Purple Bird, from the quieter delivery of “Boise, Idaho” (written with Ferg) to the jaunty violin solos on “The Water’s Fine.” Oldham offered a new song, “Why Is the Lion,” which questions why fear persists and love is challenged. His lyrics offering almost fairy-tale-like packages of existential provocation.

The closer, “Like It or Not,” from 2023’s Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, had people across the room chanting the chorus, “Like It or Not.” The full band returned for an encore. Oldham offered a sweet story about remembering to feed his daughter’s pet fish named Luigi before kicking of the polka-esque “Guns Are for Cowards,” a mediation on gun violence. (He ad-libbed “but health insurance” as a nod to Luigi Mangione at its conclusion.) They turned to more uplifting material, “Lay and Love” from 2018’s The Letting Go, and the good-hearted “Tonight with the Dogs I’m Sleeping,” to cap off the show. —Sharlene Chiu | @shar0ck

Photos by Ellen Qbertplaya courtesy of Pioneer Works | instagram.com/qbertplaya

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Clipse – Terminal 5 – August 7, 2025

Rappers Pusha T and Malice teamed up to form Clipse in Virginia Beach, Va., more than 30 years ago. They went on hiatus in 2010 to launch solo careers before the real-life brothers reunited to make music together again in 2019.

A few weeks back, they dropped their fourth album, and first in 16 years, the Pharrell-produced Let God Sort Em Out — “Clipse are still rap’s sharpest duo after all these years,” raves Rolling Stone. And on Thursday night, their first of two NYC appearances this week, they sold out Terminal 5. (Stove God Cooks, who features on the new LP, made a special appearance.)

(Clipse play Brooklyn Steel tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | instagram.com/qbertplaya

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Bôa – Brooklyn Steel – August 7, 2025

Bôa were back in Kings County on Thursday to grace the stage at Brooklyn Steel on the longtime English alt-rock band’s second-to-last night of their short American tour. 

(Bôa play Union Transfer in Philadelphia tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Adela Loconte | www.adelaloconte.com

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NewDad – Music Hall of Williamsburg – August 6, 2025

Out on the North American leg of the world tour in support of their third extended play, Safe EP, and with their second LP, Altar, arriving next month, Irish guitar-rock band NewDad left them wanting more last night at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Photos courtesy of Samantha Schraub | @samcsch

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Elijah Fox – Racket – August 2, 2025

L.A. singer-songwriter-producer-composer and multi-instrumentalist Elijah Fox was in the Meatpacking District on Saturday night, filling Racket with his wildly entertaining genre-agnostic piano sounds (think: rock, hip-hop, R&B, trap and soul).

Photos courtesy of Lexi Yob | @lexiyob

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King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Make Sweet Music at Forest Hills Stadium on Friday Night

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Forest Hills Stadium – August 1, 2025

There is something civilized about seeing music in a tennis stadium, like a little bit of Wimbledon class has rubbed off on the proceedings. At the same time, there is something decidedly uncivilized about a King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard show: It's raucous and feral and occasionally unhinged. But what about the Lizard Wizard with a full orchestra backing them? The genre-defying Australian band’s current U.S. tour finds them joined by an orchestra playing their latest release, Phantom Island, in full and they landed at the local tennis stadium Friday night, perhaps looking to split the difference between the civil and un-, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s filling the stage behind them. The opening title track began with the lyric “I just woke up from a dream” and the wash of strings and horns underneath the usual battery of guitars was, indeed, dreamlike. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me as the band worked their way through the album was how the grandness of the ensemble made the music feel smaller. Not small as in less substantial, but rather more nuanced and detailed — this was King Gizzard as painted with a fine-bristled brush, rather than the usual blowtorch. The second surprise was how funky many of the songs were. In the second tune, “Deadstick,” the orchestra’s horns turned the stadium into a full soul rave-up, everyone up and dancing and, later, “Eternal Return” turned out some Gizz version of Funkadelic, a weird, cinematic groove. The extra instrumentation gave KGLW extra-sonic dimensions to explore and extra depth in which to spelunk: The expansive prog-rock of “Spacesick,” the ’60s psych-rock of “Sea of Doubt,” with its small-to-big evolution, and the Marvin Gaye–meets–the Grateful Dead impressiveness of “Silent Spirit.” 

The band jammed out the end of the album closer, “Grow Wings and Fly,” as the orchestra left, expertly zigzagging into “Magma” performed with just the core King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The mostly monochromatic screen behind them went full color and their feral, untethered psychedelia reared its head led by a drumming intensity that got the packed stadium good and frothed. A long noodling outro allowed the orchestra to return, and the second half of the show found them augmenting and reinventing old Lizard Wizard favorites.

They took “The River” to Technicolor Oz, the strings and horns filling any crevices, sounding as if they were meant to be there all along. Harps and violins beautifully accessorized “This Thing,” and the show-closing “Iron Lung” was an overcharged climax, slightly unhinged with a sweaty mosh pit getting its final churning in front of an orchestra more likely to be found at Carnegie Hall. How civilized. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photos courtesy of Adela Loconte | www.adelaloconte.com

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Jamie xx Throws a Party Under the K Bridge Park

Jamie xx – Under the K Bridge Park – August 1, 2025

Venues like Brooklyn’s Under the K Bridge Park and artists like Jamie xx feel made for each other: Dark but not spooky, industrial but not cold, mysterious but not inaccessible, somehow sexy and engrossing as a result of all of that — especially with beautifully cool night air to gilt the grooving, sold-out masses, the steaming city heat blessedly taking the night off. 

Friday was Night One of Jamie’s mesmerizing party, which he joined early — lucky early comers saw presunset action in a well-considered B2B set — and then crowned late, following nearly five hours of music that preceded him and some smoking-hot sets from handpicked fellow DJs. Standouts included Carista, serving a relentless, pummeling pogo of good-time house and techno, and then Daphni, one of Dan Snaith’s many alter egos, who steered the vibe much more experimental and sonic-collage-y without losing a drop of danceability. 

As Jamie arrived to hugs and high fives, he changed places with Daphni and continued the theme of breakless handoffs among the headliners, touching on plenty of familiar material, favoring the woozy, intense, engrossing In Waves from 2024. Things opened with the soaring, ephemeral “Wanna,” and there were familiar swerves throughout the set into the stamping, bleating “Treat Each Other Right,” skittering “Kill Dem” and the psychedelic, run-tunnel whirring “Breather” — anything but its name. 

But this wasn’t a songs-centric set as if supporting an album release. The tunes were name-checked, pulled away from, swerved back into, shot back, coursed over. Jamie didn’t mess with the core melodies so much as sequence the set to sine-wave like an electrical current through them, balancing long chill-outs with earnestly developing thumpers and shifting tones and moods that led, inevitably, into big drop moments and crowd swell.

He’s a patient sonic architect, equally at home with Bollywood blast-offs as he is psyche-out goo or straight-up rave-y untz untz untz, and his set at Under the K felt both bursting at the seams and that it was over before he even hit a zenith — another hour Friday night would have been welcomed, but not necessary to sate.  —Chad Berndtson | @cberndtson

Photos courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum | @tobytenenbaum

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Kokoroko – Brooklyn Steel – August 1, 2025

On the second night of the American leg of the world tour behind their standout sophomore LP, Tuff Times Never Last — “They take our fears and our worries and, with the force of a sledgehammer and the precision of a surgeon, turn them into hope and joy, then show us how we might set them free,” raves the Quietus — soulful London Afrobeat-jazz collective Kokoroko were enthusiastically welcomed to Brooklyn Steel on Friday, a night of hip-shaking good times.

Photos courtesy of Lexi Yob | @lexiyob

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Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew – Webster Hall – July 31, 2025

Singer-songwriter-producer and former Talking Heads keyboardist-guitarist Jerry Harrison teamed up with singer-songwriter-producer, session player and touring musician Adrian Belew and the funk band Cool Cool Cool for the Remain in Light Tour, which highlights music from the Talking Heads’ fourth LP, Remain in Light (which Belew also played on and toured behind back in the early ’80s), and other songs from the band’s first five studio albums. And on Thursday night, they closed out the tour in style at Webster Hall.

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @qbertplaya

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You can fight back against August’s heat and humidity with lots of cool music. Check out our calendar and listen to our playlist of who you can go see live throughout August.

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Lord Huron – Madison Square Garden – July 30, 2025

On the second half of the American leg of the big world tour in support of their fifth studio album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 — filled with the atmospheric folk-rock they’ve become known for — Lord Huron landed at the world’s most famous arena, playing the big stage at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night following a terrific opening set by Waxahatchee.

Photos courtesy of Katie Dadarria | instagram.com/dadarria

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs Get Intimate at the Beacon Theatre

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Beacon Theatre – July 29, 2025

Much ink has been spilled over the New York City indie-rock scene of the early aughts. But it was indeed something very special: A moment for ferocious experimentation with singular sounds — punk, pop, electronic and straight-up guitar rock — that presaged the delightful no-holds-barred variety we’re living through today.

And it’s hard to imagine that scene without the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the enduring trio of guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase and iconic front woman Karen O. They returned to NYC this week for three nights at the Beacon Theatre, but with their wild-child energies tamed. The shows are part of their stripped-down, acoustic Hidden in Pieces Tour, featuring a string quartet.

The intent was intimacy, and the opener, “Blacktop” from 2022’s Cool It Down, had it. Karen O’s vocals stood spare but lush, a reminder that decades on, she is a singer of true talent. They progressed into “Gold Lion,” a hit from 2006’s Show Your Bones. Even without a punch of scuzzy guitar breakdowns, the acoustic version of it and of set-closer “Y Control” (Fever to Tell, 2003) revealed a new side to the much-loved bangers and allowed for Chase’s masterful and graceful drumming to shine through. He is a marvel, not only to hear but to watch too. 

The band also covered “Hyperballad” by Björk (Post, 1995), which in Karen O’s hands became a softer and sweeter take. They then moved through more of their own, including a personal favorite, “Runaway,” off 2009’s It’s Blitz!, and “Maps,” that essential anthem of indie rock, but this time with strings. Everyone rose from their seats to sing along: “Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.”

An encore included “Burning” (Cool It Down) and “Zero,” the dancy, disco-y heater from It’s Blitz! A disco ball descended, and an inflatable eyeball was thrown into the crowd. It’s great to reinvent but it’s especially fun to indulge in a little nostalgia. —Rachel Brody | @RachelCBrody

(Yeah Yeah Yeahs play the Beacon Theatre again tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | thisisnotaphotograph.com

@thesearenotphotographs

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The Swell Season – Kings Theatre – July 26, 2025

Their second album came out 16 years ago — and it’s been 17 years since their single “Falling Slowly” won Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards — but Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard just put out their third Swell Season album, Forward — “the Swell Season sound as beautiful as every” — two weeks ago. And on Saturday night, they headlined Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.

Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | thisisnotaphotograph.com

@thesearenotphotographs

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Just Surrender – Racket – July 26, 2025

Pop-punk six-piece Just Surrender celebrated the 20th anniversary of their debut LP, If These Streets Could Talk, with a rousing sold-out show at Racket on Saturday night.

Photos courtesy of Lexi Yob | @lexiyob