Tuesday, May 1, Tom Morello, Das Racist, Dan Deacon, Immortal Technique, Bobby Sanabria at Union Square Park, Free
As part of the "May Day" Occupy Wall Street event, former Rage Against the Machine guitarist and full-time activist Tom Morello will lead a musician march from Bryant Park to Union Square. From there, Morello, electronic music composer Dan Deacon and outspoken hip-hop artists Das Racist and Immortal Technique will perform for the various activists and civilians. Your opinions about the Occupy Wall Street movement are your own, but it's there for you if you want it.
Thursday, May 3 through Saturday, May 5, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry at Brooklyn Academy of Music, $45
Organized by members of The National, the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festival brings together some of the New York's most fabulous brooders, including The Antlers, The Walkmen, St. Vincent and Sharon Van Etten. Beyond that, there's also an appearance by TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe's new side project, a performance from Bradford Cox's mercurial Atlas Sound, self-made folk weirdos Buke And Gase and even Joseph Gordon-Levitt, for some reason. Never accuse The National of lacking breadth of taste or pull, apparently.
Thursday, May 3, James Chance and the JCs, The Immaculates, Evi Antonio at Brooklyn Bowl, $10
Even if you don't count a first edition vinyl copy of No New York among your prize possessions, you should see New New No Wave institution James Chance at least once, because there's no one who makes knotted, defiantly melodic sax assaults swing quite so hard, and it's always nice to have guys like this around to point out the ties between the punk game and the jazz game.
Saturday, May 5, Feist, Timber Timbre at Radio City Music Hall, $53
This might sound like a strange thing to say given the charming but demure nature of her albums, but Feist goes hard live. We're talking multiple, pounding drummers, a wailing punk girl choir and a stabbing approach to the acoustic guitar that all but dares you to say the word "coffee house" to Leslie Feist's face. Even her most intimate epics get blown up to suit the venue, the longing and heartache she's etched so finely on last year's grower Metals growing as large as the sing-a-longs on her more upbeat material. She feels it all, indeed.
