The best NYC concerts in February 2020

As a teen, frontman Joseph Mount started Metronomy as a one-man bedroom project. Today, the five-piece act has carved out it’s own niche in pop music, and it’s both electronic and quirky. Their fall 2019 album Metronomy Forever is something to throw on loop— it resembles a bit of Daft Punk and Chromeo. Hear their infectious new (and old gems like “The Look”) at this big Brooklyn show.

Up-and-coming composer, guitarist and producer Bhatia cut his teeth training alongside jazz legend Billy Hart at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He's spent the past several years, however, putting those chops to work in glitchy avant-pop trio Son Lux, in which he wrings all sorts of strange textures out of his guitar. Hear him algamate those diverse expriences into distinctive, layered compositional skills here, as he celebrates the release of a "surprising new project."

It's nothing new per se to repurpose the washed out textures of shoegaze for brutal intentions—see bands like Alcest and Amesoeurs, which integrate gutteral black metal vocals into the fold. This Belgian crew's pedalchain concoctions, however, manage to sound simultaneously heavy, soothing, and novel while evading any gimmicky genre-fusions—a modern-day MBV, were Kevin Shields to pen his honeyed tunes solely in fits of rage.

Alex O’Connor from Surrey, U.K. makes woozy, head-in-the-clouds tunes that identify with both the smooth R&B of Frank Ocean and jazz-tinged indie rock of King Krule. The 21-year-old songwriter's distinctive old soul voice caught the ear of Tyler, the Creator, who recruited the English artist for his 2017 album, Flower Boy. Since then, he’s rapidly risen in the charts—catch him touring songs off his latest album, Pony.

Led by spaghetti-Western fanatic and guitarist Simon Hanes, Tredici Bacci breathes a funky new life into the scores that composer Ennio Morricone wrote for those underappreciated movies of the ’60s and ’70s. Expect the 13-piece band to go heavy on the brass with Hanes’s complex, up-tempo take on the soundtrack genre.

Chicago MC Chancelor Bennett has built a tidy following the past several years with witty, joyful, freewheeling mixtapes like 2013's Acid Rap and the follow-up, Coloring Book. Add to that a series of collaborations with Donnie Trumpet, confounding fringe-rapper Lil B, and soulful singer and keyboardist Francis Farewell Starlight and you have an impressively prolific series of mixtapes and singles to expect tunes from at this arena gig.

Norwegian Anna Lotterud, better known by her stage moniker Anna of the North, is making waves with her glacial synth-pop sound matched with vulnerable songwriting. Her choir-like voice has been featured on songs by American rapper G–Eazy, Irish rapper Rejjie Snow and English electro–pop act HONNE. You’ve probably also heard her hit, “Lovers”, in a pivotal scene of Netflix romance movie To All The Boys I've Loved Before. Now you can root for her as she tours her glittering sophomore album, Dream Girl.

Cooly sensual London songstress Natasha Khan, otherwise known as Bat for Lashes, returned recently with a fifth album, Lost Girls, which combined sprightly, shimmering dream pop with arrestingly poetic lyrics. Hear it at Town Hall's posh digs—a fitting environment for the singer's dark, addictive and stately songwriting.

Inspired by the timeless songs created by artists like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, the five-person collective Durand Jones & the Indications are disciples of dusty ’70s soul records. The group's album, American Love Call, addresses heartbreak and America’s tumultuous times with clear-eyed lyricism, sweeping string arrangements, and the contrasting vocals of Jones and drummer Aaron Frazer. Before their set, score strikes at the venue’s bowling alley.

Darmstadt, an experimental music series led by composers Nick Hallett and Zach Layton, presents yet another rendition of this seminal work. Riley is rightly revered as a foundational minimalist composer and even a New Age forebear, and “In C” is possibly his most influential work. Playing this series of short musical fragments for an indeterminate number of performers, the ensemble features a host of local luminaries.