concert crowd
Photograph: Shutterstock
Photograph: Shutterstock

The best concerts in NYC this week

Get set, go! We've rounded up the best gigs in the five boroughs during the next seven days

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Update: With the current ban on public gatherings of any size, many of the concerts  and events below may be postponed to a later date or canceled. 

As any NYC music fan will tell you, there are no off nights here. If you're game for going out, the city's guaranteed to have a gig for you, whether it's a pop blowout, a cozy country show, a set at a world-famous jazz club like the Village Vanguard or a raging metal bill. Our monthly concert calendars are your first stop for news on shows coming up, but this list of the best concerts in NYC is designed to help with your last-minute showgoing plans. Why not take a chance on a new name? Every gig you see below gets the Time Out New York stamp of approval.

RECOMMENDED: See our guide to concerts in NYC

  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's KitchenOpen run
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Part cabaret, part piano bar and part social set, Cast Party offers a chance to hear rising and established talents step up to the microphone (backed by the slap and tickle of Steve Doyle on bass and Billy Stritch at the ivories, plus the bang of Daniel Glass on drums). The waggish Caruso presides as host.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • East Village
  • Recommended
He’s worked with Liza Minnelli, Kylie Minogue and just about every downtown act in NYC. Now composer, pianist and performer Lance Horne hosts his own wild night of singing, drinking and dancing, strip-teasing and bad behavior at the East Village nightlife hub Club Cumming. Expect advanced show-tune geekery and appearances by Broadway stars looking to get down by the piano. Plan to sleep in on Tuesday.
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Lower East SideOpen run
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
PJ Adzima, who currently plays the hopeful but hopelessly repressed Elder McKinley in Broadway's The Book of Mormon, hosts a neovaudevillian monthly variety show at the Slipper Room that proffers an eclectic mix of musical-theater, comedy, drag, circus and burlesque performances. A down-and-dirtier version of the show also plays there every week on Saturdays at midnight.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
For nearly four decades, the idiosyncratic musical trio BETTY, comprising Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy and Elizabeth Ziff, has pumped out Go-Go's–style alt-pop with a theatrical bent. In their February residence at the Green Room 42, they share favorites from their long career (including "Did You Tell Her" and the theme song for Showtime's The L Word) along with songs from their newest album, EAT. 
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Salty Brine is an outrageously talented singer-actor in the vein of Taylor Mac. In his Living Record Collection cabaret series, he takes a different classic pop album in each show—from Joni Mitchell’s Blue to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack—and weaves its songs into funny, perceptive tapestries of queer storytelling. The show is highly addictive: Once you’ve been dunked into Brine, you’ll want to dive back every month. In this edition, he connects a love story set in a dystopian future to the songs from Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Like a spiderweb, Carol Lipnik is surprisingly strong in her ethereality, maintaining an eerie self-possession as she shares enigmatically spooky folk-art songs in an octave-spanning wail. In her latest Pangea show, presented by Tweed TheaterWorks, she teams up with pianist Gordon Beeferman to share a new set of originals and covers.
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Midtown West
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
The superb Brazilian operatic baritone Paulo Szot, who made Lincoln Center audiences swoon in his Tony-winning turn as Emile De Becque in South Pacific, returns to 54 Below with a set of music drawn from musical theater traditions around the world, including Broadway and the Spanish zarzuela. Luke Frazier serves as musical director, joined by members of the American Pops Orchestra.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
The shameless drag legend and nightlife pioneer Lady Bunny hops back to the Green Room with another smart and delightfully offensive solo show packed with raunchy song parodies, topical comedy and savagely hilarious takedowns of other drag queens. Bunny knows her mind and isn't afraid to say what's on it.
Recommended
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