Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Buy tickets for the best spring music concerts, including big shows from Fleetwood Mac and Rihanna, and heat-seeking acts such as Liars and Savages.
Tue Feb 19 2013
Winter’s over and you’re ready to catch a show—but what to see? We have 20 highlights from our spring music concert schedule, covering Savages in March, Fleetwood Mac in April and Rihanna at Barclays Center in May.
RECOMMENDED: Spring in New York guide
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Photograph: Koitz
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Alan Cumming and Liza Minnelli
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Photograph: Antoine Carlier
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Savages
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Photograph: Hedi Slimane
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Sky Ferreira
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Photograph: Jory Cordy
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Alt-J
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Photograph: John Rogers/ECM Records
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Paul Motian
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Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Sigur Rós
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Photograph: David McClister
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris
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Photograph: Kevin Westenberg
Spring music concerts 2013: The biggest, coolest live-music shows
The Breeders (seen here in 1993)
March concert schedule picks
Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming
- Price band: 3/4
- Critics choice
Liza Minnelli is the bewitched, sequined and bewildered model of a Broadway barely-survivor. Tonight, local queer nightlife guru Daniel Nardicio pairs her with the louche, bouncy-kneed Scottish stage-and-screen actor Alan Cumming—whose résumé, like hers, prominently includes the musical Cabaret—for what should be a memorable night. For more information, go to lizaandalan.com.
- The Town Hall 123 W 43rd St, between Sixth Ave and Broadway
- Until Thu Mar 14
Savages
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
This aptly named London four-piece floored Time Out at CMJ 2012 with its searingly urgent take on classic postpunk. In March, the all-female crew lands at SXSW, then heads to Gotham for a pair of high-profile headlining gigs.
- Music Hall of Williamsburg 66 North 6th St, between Kent and Wythe Aves
- Thu Jul 11
Sky Ferreira + How To Dress Well
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Sky Ferreira’s pouty Calvin Klein–ready image and arch-teenybopper aesthetic—her 2011 debut EP was titled As If!—make it easy to underestimate the singer-songwriter-actress. But tracks like last year’s crying-on-the-dance-floor gem “Everything Is Embarrassing” demonstrate that the 20-year-old Angeleno is a serious talent. Rounding out this perfectly matched bill is bedroom-soul visionary Tom Krell, the man behind the strongest 2012 art-soul effort not titled Channel Orange.
- Music Hall of Williamsburg 66 North 6th St, between Kent and Wythe Aves
- Until Mon Jun 17
Alt-J
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Riding high on the success of its debut album, An Awesome Wave, this Leeds quartet brings its gangly, quirky and irresistable indie-pop stylings to trendy Webster Hall and cavernous Terminal 5. Both shows are sold out, technically speaking, but every savvy New Yorker knows how to get around that situation. (Hello, Craigslist?)
- Terminal 5 610 W 56th St, at Eleventh Ave
- Until Sun Mar 24
Paul Motian Tribute
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
When Paul Motian passed away in 2011, we lost a living link to golden-age NYC jazz and a vital contemporary catalyst-bandleader. A quick glance at the personnel for this tribute, overseen by Motian’s longtime triomates Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, reveals his transcendent influence; among those on hand are percussive royalty (Billy Hart, Andrew Cyrille), unclassifiable pianists (Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell), saxophone marvels (Tim Berne, Bill McHenry) and close compatriots (Masabumi Kikuchi, Jerome Harris)
- Symphony Space 2537 Broadway, at 95th St, 10025
- Until Fri Mar 22
Sigur Rós
- Price band: 3/4
- Critics choice
Icelandic band Sigur Rós maintains a seemingly unpiercable facade beyond its remote native land—blame it on the combo's brainy, loose dreamscapes, which became even more ghostly and ethereal on last year's Valtari. Now a trio, the group is due to release a new LP some time this year, and has already proclaimed it "an anti-Valtari." Make of that what you will, and depend on an otherworldly experience.
- Madison Square Garden 4 Pennsylvania Plaza (Seventh Ave), between 31st and 33rd Sts, 10119
- Mon Mar 25
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell + Richard Thompson
- Price band: 3/4
- Critics choice
Roots-music royalty convenes at the Beacon when alt-country godmother Emmylou Harris hits the stage with her longtime compadre, singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, to showcase material from their handsomely twangy joint CD, Yellow Moon, issued on Nonesuch. Opening is English folk-rock legend and everyman guitar hero Richard Thompson, who leads his current combo in songs from his 14th studio album, Electric, recently issued on New West.
- Beacon Theatre 2124 Broadway, at 74th St
- Until Wed Mar 27
The Breeders
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
For those inclined to moan about getting old any time a cherished indie-rock album reaches a milestone vintage, be forewarned that Last Splash, the breakthrough LP for (then) ex-Pixie Kim Deal and her spin-off band, the Breeders, turns 25 this year. Even so, a brief preview video shot during a rehearsal proves that the reunited lineup of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson still rocks out with insouciantly punky cool.
- Webster Hall 125 E 11th St, between Third and Fourth Aves
- Until Mon May 6
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- March
- April and May
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