Top bands and top singers coming to NYC music venues this fall

Check out essential live music shows this fall. Top bands like the xx and top singers such as Fiona Apple hit music venues across New York City.

By Sophie Harris, Marley Lynch, Hank Shteamer and Steve Smith Tue Aug 21 2012

Photograph: crackerfarm

The Avett Brothers
Photograph: D.L. Anderson

Bon Iver
Afghan Whigs headline All Tomorrow's Parties
Photograph: Sebastian Mlynarski

Purity Ring
Photograph: Dan Curwin

Ed Sheeran
Photograph: Barbara Anastacio

Grizzly Bear
Photograph: Brock Fetch

A$AP Rocky
Photograph: Cybele Malinowski

Gotye
David Byrne and St. Vincent
Global Festival with Neil Young
Photograph: Jo McCaughey

Jack White
Jay-Z

Photograph: crackerfarm

The Avett Brothers

Fill your planner with a plethora of big concerts at New York music venues this fall. Okay, All Tomorrow’s Parties’ home on Pier 36 may not be a bona fide music venue, but we’re pleased to see the festival bring top bands and acts to our doorstep. In other news, Jay-Z opens the Barclays Center with a run of sold-out shows (so you’ll have to hustle for a ticket), and David Byrne and St. Vincent collaborate.Check out essential live music shows this fall. Top bands like the xx and top singers such as Fiona Apple hit music venues across New York City.

RECOMMENDED: Complete guide to Fall in New York

September's best concerts

The Avett Brothers

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

North Carolina's Avett Brothers, formed around brothers Scott and Seth, bring their anthemic, bluegrass-toned roots rock to Rumsey Playfield in support of a new disc, The Carpenter—the follow up to 2009's breakthrough fifth album, I and Love and You. Find out why the album's title track made it to TONY's greatest NYC songs at timeout.com/newyork/music/100-best-nyc-songs, and then go ahead and yowl along as loudly as possible at this big outdoor show.

Central Park, Rumsey Playfield Enter park at Fifth Ave , at 69th St
Mon Sep 30

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Bon Iver + Anais Mitchell

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

Justin Vernon's ascendancy—from recording the debut Bon Iver album alone in a Wisconsin cabin to meeting up with Kanye in Hawaii to cameo on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy—might just be the quintessential indie-rock success story. So it's not surprising that the first local Bon Iver appearances in a year come in the form of a snazzy four-night run at Radio City. You'll certainly hear tunes from last year's brain-teasing prog-folk opus Bon Iver, Bon Iver, alongside the inevitable For Emma, Forever Ago faves.

Radio City Music Hall 1260 Sixth Ave, at 50th St
Fri Sep 21 - Sat Sep 22

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All Tomorrow's Parties: I'll Be Your Mirror USA 2012

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

Formerly a premier out-of-town getaway, ATP has become a staycation opportunity. The vibe may not be as homey as in years past, but the booking is every bit as shrewd: Frank Ocean, the year's buzziest R&B eccentric, headlines, with support from darkly sensual Cincinnati alt-rockers the Afghan Whigs (whose frontman, Greg Dulli, curated the fest), inspired intergenerational composers' collabo Philip Glass and Tyondai Braxton, Montreal avant-prog orchestra Godspeed You! Black Emperor, hip-hop tastemakers the Roots and more. With a lineup like that, we'll happily be their mirror—whatever that means.

Pier 36 299 South St, between Gourverneur and Jackson Sts, 10002
Sat Sep 22 - Sun Sep 23

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Purity Ring

Critics choice

Montreal duo Purity Ring presents the glitchy beats and cooed word fragments of its 4AD debut album, Shrines, which we predict is going to top many a year-end list.

Music Hall of Williamsburg 66 North 6th St, between Kent and Wythe Aves
Fri Sep 21 - Sat Sep 22

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Ed Sheeran + Passenger + Selah Sue

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

Ginger-mopped English popster Ed Sheeran is only 21-years old but already a huge hit at home—his debut album + entered the charts at number one, and he performed at the Olympics closing ceremony—and is making waves over here, too, having recorded a duet with Taylor Swift for her forthcoming album, Red. Oh, and did we mention Elton John is a fan? Get a preview of Sheeran's singular style, mixing earnest acoustic-guitar melodies with an R&B flow, with our exclusive live session at timeout.com/newyork/music/ed-sheeran-live-at-tony.

Terminal 5 610 W 56th St, at Eleventh Ave
Wed Jan 30

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Grizzly Bear

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

Four years after Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood named Grizzly Bear his favorite band, and three years after the group became everyone's favorite band with the release of harmony-laden indie-pop gem Veckatimest, local indie faves made good Grizzly Bear play a swanky gig in support of their new LP, Shields.

Radio City Music Hall 1260 Sixth Ave, at 50th St
Mon Sep 30

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A$AP Rocky + Schoolboy Q + Danny Brown + A$AP Mob

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

Thrillingly inventive (and self-admittedly handsome) New York rapper A$AP Rocky has a unique, hybrid sound that caught the ear of RCA, which recently signed him for a nearly unprecedented $3 million. He shares this Roseland bill with a pair of comparably impressive up-and-comers, including heat-seeking L.A. MC Schoolboy Q and the profoundly weird Danny Brown.

Roseland Ballroom 239 W 52nd St, between Broadway and Eighth Ave
Thu Oct 3

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Gotye

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

Wouter De Backer, the artist known as Gotye, has a pretty robust back catalog: three LPs, spanning the last decade. But however many die-hards turn up for these high-profile headlining dates, it's quite possible that many will come in knowing only a single song by the Aussie art-pop auteur: the curious, bewitching 2011 gem "Somebody That I Used to Know," a global smash that moved more than 6 million copies in the States alone. Consider these gigs a chance to remedy that imbalance.

Williamsburg Park Kent Ave, at North 12th St
Thu Oct 3

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David Byrne and St. Vincent

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

The team-up of affable art-pop kingpin David Byrne and brilliant St. Vincent mastermind Annie Clark is one of the year's most highly anticipated collaborations. Tonight the two present a mix of back-catalog material and music from a new joint LP, Love This Giant.

Williamsburg Park Kent Ave, at North 12th St
Sat Oct 5

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Global Festival 2012 with Neil Young and Crazy Horse + Foo Fighters + The Black Keys + Band of Horses + K'Naan

Critics choice
Free

Neil Young and Dave Grohl top a madly stacked free outdoor concert in Central Park, and you're invited…but there's a catch: The festival bill is meant to raise awareness of the Global Poverty Project, an Australian initiative meant to help wipe out extreme poverty, and the only way you can get free tickets for the big show is to earn them through charitable activities. Pricy VIP deals are also available; see globalfestival.com for complete details.

Central Park, Great Lawn midpark, from 79th to 85th Sts
Sat Oct 5

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Jack White

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

His signature project, the White Stripes, may have split up last February, but Jack White's stock hasn't dropped in the slightest. Chalk it up to his old-fashioned workaholism—evidenced by a long series of sharp side projects (The Raconteurs, the Dead Weather) and collaborations (Wanda Jackson, Insane Clown Posse)—as well a recent solo debut, Blunderbuss, that handily sums up his patented roots-punk eccentricity. Take a tour of White's cabinet of wonders at these victory-lap Radio City dates.

Radio City Music Hall 1260 Sixth Ave, at 50th St
Sat Sep 29 - Sun Sep 30

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Jay-Z

Price band: 3/4
Critics choice

Measured by any standard, Jay-Z is the biggest player on the hip-hop scene. He cuts his highest profile ever with this eight-night (and counting!) stint opening the controversial new Atlantic Yards home of the Brooklyn Nets—the basketball team of which Hova is part-owner. Expect high times and guests galore, and thank the man for making so many seats affordable.