NYC events in June 2018

For New York music fans, SummerStage is always one of the highlights of the summer-concerts calendar. The City Parks Foundation series is a juggernaut among warm-weather concert presenters, booking everything from classic New York hip-hop artists in outerborough NYC parks to big-name indie-rock bands on the Central Park mainstage. 

Those keen on catching summer concerts in NYC have a ton of options, including several big-tent summer music festivals like Governors Ball and Panorama. Northside Festival takes a slightly different approach, presenting shows at several venues around Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The result is a diverse experience that hosts rising local acts alongside big names.

Governors Ball occupies a unique place in the NYC summer concerts landscape. SummerStage blankets all five boroughs with a mix of well-curated niche acts; Celebrate Brooklyn! carries out a similarly eclectic mission from its Prospect Park home base. And Northside corners the North Brooklyn indie market—or what’s left of it. The Ball, on the other hand, is the closest thing we have to Coachella, the city’s only bona fide big-tent pop fest. 

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Jazz Age Lawn Party is an essential annual summer stop for revelers looking to dance in the open air and find great things to do outside. Governors Island is the perfect venue to leave the 21st century behind for the delights of the Prohibition-era (including “speakeasy” summer drinks). Dress the part with festive, period-appropriate attire, and come ready to dance at the Jazz Age Lawn Party.

The Chicago rap vet—who recently joined Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins under the moniker August Greene for a joint LP—returns to the city to kick off BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!’s 2018 season. Whether he plays upbeat hits like 2005’s kinetic “Go!” or sensuous newer singles like “Love Star,” you can expect a silky-smooth, danceable start to your summer.

This mind-boggling guitarist's idiosyncratic touch with the fretboard has left indelible marks on King Crimson, the Talking Heads, David Bowie and Frank Zappa, all of whom he's played stints with. Here the pioneering guitarist headlines with his prodigious young trio.

The vital veteran synth-pop trio hits the NYC area for two shows in support of its lean, slick and tightly coiled recent LP, Spirit, its second release for Columbia Records. Expect to hear a strong assortment of DM classics—yes, "Enjoy the Silence"—alongside the new tunes.

Indie-metal MVPs Stephen Brodsky (Cave In) and Ben Koller (Converge) fire up their collaborative venture, Mutoid Man, whose output is a raw, wildly exhilarating collision of psych-fried hard rock and proggy post-hardcore.

Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas plays with his other band, the Voidz, a group's that released two albums of unabashedly weird indie-rock. The crew settles in for a monthlong weekly residency at Elsewhere, with opening sets by rising indie bands including Surfbort, Dilly Dally and Priests.

Awash in boy-girl harmonies and wry, sentimental lyricism, Scottish act Belle and Sebastian has been the reigning champion of twee-pop ever since the release of its sophomore album, If You're Feeling Sinister. Recently, frontman Stuart Murdoch changed the formula with 2015's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, a buoyant comeback record with synth-driven beats and dance floor aspirations. Expect both modes here as the band headlines one of the summer's most promising gigs, with emotive, dazzling balladeer Perfume Genius and local indie-pop heroes Frankie Cosmos opening.

The Thin White Duke is always in season. Ensemble LPR hits Central Park for a reimagining of Bowie’s catalog with an appearance by the Donny McCaslin Group, which served as the backing band on his swan song, Blackstar.

Two of the most versatile, eclectic and prolific bandleaders to emerge in the ’90s and flourish in the aughts, saxophonist Lovano and trumpeter Douglas, join forces in a freewheeling all-star quintet—inspired by the great Wayne Shorter—featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Joey Baron.

West Coast posthardcore quintet Hot Snakes—fronted by Rick Froberg, formerly of Drive Like Jehu and currently of Obits—airs its loud, wiry anthems in the wake of its first new album in fourteen years, Jericho Sirens. The band's first three studio albums were reissued on Sub Pop at the start of this year; consider it an invite to reignite your devotion before the well-loved outfit cuts loose on stage.