Your Queens & Bronx Weekend: Aug 13–16
Mid-August in the outer boroughs, and the calendar is refusing to cool off. This weekend runs the full width of the dial — greased-back rockabilly in Ridgewood, bass-drop chaos in Forest Hills, whisper-soft indie, Latin jazz that could raise the dead, and a Grammy-and-Oscar winner closing it all out under the lights. Here is where to point yourself Thursday through Sunday.
Thursday, Aug 13 — Bloodshot Bill, Howlin' Hurd, Flavour at TV Eye (Ridgewood). Start loud and start early. Cavestomp presents the one-man-band howl of Bloodshot Bill, backed by Howlin' Hurd and Flavour, with DJ Em-A-Lena spinning wax between sets. This is primitive rock-and-roll the way the good lord and the reverb tank intended — slap-back vocals, greasy guitar, no apologies. Doors 7 p.m., show 8, tickets $15. Stick around: there's a free Bloodshot Bill afterparty on the TV Eye patio at 10.
Friday, Aug 14 — a genuine embarrassment of riches. Three shows, three moods, pick your allegiance.
If you want bass in your sternum, Zeds Dead headline Forest Hills Stadium with ALLEYCVT and Neumonic — the Canadian bass-music duo turning the historic tennis grounds into an open-air rave for a night.
If you want your feelings handled gently, head back to TV Eye, where Raavi plays with Mikey Leão and Annie Collette. Doors 7, show 7:30, $15 — a bill of tender, guitar-forward indie that's the exact tonal opposite of the Zeds Dead crowd across the borough.
And if you want the pocket, get to Terraza 7 in Elmhurst for Luisito Quintero & 3rd Element, first set 7:30 p.m. Quintero is a percussionist's percussionist — a first-call conguero and timbalero whose credits run deep — and the narrow Gleane Street room is one of the last true Latin-jazz laboratories in the city. Get there early; it fills.
Saturday, Aug 15 — Jon Batiste with Cautious Clay at Forest Hills Stadium. The weekend's marquee. Batiste — Oscar winner, Album of the Year winner, one of the most joyfully unclassifiable live performers working — brings his genre-melting revue to the 14,000-seat Queens landmark, with Cautious Clay opening. Expect a set that lurches gleefully from jazz to gospel to pop to full second-line parade. (See our full spotlight in this issue.)
Sunday, Aug 16. No verified marquee show landed on our desk for Sunday. Consider it a recovery day — or wander up to the Bronx, where the Bronx Music Hall runs its free summer bomba y plena jams on Sundays through the season (dates monthly; check the venue).
Four nights, five neighborhoods' worth of sound, one borough pair that never sits still. TV Eye is at 1647 Weirfield St. in Ridgewood; Terraza 7 at 40-19 Gleane St. in Elmhurst; Forest Hills Stadium at 1 Tennis Place. Go make your ears earn their keep.
Sources: TV Eye NYC — Calendar; Forest Hills Stadium — Songkick; Terraza 7 — Events