Dean & Britta make beautiful silent music together

Friday January 16

Location: Meat Packing District, NYC
Bands: Eugene Mirman Get Tickets Here
Show time: 8:30 & 10:30 PM
Venue: Comix
Food: Spice Market
Drink: Plunge
Miscellaneous: Little Pie Company (located at 407 W14th St.)

Host of his own comedy fest (The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival), Eugene Mirman, not surprisingly, is a self-deprecating comedian who has had parts on many shows including Flight of the Conchords. He performs at Comix as part of their New Wave of Comedy. For dinner, if you can get a table, check out Spice Market. Chef and owner Jean-Georges Vongerichten converted this HUGE space into one of the sexiest Asian restaurants in NYC. Serving up exquisite dishes like the onion and chili crusted short ribs with egg noodles and pea shoots ($22), Spice Market impresses. If you choose not to stay at APT for drinks, close by is Plunge. Located at the top of the Hotel Gansevoort, this rooftop lounge offers stunning views of the city. If dessert is your thing, stop over at Little Pie Company, where pies are baked on premises. Whether you’re in the mood for sour cream apple, southern pecan, or Mississippi mud pie, you can’t go wrong here.

Friday January 16

Location: Tribeca, NYC
Bands: Rich Medina + Q-Tip
Show time: 10:30 PM
Venue: Santos Party House
Food: Pakistan Tea House
Drink: Mocca Lounge
Miscellaneous: Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Rich Medina knows his music and he’s been DJ’ing for years around the city and world. Joining him on the wheels of steel is Q-Tip who’s a legendary member of A Tribe Called Quest and who’s new album The Renaissance is so worth picking up! Join them as they spin hip-hop, soul, and funk, and these two know their stuff. Nearby, Pakistan Tea House is a buffet style Indian restaurant where you can choose between chicken, meat, fish and vegetables. It’s affordable and very good. For drinks, check out Mocca Lounge. With a funky interior and a menu of Italian inspired fare, it’s also a bar with a large list of coffees with or without alcohol, beers, and frozen shots. Smack dab in the heart of Chinatown, the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory makes gourmet ice cream flavors like Black Sesame, Ginger, Durian, and more exotic flavors like Taro and Wasabi. Don’t worry, they have the go-to’s like Vanilla, fruits, and chocolate flavors too.

Saturday January 17

Location: Upper West Side, NYC
Band: 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
Show time: 8:30 PM
Venue: Jazz at Lincoln Center, Allen Room, Time Warner Center
Food: Josie’s
Drink: Candle Bar
Miscellaneous: Emack & Bolio’s

Join electro-pop music act Dean & Britta as they play music live to Andy Warhol’s screen tests featuring people who had visited his studio like Lou Reed, Dennis Hopper, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, and nine others. Each four minute silent film will be projected behind the band. It’s like a good old fashioned freak-out! Dairy free, organic, and free-range are things that come up often on the menu at Josie’s, offering dishes like the Warm Macadamia-Crusted Natural Chicken Breast Dinner Salad ($17.75), several tofu and seitan specialty dishes and the Freshly Ground Char-Grilled Brandt Natural Beef Cheeseburger ($15.75), so everyone here will walk away happy. Comfortable and dimly lit, the Candle Bar has a pool table in the back and drink specials daily. For some of the best and most interesting ice cream in the city, Emack & Bolio’s offers some eclectic flavors like Deep Purple Cow (Black Raspberry ice cream with white and dark chocolate chips and blueberries). This place takes their ice cream serious.

Saturday January 17

Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Bands: Smokey’s Roundup
Show time: 10:30 PM
Venue: Barbès
Food: Press 195
Drink: The Gate
Miscellaneous: The Chocolate Room

Guitarist Smokey Hormel has a list of legendary musicians he’s played with the size of a convicts rap sheet. Here’s a short list: Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Marianne Faithful, Neil Diamond, Joe Strummer, and a list of current artists like Beck and Justin Timberlake. Here he sets his sights on western swing music inspired by the likes of Milton Brown. Joining him are Charley Burnham (fiddle), Tim Luntzel (string bass), Andrew Borger (drums), and Bob Hoffnar (Pedal steel). Taking the pressed sandwich to the gourmet level, Press 195 offers 30 kinds of hot pressed sandwiches that make this place hard to get tired of. One of the more social bars in Park Slope, The Gate is a great bar with a wide selection of local beers on tap and an outdoor patio overlooking the park. A great little dessert and coffee shop, The Chocolate Room has a menu filled with everything made with some form of chocolate. Try the hot chocolate, you won’t regret it.

Sunday January 18

Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Bands: Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Mercury Lounge
Food: Paladar
Drink: Libation
Miscellaneous: Bereket

Shilpa Ray, a husky voiced little cherub playing her harmonium, is one powerhouse of a singer and being backed by Her Happy Hookers, they add the pop sensibilities to her music that makes the band one of the most engaging local acts on the scene. Joining them are Forest Fire, SUSU, and Glass Ghost. One of the best Pan-Latin restaurants in the city, Paladar, helmed by Chef Aarón Sanchez, creates eclectic dishes that tickle your palate like the Salmon con Parcha, a seared salmon with black squid rice and spicy passion fruit glaze ($17). Very swanky for Ludlow Street, Libation is a three-floor bar and nightclub beautifully designed with mostly warm brown and gold colors. Though the drinks are pricey, it’s worth trying this place, at least once. One of my favorite late night places for eats, Bereket has some of the best falafels on the L.E.S. and is one of the funniest places to eat after 2 a.m., because everyone there is just as drunk as you are.