Friday August 19

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bands: Rubblebucket
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Brooklyn Bowl
Food: Blue Ribbon
Drink: Brooklyn Bowl
Miscellaneous: Bowling at Brooklyn Bowl

Drumbeats, harmonies, and horns make African-inspired Rubblebucket one of the best funk machines around. Also performing are Janka Nabay and Diamond Doves. For dinner, check out Blue Ribbon, part of the highly rated eateries in the city, you’ll find southern fare including fried chicken and BBQ, some crazy shakes & floats, and more. For drinks, just walk about 20 feet to the bar where they offer nine draft beers from Brooklyn. Finally, and most obvious, there’s 16 lanes of bowling. While the wait is generally long, where else can you throw a strike and see a great band at the same time?

Friday August 19

Location: Chelsea, NYC
Art: Laura Levine: Musicians
Show time: See website for schedule; Through August 19
Venue: Steven Kasher Gallery
Food: Cookshop
Drink: The Half King
Miscellaneous: Pinkberry

The photo exhibition Laura Levine: Musicians is an insider’s look at the artists at the forefront of rock, punk, indie rock, post-punk, hip-hop, New Wave, and No Wave. The show will feature over 35 vintage and modern prints, and is being presented with the exhibition Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-82. Helping take new American cuisine to the next level, Cookshop’s chef Marc Meyers offers your palette seasonal and local flavors like Vermont Suckling Pig in porcetta, with polenta, swiss chard, and cider sauce ($28). A great bar in this neighborhood, The Half King provides an excellent selection of beers and one of the better burgers in Chelsea. As addictive as crack but way better tasting, Pinkberry has been taking NYC by storm with their non-fat yogurt and healthy toppings.

Saturday August 20

Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Band: The War On Drugs Get Tickets Here
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Mercury Lounge
Food: Three of Cups
Drink: Whiskey Ward
Miscellaneous: Sugar Sweet Sunshine

Indie rock act The War On Drugs offers up some interesting music I can only describe as droning with American overtones. Also on board are Porcelain Raft and Arc in Round. What I like about Three of Cups the most is that the food is classic Italian fare like Pizza made in a wood-fired oven, risotto, pasta, while also offering more exciting dishes like lamb stew in a barolo wine reduction, served with potato gnocchi. The atmosphere is relaxing, bordering on romantic. With a name like Whiskey Ward, it’s expected that they deliver the goods, which lucky for this bar, they do. Whether it’s Scotch, Bourbon, Whiskey, or Single Malts, they got em’ along with a pool table and a damn good jukebox. Who doesn’t like cupcakes? Sugar Sweet Sunshine has one of the best in the city. With 10 different kinds, it’s hard to beat.

Saturday August 20

Location: Chelsea, NYC
Art: The View from a Volcano: The Kitchen’s Soho Years, 1971–1985
Show time: See website for schedule; Through August 27; FREE
Venue: The Kitchen
Food: Pop Burger
Drink: Gaslight Lounge
Miscellaneous: Amy’s Bread

The View from a Volcano: The Kitchen’s Soho Years, 1971–1985, an exhibition revealing the depth of its early history as a home for both experimental performance-based work and exciting new developments in the visual arts. The show offers a unique perspective on the vibrant, interconnected downtown New York arts scene of the 1970s and early 1980s and features single-channel videos and other artworks presented alongside audio, video, and print documentation related to the institution’s programming during its fifteen years in Soho (1971-85). Burger joint in the front, upscale lounge in the back, the menu at Pop Burger includes basics like 2 pop burgers for $5 for a quick fix or if your lounging, the likes of tuna tartar with soy truffle jus ($15). The Gaslight Lounge, a great hotspot bar in the meatpacking district, is dark and cozy while affordable for the area. If you don’t know Amy’s Bread, when you order a sandwich at a café or restaurant in the city, ask where they got the bread. There’s a good chance it’s from Amy’s because she’s one of the best bread makers in the city.

Sunday August 21

Location: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Art: Lorna Simpson: Gathered
Show time: See website for schedule; Through August 21
Venue: Brooklyn Museum
Food: Tom’s Restaurant
Drink: Soda Bar
Miscellaneous: Old Brooklyn Parlor

The exhibition Lorna Simpson: Gathered features works that explore this Brooklyn-born artist’s interest in the interplay between fact and fiction, identity and history. Through works that incorporate hundreds of original and found vintage photographs of African Americans that she collects from eBay and flea markets, Lorna Simpson undermines the assumption that archival materials are objective documents of history. It’s the place where Susanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Restaurant,” but Tom’s Restaurant is just as famous for its food. With a near insane breakfast menu, expect items like pancakes with apples and pecans to be brought to you by the sweetest waitresses in Brooklyn. Soda Bar is a great place for drinks. The alcohol is cheap, there’s surprisingly excellent food, and there’s even another room where DJs spin. If it’s too much, you can hang outside in the backyard patio under the stars. The Old Brooklyn Parlor specializes in old school drinks like the Brooklyn Egg Cream and the Lime Cherry Rickey, making it an excellent anchor to this neighborhood.