August concerts in NYC means bands on a boat, in a backyard, and in parks

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Alright, New York showgoers: It’s your last chance. The fall will bring its usual slew of excellent live-music options, but there’s something special about these dwindling days of summer, when you can still hear everything from hard-driving punk to world-class jazz ringing out through the city’s parks, backyards and even, as you’ll read below, river-faring vessels. Read on for our handpicked highlights from August’s many fine concert offerings, both outdoors and in.

For 30-plus years, the nonprofit arts collective ABC No Rio served as a haven for true independent culture (zines, silkscreening, hardcore shows and the like) on the Lower East Side. The collective is currently building out a new home at its original Rivington Street address and throwing select fundraisers to help foot the bill. The latest is a matinee in Tompkins Square Park headlined by the hooky and ever-rousing Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and also featuring local DIY institution Shellshag, and up-and-comers Crush Fund, Cupid’s Nemesis and Providers.

For around 40 years, Toody Cole played bass and sang alongside her late husband Fred in a series of Portland, Oregon, bands that defined the primal punk-rock spirit, including the Rats, Pierced Arrows and, most famously, Dead Moon. Since Fred’s death, she’s carried on the vibe and repertoire of those groups with her own band, howling lead vocals and driving a scrappy garage-rock power trio. Cole makes a rare local appearance this month at Summer Thunder, the quintessential Williamsburg hang held on warm-weather Sundays in Union Pool’s backyard. (The concert is free, but make sure to show up early, as these gigs can get crowded.)

Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard the Liberty Belle, Aug. 5

Concert cruises can evoke a staid and breezy scene, but in recent years, Water From Your Eyes, the buzzy and beloved indie-pop duo, have reclaimed them as floating art parties, or as an attendee once described them , “a basement show but on a boat.” For their fourth annual “Boat Show,” backed by Brooklyn club Baby’s All Right and setting sail on Rocks Off’s riverboat-style four-level Liberty Belle, they’re inviting along Deerhoof, whose brand of off-kilter exuberance helped to pave the way for their own lovably skewed sounds. Formal dress is encouraged, so show up in your swankiest nautical-appropriate attire. (Note: This one is sold out but try your luck with the wait list !)

If NYC’s DIY rock scene of the early 2000s had a house band, it was Parts & Labor. The trio combined the era’s blown-out art-punk aesthetic with a knack for penning righteous, shout-along rallying cries. The band called it quits in 2012, but as captured in "Us v. Them ," Ronen Givony’s recent book offering an eyewitness chronicle of the era, its memory burns bright. Now they’re back with a new album. Rounded out by openers including fellow travelers such as Oneida and Kinski, and new-school New York–DIY trailblazers like 75 Dollar Bill, these two shows promise a sweaty return to a wilder era of outer-borough rock.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside, Prospect Park Aug. 8

Marcus Garvey Park; Tompkins Square Park, Aug. 28–30

Top-tier jazz comes to NYC parks in August, with two high-profile festivals bracketing the month, each an equally solid bet for diehards or newbies. First up is the debut of the Brooklyn Jazz Festival, a new daylong event at Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center. The impressive lineup focuses on midcareer masters such as pianist Jason Moran (whose Bandwagon trio will be joined here by rising stars Akili Bradley and Devon Gates) and saxophonist Chris Potter, as well as a younger cohort of brilliant bandleaders such as drummer Marcus Gilmore, bassist Linda May Han Oh and vibraphonist Joel Ross.

The end of the month sees the return of the three-day Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, a staple of the city’s annual concert calendar, first held in 1993. The first two concerts, in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a generation-spanning lineup including the saxophonists Joshua Redman and Nicole Glover, respectively, while Sunday’s event in Tompkins Square Park (near where Parker himself lived in the early 1950s) hosts another outstanding bill including Ravi Coltrane, Billy Hart, Kassa Overall and Vanisha Gould.

The alt-hip-hop generation of the 2010s embraced all manner of noise and unsettling, abstract sonics, epitomized by the work of L.A.’s Clipping, featuring original Hamilton cast member Daveed Diggs on the mic. The group is throwing a 10th-anniversary party for its heady 2016 concept album Splendor & Misery , with help from fellow alt-hip-hop luminaries including Shabazz Palaces (the current vehicle of genre pioneer and former Digable Planets member Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler), Armand Hammer member Elucid and rapper Fatboi Sharif, as well as art-rocker Spellling, noise artist Evicshen and experimental turntablist Maria Chavez.

Going strong since 1998, Warm Up — MoMA PS1’s weekly summer series spotlighting dance music, hip-hop, R&B, experimental sound and more — is closing out its 2026 season with a typically strong slate of shows. We have our eye on the Aug. 28 bill — featuring the high-energy, trance-inspired sounds of Canadian DJ TDJ; De Schuurman, a specialist in the so-called “bubbling” style, built on ac...

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