CMJ Wraps Up For Free This Weekend

The CMJ Music Marathon is more than halfway over, which is probably a relief for the thousands of college music DJs and industry wonks who flood the city’s rock dives during the grueling, five-day festival. For those of you who have been staying in all week, the last two days of the marathon provide a chance to catch many of the festival’s most exciting bands—for free.

Arguably the best place to do this is at DIY promoter Todd P’s week-long outdoor festival at the Williamsburg Bridge. Friday’s show with noted punks Double Dagger and The Muslims should be one of the city’s last truly raucous outdoor shows for at least another three or four months. Or at least until the next day, which will present something of a dilemma for the broke. Todd P is closing things out on Saturday with performances from noise-experimentalists Awesome Color and Thank You, as well as sets from a couple of the festival’s most justifiably hyped bands: druggy retro-rockers Vivian Girls, and the deadly infectious Ponytail. Concurrent with this is music blog BrooklynVegan’s free party at the Knitting Factory, which is worth going to if you only plan on seeing Marnie Stern’s dizzying guitar chops first-hand. The eclectic Lemonade and buzz bands Women and the Mae Shi are worth sticking around for as well. If those lineups aren’t doing it for you, Pianos and the Cake Shop—which are conveniently next door to each other on Ludlow Street—are hosting various free events on Friday and Saturday afternoon.

For those of you who are into paying for things, Friday’s best show is a late-night set at Santos Party House from experimental rock group Gang Gang Dance, which is performing behind their most accessible and critically lauded record yet. A Place to Bury Stranger’s 2 a.m. set at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night is a must for noise aficionados, while those looking for something quieter should check out Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and High Places midday sets at the Yard, a vacant lot on the Gowanus Canal waterfront that’s probably one of the best (if most inconvenient) places in the city to see a concert.