I am Adele

Rock & roll and its bastard stepchildren have long been part of New York’s scene; the Velvet Underground moaned to Gotham as the city flirted with heroin, languor, and insipid conversation, Patti Smith and Television layered poetry and guitar lines over a beat you couldn’t dance to in the dark days of Disco, Sonic Youth drowned out an otherwise disposable decade in a riot of noise and feedback, and Public Enemy fought the power before anybody had ever heard the name Giuliani.

Music festivals are hot tickets and provide the opportunity to see tons of bands at a (relatively) low price. The CMJ Music Marathon (877-6-FESTIVAL; www.cmj.com) runs for four nights in the fall and includes over 400 bands and workshops on alternative music culture and college radio production. The Digital Club Festival (677-3530), a newly reconfigured indie-fest, visits New York in late July. The Macintosh New York Music Festival presents over 350 bands over a week-long period. For more electronic experimental sounds, check out Creative Time’s Music in the Anchorage, a June concert series happening in the massive stone chambers in the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. (206-6674).

If arena rock is more your style, check out Madison Square Garden (465-6000), at Seventh Ave. and W. 33rd St., perhaps America’s premier entertainment facility. MSG hosts over 600 events and nearly 6,000,000 spectators every year. New Jersey’s Meadowlands (201-935-3900) and the Nassau Coliseum (516-888-9000) also stage high-priced performances. From June to early September the Coca-Cola Concert Series (516-221-1000) brings rock, jazz, and reggae concerts to Jones Beach.