A venue steeped in New York City history, Irving Plaza remains a favorite destination of the local music scene. The intimate ballroom setting is a great place to check out a fresh act or an old favorite, and no matter where you are, you’re in an excellent spot to take in the band. 25¢ from each ticket is donated to LIFEbeat, a nonprofit organization mobilizing the music industry in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

With excellent sight lines, great acoustics, and bars on all three levels, it’s no wonder the Bowery Ballroom has established itself as one of the city’s best music venues. The smaller setting with downstairs lounge and balcony seating gives off a cozy vibe great for the diverse crowd and wide range of artists sharing the stage here. Get in before the show sells out, but keep in mind the box office at Mercury Lounge accepts cash only.

Open since 1886, Webster Hall is an East Village concert venue, nightclub, circus, burlesque hall, and much more.  Complete with five dance floors, the expansive, multi-level space wears many hats, but primarily serves as a music hall for visiting acts such as Dan Auerbach, the xx, and Vampire Weekend, to name a few.  If you are looking for gratifying entertainment across the board, this is the place for you.

Who doesn’t like to listen to live music while they bowl?  That’s the exact idea behind the expansive Brooklyn Bowl, a space that combines 16 bowling lanes, 1 stage, 2 bars, and 1 Blue Ribbon restaurant to form a haven for concerts, bowling, drinking and dining all under one 23,000 square-foot roof.  Most concerts are free to the public, but you will still have to purchase lanes to get your Kingpin on.  Situated out in – you guessed it – Brooklyn, prices are fairly reasonable ($40 per lane per hour with $4 shoe rental), and the place stays open until at least 2 am during the week and 4 am on Saturday nights.  So go grab some friends and make the trek to knock some pins.  It’s worth it.

Film Forum opened in 1970 as an alternative screening space with fifty folding chairs, one projector, and a $19,000 annual budget. Fast forward to today, and the theater is the only autonomous non-profit cinema in New York City. Film Forum remains a hot button for cinema junkies and features an array of hard to find movies and genres: foreign and American classics, documentaries, directors’ retrospectives, and festivals. Expect to find everything from Hitchcock to Truffaut, African documentaries, Mick Jagger trying to act in a hot tub, and cultural explosions from all ends of the globe.

The IFC Center, NYC’s ultimate entertainment space for New Yorkers seeking out the best in independent film, opened in June 2005 in the historic Waverly Theater. After a four-year renovation, the new complex features three state-of–the-art cinemas with luxurious seating and high-definition digital 35mm projection. Expect an array of genres: new independent, foreign, and documentary features, weekend classics (every weekend at noon), Waverly Midnights (cult movies every Friday and Saturday night at midnight), and Short Attention Span Cinema (short films screening before every feature)—all with no commercials on the screens. The venue also features The Waverly at IFC Center (a Great Performances restaurant that serves lunch, dinner and snacks, and features a full bar) and Posteritati Gallery at IFC Center (exhibitions of vintage movie posters from around the globe).

Located on the edge of Greenwich Village, the Quad features some of the most obscure and interesting films to hit theaters—everything from Italian midget stalker flicks to French new wave, Middle Eastern films, novel adaptations, and documentaries. Henry Jaglom on shopper mania, anyone?

Sunshine Cinema has come a long way since Yiddish vaudeville—its main feature in 1909 when it originally opened as the Houston Hippodrome. In 1945, this home of shtick kicks closed down to become a warehouse until art collector/visionary Tim Nye spearheaded a $12 million renovation, renaming it “Sunshine” in 1996. Now after ten years, more than half of the five restored auditoriums feature stadium seating. It is the Lower East Side’s premier destination for both indie and art house films.

The Village East Cinemas is the sister theater of the Angelika Film Center. Village East opened as a Yiddish theater in 1926, and there are a few Moorish moldings still in tact. The theater serves up all the new guilty pleasure blockbusters with a smattering of indie flicks. So pack your oversized shades and head incognito to take in the latest Brad Pitt glam role.

Some theaters still promote groundbreaking performances. P.S. 122 can be considered a stalwart in the art of interpretation, whether the program features drama, dance, or interdisciplinary arts. We’re talking about a French satire (in French and English) that equates love with learning to fly, a dance troupe choreographed by a former general who depicts war and intimacy on stage, satirists, and readings of stories that incorporate computer blogs.