Cheap live music in NYC (under $20)

In a city where a single ticket can run you a week's groceries, the under-$20 show is the real New York. We track the cheap end of the calendar: $10 doors at Gold Sounds in Bushwick, sliding-scale nights at H0L0 in Ridgewood, the kind of room where the band loads in through the same door you walked through. This is last-minute territory. A lot of these rooms — C'mon Everybody in Bed-Stuy, TV Eye, Union Pool's back patio — don't sell out, so you can decide at 8pm and still catch the second set. Bring cash for the door; tip the openers. The list below is live and refreshes as venues confirm prices, so check back the day of. No arenas, no $90 'fees included' nonsense — just small rooms, real bands, money left for the bar.