Shilpa Ray at The Bug Jar | June 7, 2026

The Monroe Avenue corridor has a way of pulling you in, and on Sunday, June 7, it has a very good reason. Shilpa Ray — the Brooklyn-based blues-punk force who toured as Nick Cave’s backup vocalist and main support in 2013 — plays The Bug Jar. Doors at 7 PM, show at 8.

About Shilpa Ray

Shilpa Ray does not fit neatly into a category, which is probably why Nick Cave noticed her. The New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based musician plays vocals and Indian harmonium — a combination that lands somewhere between Patti Smith’s raw authority, the theatrical menace of Cave himself, and the blues-drenched howl of The Gun Club. She has opened for Patti Smith and Elvis Costello and built a catalog that runs from Teenage and Torture (2011) through Last Year’s Savage (2015) and beyond.

That 2015 record — dark, atmospheric art rock threaded through with punk and soul — is the kind of album that makes you wonder why you hadn’t been paying attention sooner. Her influences run through Tom Waits, Blondie, The Cramps, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and the result is genuinely her own.

She described her place in the music world with characteristic bluntness: “Nobody grows up wanting to be an artist’s artist. Appreciated by the sub sect of the sub sect is like being the beauty queen at the leper colony.”

This is the final night of a three-date New York run — she plays TV Eye in Ridgewood on June 3 and No Fun in Troy on June 4 before closing out in Rochester.

The Venue

The Bug Jar sits at 219 Monroe Ave, right in the heart of the Rochester / Finger Lakes music scene. One thing to know before you go: advance tickets are 18+ (advance purchases for ages 18–20 are capped at 10 per show), but the door is 21+. If you’re in that window, buy ahead — don’t show up expecting the door to sort it out.

Tickets & Details

Tickets are $17.70–$20.79 and on sale now. Doors 7 PM, show 8 PM. Buy Tickets →