Marc Ribot’s 55th-birthday festival in May

Various NY clubs will host this birthday fest.

Downtown icon Marc Ribot—a veteran bandleader as well as a key sideman to the likes of John Zorn and Tom Waits—is such an eclectic musician that it’s hard to get a complete picture of his work. But local fans will have a great opportunity to do just that when the guitarist surveys his career in an upcoming multivenue 55th-birthday celebration. Running from May 9 through the 17th at clubs ranging from the Stone to Joe’s Pub, the festival includes gigs with his renowned party band Los Cubanos Postizos and his gritty improv groups, Ceramic Dog, Spiritual Unity and Young Philadelphians, as well as partial reunions of his early outfits Shrek and Rootless Cosmopolitans, and the debut of a new quartet featuring fellow guitarist Mary Halvorson.