First Annual Brothers Trip to NYC -- lets hear some suggestions

You should definitely check out the wiki and sidebar stuff - it will have a lot of recommendation for restaurants. If you want specific spots, we will need more details like neighborhood, price point, cuisine. There are some 11,000 spots in the Manhattan, so "whatever is good!" isn't enough to give recommendations on.

As far as places for live music - a lot of spots in Manhattan are places where there are shows and less a bar that just happens to have a band. I like Smalls for jazz downtown. Fat Cat is fun and is more about the whole vibe than just the music. The Cat will get a little funkier. The Bitter End can be fun for just trying to catch as many different acts as you can and isn't too far from the other two. You should also check out music listings on Oh My Rockness, Time Out, Brokelyn, and The Skint for your time here to see if there are any particular shows you're into.

The Comedy Cellar is great. You can't really go wrong with any show, but if you see a JEFF LAMP listing, that's the code for a potential surprise guest. You might get lucky, you might not. You could also consider the Upright Citizens Brigade if you want a sketch show and can't get SNL. I assume it's incredibly hard to get into SNL, but you couldn't pay me money to attend that, so no idea here.

I hope you actually have tickets for the stuff you're listing as you might be surprised at how pricey/difficult to get some of them can be.

Really, ANYTHING, is totally unhelpful. This is a huge city with all kinds of different stuff. I don't have one place I take everyone who visits - I take different visitors different places depending on what they're into or what I think will tickle them. I'd suggest googling some three or seven day NYC itineraries, checking out the sidebar, and getting a few ideas of what kind of stuff you want to do and then asking again.

Good luck with the trip.

/r/AskNYC Thread