Lou Reed and the other grumpies from the Velvet Underground will reunite tonight (sans John Cale and Nico) for a jam down memory lane at the New York Public Library. They’ll converse with David Fricke, author of the new book The Velvet Underground: New York Art (Rizzoli), who describes the band and friends of Andy Warhol as the Beatles of New York. But in case there’s an audience questions portion, we wouldn’t advise mentioning that to Reed, who’d surely swoop down on you and bite your head off. He’s like that.

December 8, 7:00 pm, Celeste Bartos Forum, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, $25 ($15 for students).