Reggaeton, Psych Rock, Brat-Pop, and More Crucial Concerts
Local shows worth your admission this week
George Clanton
Friday 18, Mohawk
George Clanton – not to be confused with legendary Parliament-Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton – makes the type of trippy, nostalgic electronic music that the kids in 2010 used to call vaporwave. Churning with slow trip-hop beats and dripping in reverb, Clanton’s liminal compositions perfectly befit the ever-conflicted internet generation, full of teenagers who romanticize the unplugged past on internationally connected social media forums. Following 2023 solo release Ooh Rap I Ya, the artist’s latest project, 2024’s Fauxllennium, taps TikTok viral indie pop band TV Girl for stronger hooks and more discernible vocals. Fellow Clanton collaborator Neggy Gemmy opens. – Carys Anderson
Napalm Death and Melvins
Friday 18, Emo’s
A double-headed hellbeast of iconoclastic heaviness, old pals Napalm Death and the Melvins bring the sweet ’n’ sour pain to kick off the weekend in celebration of their collaborative limited-edition LP Savage Imperial Death March. West Midlands’ finest pioneered grindcore before conquering death metal, adding a sociopolitical edge unmatched by their thrashing compadres. The Washington-launched Melvins gave grunge its roots, but blazed their own slow, eccentric trail. You’d think the dissonant approaches wouldn’t play nice together, but you’d be earbleedingly wrong. North Carolina stoner weirdos Weedeater and Death bassist Shane Embury’s horrortronica project Dark Sky Burial open. – Michael Toland
Curren$y
Friday 18, Empire Garage
Though known in the broader zeitgeist for his 2015 single “Bottom of the Bottle,” featuring Lil Wayne and August Alsina, Curren$y’s woozy musings about muscle cars, private jet life, and dalliances with the fairer sex have been the soundtrack to many a blunt session since the release of 2009 mixtapes This Ain’t No Mixtape and Jet Files. 2010’s indie classic Pilot Talk pushed the New Orleans native beyond mixtape stardom. Spitta Andretti’s recent work has featured a trusted producer cohort – including Harry Fraud, with whom he released the invigorating Never Catch Us, their 10th collaborative project. – Kahron Spearman
Austin Reggae Fest
Friday 18 – Sunday 20, Auditorium Shores
Local reports of SXSW’s musical demise weren’t exaggerated, just egregiously misrepresented. If said “reporters” camped at Flamingo Cantina for six glorious nights of world music, that might have been avoided. Core to the Austin Reggae Fest, which turned 30 last May, Sixth Street’s reggae HQ hosts a few of the dozen-plus luminaries on Auditorium Shores over three days. Headliners include roots reggae legend Luciano, dancehall rapper Kabaka Pyramid, one-man DJ system Anthony B, and 52-year-old Kingston kings Third World, still led by guitarist/cellist Stephen “Cat” Coore. Biggest annual fundraiser for the Central Texas Food Bank, what other local music festival allows drums, hula hoops, and wagons?! – Raoul Hernandez
Classical Music for the World’s “East in the West: Sounds, Minds, and Dharma”
Through May 4, multiple locations
Classical Music for the World’s spring festival commences with CMFW artistic adviser and cellist Francesco Mastromatteo performing a Bach-heavy program under the theme “Under the Cross” – a good fit for Good Friday. Other opening weekend entertainments (all entirely free, by the way) include classical guitarist Noemi Passiatore on Saturday and then a pairing of Mastromatteo and Passiatore on Sunday for a bill that spans Enrique Granados’ Goyescas to Ennio Morricone’s film scores. In total, the festival boasts seven nights of (again, entirely free!) music across three weeks, culminating in a May 4’s Love Concert: “Celebrating Oneness” at Fo Guang Shan Xiang Yun Temple, presenting sponsor. – Kimberley Jones
Do Not Disturb Presents: Black Coffee
Saturday 19, Civil Goat Manor
A Saturday morning coffee & chill session doesn’t get much better – except when there’s also world-class queer Black DJs spinning ’til the afternoon. Local mix masters Do Not Disturb Collective – aka Jasmin Porter and Sonder – take over the Manor locale of this Austin coffeehouse to play the perfect weekend-starter tunes. There’ll also be a boozy brunchy cocktail menu, curated with picks from Pangea Selections, as well as free coffee for the first 10 guests. Secure your sip with the magic phrase: “One cup of DND, please!” – James Scott
Green Acres Hop Fest & Springtime Art Market
Saturday 19, Jester King Brewery
Art thou feeling it now, Mr. Krabs – I mean, Chronicle reader? Those first sunny spring days have shown their cloudless faces, and now the Hill Country calls for us to all go drink sour beers among goats. Such is the reason for this Jester King season, where the massive brewery complex unfurls not only a psych-sational music lineup featuring tribute bands aplenty but also an art market with more than 60 creators; guest taps from Brujos Brewing, Cellar Maker, Rustic Ales, and more; on-site terp tipples by Tejas Tonic; and Jester King Kitchen’s usual gustatory goods, aka pizza and smashburgers. Not enough for ye? Try these offerings on: a balloon artist, face-painting, glass blowing, tours of the grounds, live tattooing, pottery making, screenprinting, a bonfire, tie-dye, and goats in tie-dye. Then gather round for the day-capper screening of Dazed and Confused from Rocket Cinema. – James Scott
Smiddy’s Soul House Pop-Up
Sunday 20, Haute Spot
BLK ODYSSY consistently proves one of Austin’s most provocatively eclectic exports, emphasized by last year’s third LP 1-800-FANTASY, which laced his bedrock funk and R&B with sharp, earwormed pop-rock touches. Highlighting his versatility, the “funkentologist” pulls a pop-up soul restaurant into Cedar Park, with a menu honoring his late brother and lineup worthy of the artist’s own genre-dissolving impulse. Dossey delivers new dance-punk EP Crying in Public alongside Past Lives singer Quentin Arispe’s ecstasy beats from As Above, So Below, while Midnight Navy smoothes Latin jazz and soul to Jonathan Terrell’s kicking Americana. – Doug Freeman
Charli XCX
Tuesday 22 – Wednesday 23, Moody Center
Charlotte Emma Aitchison will never be able to sing “I’m famous, but not quite” ever again. brat finally launched this decades-long music industry grinder from curious cult artist – always on the periphery despite penning hooks and hits for Icona Pop, Iggy Azalea, and even Blondie – to bona fide superstar, one who pulls double duty on SNL and triggers a never-ending movement of pop, coke, and lime green. Forget the overwrought memes – the album is still the main event, a whirlwind of musings on womanhood, insecurity, and success soundtracked by the glimmering dance music Charli has innovated for years. Legacy is undebated, indeed. – Carys Anderson
Bardo (of Chicano Batman)
Tuesday 22, 29th Street Ballroom
It’s been approximately 170 days since Chicano Batman performed for the last time, and consequently, Bardo Martinez is going on a rebirth road trip. The frontman is making an Austin stop at 29th Street Ballroom on his solo “Renacer” tour following the L.A. group’s indefinite hiatus announcement in November 2024. His latest March single of the same name features Combo Chimbita for an upbeat, synth-pumped atmosphere of Latin hip-hop with a splash of psychedelic indie. – Catalina Perez
Japanese Breakfast: The Melancholy Tour
Wednesday 23, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Michelle Zauner’s band has changed vibes many times from the auto-bio reflection in first album Psychopomp and sophomore effort Soft Sounds From Another Planet to 2021 release Jubilee, which represented a more fantastical and joyous narrative turn. New album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) finds Zauner and bandmates Deven Craige, Craig Hendrix, and Peter Bradley (Zauner’s husband) traipsing through gothic romance fields – not watered by the sorrow of previous personal productions but an effervescent melancholy. The band graces the Moody Theater on a weekday, blanketing this fair city in a subtle yearning that will strike some to cry, some to love, and some to wear really elaborate costumes. Ginger Root opens with his self-described “aggressive elevator soul,” including viral moment “Loretta.” – James Scott
Kraftwerk
Wednesday 23, Bass Concert Hall
Charli XCX and Kraftwerk playing back-to-back nights in Austin may as well be billed as a crash course in the history of electronic music. Fifty years before brat, Kraftwerk dropped Autobahn, their five-song, 42-minute fourth album that solidified the Düsseldorf band’s evolution from Krautrock scenesters to minimalist synthesizer innovators. Founding vocalist/keyboardist Ralf Hütter, now the band’s only consistent member, celebrates the project’s golden jubilee with the Multimedia Tour, a reliably inventive trek that combines music, visuals, and performance art. – Carys Anderson
Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII
Thursday 24 & Sunday 27, Alamo Lakeline, Slaughter Lane & Village
The worst myth that concert films can possibly try to sell the cinema audience is that it’s just like being there. Well, apart from paying $15 for a soda, it’s not. There’s no one treading on your feet, no eight-foot point guard suddenly standing in front of you, and no one tunelessly screaming the wrong lyrics. So Pink Floyd’s legendary performance at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii doesn’t even try. It’s just the band, performing tracks from Meddle and Saucerful of Secrets, in a completely empty space that once held 20,000 screaming fans before being buried for nearly 1,700 years by ash from nearby Mount Vesuvius. – Richard Whittaker
Austin Psych Fest Kickoff: Ringo Deathstarr, LSD and the Search for God, Blushing
Thursday 24, Mohawk
Jump-start this year’s stacked Psych Fest with Ringo Deathstarr’s gauzy shoegaze symphony before they embark on their 2025 West Coast tour. Joining the trio are reverb-drenched rockers LSD and the Search for God, who – with only two EPs under their belts over the span of two decades – lure listeners in with their fuzz-fueled psychedelic whirlwind. Homegrown noise pop quartet Blushing completes the night’s dreamy lineup on Mohawk’s outdoor stage. Sugarcoat, the third studio album from the husband-and-wife duos, pairs sonic gleams with shimmering resonance and lush vocals that you won’t want to miss live. – Miranda Garza
J Balvin
Thursday 24, Moody Center
Reggaeton has had many faces at its forefront since the days of Daddy Yankee and Don Omar. With Bad Bunny, Maluma, and J Balvin currently occupying the throne, the Panama-launched genre has now entered a new era. As far as ATX is concerned, the Latin genre last graced the Moody Center stage in April 2024 with Bad Bunny’s “Most Wanted” tour. Almost exactly a year later, reggaeton-rival J Balvin is set to make a Moody Center stop for his “Back to the Rayo” tour. – Catalina Perez
Austin Psych Fest Kickoff: Etran de L’Aïr and Maya Ongaku
Thursday 24, Hotel Vegas
Modern psych rock spans a wide spectrum, influenced by countless styles. The two acts headlining the Austin Psych Fest Kickoff at Hotel Vegas showcase its most common contemporary forms. Etran de L’Aïr, a fourpiece from Agadez, Niger, laces intricate electric guitar solos amid rapid drum beats and communal vocals – an electrifying take on the region’s signature “desert blues.” Tokyo-based Maya Ongaku, in contrast, leans into the genre’s dreamier side, weaving in nature sounds, hypnotic strings, and flute to create a tranquil, seaside-inspired soundscape. – Caroline Drew