Live Music to See This Weekend

Hitting the summer slumps? Try a sonic solution. Pack your Friday through Sunday with the music team's cherry-picked recommendations.

FRIDAY

Kreayshawn / Calliope Musicals

Empire Control Room
Fri., July 28, 8pm

Viral rap sensation Kreayshawn of “Gucci Gucci” fame has since embraced motherhood. The Bay Area queen of online realness returns minus the White Girl Mob for a DJ set boasting custom spinner merch, with Texas producers Ghostpizza and Creepside opening. Meanwhile, ecstatic prop-party experts Calliope Musicals host a more psychedelic stage alongside fellow locals Sip Sip and the Sour Notes. – Rachel Rascoe

Peach Fuzz Release Party

Cheer Up Charlies
Fri., July 28, 8pm

Peach Fuzz, Austin’s print-only arts zine celebrating sex and the human form, marks its latest issue with a native soundtrack. Wild Bill & the Lost Knobs play swaggering Americana, a collision of rock & roll and honky-tonk, while Rotten Mangos favor scuzzy psychedelia. Magic Rockers of Texas floor an adrenaline-driven blues and garage rock. Led by Sara Houser’s booming vox, Löwin’s moody pop-rock rounds out the $5 fiesta. – Libby Webster

Headcrusher Album Release

Come & Take It Live
Fri., July 28, 7pm

In 2013, opening the main stage on the first day of Phil Anselmo’s inaugural Housecore Horror Festival at Emo’s, Headcrusher thrashed death metal as hardcore as any headliner that weekend. “Born in Colombia, made in Texas” and based in Austin, the South American fivepiece finally delivers an unforgiving follow-up to the previous year’s debut U.S. LP. Death Comes With Silence proves worth the wait via an avalanche of riffs and roar detailed by Sepultura-like touches of Latin atmospherics. – Raoul Hernandez

Yellowman

Flamingo Cantina
Fri., July 28, 9pm

Dancehall’s most unlikely superstar, an overtly sexual albino, endures among the most resilient figures in Jamaican music. Raised in a Kingston orphanage and facially/vocally disfigured from cancer surgery at the height of his fame, the 61-year-old toaster still boasts a marvelous live show complete with uplifting vibes, astonishingly limber dance moves, and a bevy of classics including “Letter to Rosey” and the oft-sampled “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng.” – Kevin Curtin

SATURDAY

Babes Fest 17

Empire Control Room
Sat., July 29, 7pm

“Underrated,” a term fully manifested in women. Austin nonprofit #BossBabesATX promotes a more inclusive arts community, programming events since 2015. Saturday, they occupy Empire for Babes Fest 17, a three-day music, comedy, and film festival, whose final installment includes 17 female-led artists on two stages. Penultimate headliner outside, San Antonio’s Femina-X meshes tribal and ethnic dance rhythms with electro throbs. Local alt-R&B singer Mélat readies a follow-up to her 2016 LP MéVen, cushion-y and atmospheric instrumentals bedding dark, silky vocals. – Isabella Castro-Cota

Randy Rogers Band

Nutty Brown Cafe
Sat., July 29, 6pm

On the day Randy Rogers began recording last year’s Nothing Shines Like Neon, his friend and Cheatham Street Warehouse mentor Kent Finlay died. That news set the tone for the San Marcos quintet’s seventh and best LP. Rogers has since taken over Finlay’s famed venue, bringing in Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski for a tribute on the album’s “Look Out Yonder,” charting an evolutionary leap for one of Texas country’s best performers. – Doug Freeman

DIIV / Alex Napping

Mohawk
Sat., July 29, 8pm

DIIV crafted a fresh brand of dreamy, dulled-out rock on 2012 debut Oshin, its moody shredding continued on last year’s Is the Is Are. Local brewers Oskar Blues launch a new tallboy behind the New Yorkers, adding local psychs Curtis Roush (Bright Light Social Hour) and Hidden Ritual to the free event. Inside, the homegrown Alex Napping matches DIIV’s soft grooves with first full-length Mise en Place on indie darling presser Father/Daughter. Hometowners MeanGirls and Krista Van Liew open. – Rachel Rascoe

Festival de Cumbia en la Capital

Barracuda
Sat., July 29, 9pm

Running a fourth year, FDC showcases myriad Afro-Latin flavors of cumbia. Grupo Fantasma counterparts and organizers El Tule headline a dozen-band bill from Central Texas and Mexico. Highlights include Superfónicos’ swirling psychedelics and sinewy percussion, while more traditional sounds emanate from south of the border in Plan Sonidero and Los Parranderos de la Kumbia. Self-ordained as Austin’s Cumbia Masters, Cinco Doce steer clubward with Tejano. – Alejandra Ramirez

Idina Menzel

Bass Concert Hall
Sat., July 29, 8pm

Debuting on Broadway in 1995 for Rent, NYC siren Idina Menzel released her debut rock album, Still I Can’t Be Still, three years later. Since then, she’s alternated between theatre and film, Wicked and Frozen going mega. Last year’s pop album, Idina, detailed the complexities of womanhood and love’s fickle nature. – Isabella Castro-Cota

SUNDAY

Ohio Players

Empire Control Room
Sun., July 30, 6pm

In their Seventies heyday, the Ohio Players churned out horn-laden funk and early disco while sporting matching spandex and oversized Afros. The sexiest gatefold LPs ever produced (Pain, Pleasure, Ecstasy, Honey, Climax) hosted a solid-gold hit parade (“Fire,” “Skin Tight”). The ninepiece currently riding the “Love Rollercoaster” boasts drummer James “Diamond” Williams, who joined the band in 1973, and members from lineups that same decade. – Thomas Fawcett

Ponty Bone Day

Antone's Nightclub
Sun., July 30, 2pm

Accordionist Ponty Bone was once ubiquitous to our scene, adding magic to the original Joe Ely Band, Supernatural Family Band, and countless others while later leading his own Squeezetones. He’s unable to perform because of medical problems, but a star-studded bash includes local bar rock kings the Booze Weasels, TG Bad with Denny Freeman and John X Reed, Don Leady & the Tailgators, Joel Guzman, and more. 1-5pm. – Jay Trachtenberg

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Don’t agree with our recommendations? It happens. Check out all the shows happening this coming week on our Club Listings page. See all of our listings – music and otherwise – at austinchronicle.com/calendar.