Live Music This Weekend, Sept. 1-4

Stay hydrated, pack earplugs, and keep the party going an extra 24 hours for the long-awaited Labor Day weekend.

FRIDAY

MC 900 Ft. Jesus

The North Door
Fri., Sept. 1, 9pm

Nicking his moniker from a king-sized messianic apparition that once appeared to evangelical pastor Oral Roberts, Dallas-based UNT music grad Mark Griffin teamed up with DJ Zero for sardonic late-Eighties/early-Nineties dance charts hits “I’m Going Straight to Heaven” and “If I Only Had a Brain.” Also of Deep Ellum alt-psych mainstays Lithium X-Mas, Griffin returned to the stage in 2016 after a long layoff. ATX industrialists Street Sects open. – Greg Beets

Back 2 School Bash w/ Rob Stone

Vulcan Gas Company
Fri., Sept. 1, 9pm

San Diego trap rapper Rob Stone (Jaylen Robinson) burst into the scene with debut 2014 single “Chill Bill” off his first major mixtape, Straight Bummin’. He wrote the song in the back of a police car. Peaking at No. 29 on the Billboard singles chart, it certified double platinum. The 22-year-old recently feuded with controversial Florida trap/rap-rock artist XXXTentacion, whom he dissed on “Xxxtracredit.” – Rob Stone

Gerardo Ortiz

The Coliseum
Fri., Sept. 1

Best enjoyed with Tecate and Don Julio under a Mexican sun, Gerardo Ortiz achieves such transport on newest album Comeré Callado, Vol. 1, robust corridos of love and loss. Carried by the mariachi trumpet flares and tender violin, his Norteño style recalls Tigres del Norte given the fiery, seductive ballads that broke him on 2010 hit Ni Hoy Ni Mañana. – Isabella Castro-Cota

SATURDAY

Matthew Dear

Kingdom Nightclub
Sat., Sept. 2, 10pm

Dance music polymath behind False, Jabberjaw, and Audion, plus an interactive installation at NYC’s New Museum, Texan native and Michigan propagator Matthew Dear wields sinister don’t-call-it-techno. Expect material off April’s Open and trending single “Modafinil Blues,” plus a set of classics off Ghostly International, the Detroit label he co-founded. Add in deep cuts from the darker side of the electronic music spectrum. – Dan Gentile

Donald Fagen & the Nightflyers

ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Sat., Sept. 2, 8pm

For Eighties audio fetishists, Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly remains a desert island jam. The Steely Dan singer’s pristine solo debut recounted Camelot-era American optimism with fondness and disbelief. His video for “New Frontier” now resides in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Backed by four upstate New York musicians, this sans-Walter Becker outing draws heavily on the Dan and ringer covers like the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street.” – Greg Beets

W.C. Clark Blues Revue

Antone's Nightclub
Sat., Sept. 2, 10pm

W.C. Clark earned the title Godfather of Austin Blues as far back as the mid-Seventies. A local native, the now 77-year-old singer and guitarist hit the road with Joe Tex but returned home to mentor generations of ATX musicians including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Angela Strehli, and the Sexton brothers. True Austin treasure, Clark still marvels with hot licks and an extraordinarily soulful voice. – Jay Trachtenberg

Pennyfest

Empire Control Room
Sat., Sept. 2, 6:30pm

Commemorating the founding of Australia-Austin link Penny Loafer PR, San Antonio powerhouse Girl in a Coma blows out the candles, recently touring the 10th anniversary of raging breakout Both Before I’m Gone. Stompy Southern Gothic Lincoln Durham joins in, as does the broodily intense My Jerusalem. A double feature of Emilys, Wolfe and Bell, along with Ghost Wolves, Otis the Destroyer, and other locals rage beginning at 6:30pm. – Rachel Rascoe

SUNDAY

Rotel Vegas Chili Cookoff

Hotel Vegas
Sun., Sept. 3, 7pm

Velveeta’s counterpart in every chile con queso Crock-Pot, Rotel Vegas marks the second open-entry face-off at the Eastside haunt. Queens of slop and spectacle, Austin’s Sailor Poon soundtracks the lowbrow culinary spectacular with raw servings of tongue-in-cheek punk performance art. Schizo-psychers the Sun Machine provide the first scoop, and El Brujo hosts. Between the beans, cheese, and Poon presence, it’s sure to get messy. – Rachel Rascoe

MONDAY

Oh Sees, Leather Girls

Hotel Vegas
Mon., Sept. 4, 7pm

On the day that the Oh Sees’ 19th album comes out, Orc isn’t at the forefront of John Dwyer’s mind. The prolific multi-instrumentalist is just home from one tour and in the midst of making 500 T-shirts by hand for the band’s next trek, all the while observing prime commotion caused by an overturned cement truck in the middle of his narrow mountainside street. He’s unperturbed, his hardheaded, forward-facing nature propelling the Rhode Island-to-San Francisco-to-L.A. transplant to keep creating music nonstop across two decades.

“I’ll probably be in the studio again before I leave in a week,” he muses.

Orc spins the same chaotic momentum that Dwyer’s cultivated across a sprawling catalog of adrenalized garage-punk. Recorded at Sonic Ranch here in Texas behind dueling drummers, the LP also features a handful of strings-heavy arrangements. Overall, the proceedings skew spacier, bursting into amorphous, probing mishmashes of percussion and distorted guitars.

“I don’t have the technical ability to pull off prog, but we can emulate it from time to time,” laughs Dwyer. “I’m turning into an old man now, so I can start legitimately liking all the nerdy shit I always liked out loud.” – Libby Webster

American Aquarium w/ Matthew Ryan

Stubb's
Mon., Sept. 4, 8pm

American Aquarium planned 2012 LP Burn.Flicker.Die as their last, but its breakout success led to a rejuvenation for the North Carolina sextet and frontman BJ Barham. Behind Barham’s late-night, whiskey-burnt ballads and 2015’s Wolves, the outfit has climbed the ranks of Southern roots rockers to rival the Drive-By Truckers. Prolific Pennsylvania songwriter Matthew Ryan opens showcasing this year’s gritty, brooding, and excellent LP Hustle Up Starlings. – Doug Freeman

Omar Souleyman

Empire Control Room
Mon., Sept. 4, 6pm

Before the Syrian civil war, Omar Souleyman enjoyed distinguished wedding singer status boasting hundreds of live CDs. While love and romance remain central themes, his songs are now a small but welcome respite from the horrific war. Paying homage to dabke, a Middle Eastern line dance associated with weddings, his frenetic mélange of Arabic song on this year’s To Syria, With Love coalesces synthesized keyboards, pounding beats, and throat vocals. – Alejandra Ramirez