Crucial Concerts for the Coming Week

French Band Theo Lawrence Invades Austin

Thursday 24, Antone’s and White Horse

Friday 25 – Saturday 26, Continental Club

Sunday 27 – Monday 28, Sam’s Town Point

Wednesday 2, C-Boy’s

It was a familiar scene at the White Horse on a recent evening: a band slinging country diddies to a dance floor packed with whirling bodies and cowboy hats. The fivepiece on stage could've passed for Austin locals and honky-tonk regulars, and for the past month, Theo Lawrence of Gentilly, France, might as well be. Between February 5 when they arrived and when they leave in early March, Lawrence and his band will have played a stunning 21 shows in Austin. There's not a ton of time for recovery, either. During the day, the bluesy country rockers hoof it out to Wyldwood, where they are cutting an album with Jimmie Vaughan's bassist, Billy Horton. Have they had time to experience Austin outside of clubs or the studio? "Not at all," Lawrence says. "We do what we love, can't complain. It's exactly why we came here."– Abby Johnston

The Dead Coats, the Boleys

Kick Butt Coffee, Friday 25

Ripping through the coffee-clouded aroma come the Dead Coats with a video release for their gritty heart-attack song "Fire Again!" at Austin's punk rock coffee shop ready to land a roundhouse kick to your derrière. Brace yourself to wage war against your psychosomatics as this powwow marks the melancholic sayonara to beloved blond-haired sibling trio the Boleys. Despair not, as Animals on TV and Transy Warhol are coming prepared with thrashing rock melodies and theatrics that will not only sponge up your residual tears but make the little old lady sipping a stiff coffee next to you blush.– Mars Salazar

Doug Kershaw

Sagebrush, Saturday 26

Sandwiched – or rather, po'boy'd – between local country folk Kathyrn Legendre (9pm) and Jesse Daniel (1am), Doug Kershaw sweeps through deep South Austin to encore turning 86 last month. From a one-room chicken coop to his signature song "Louisiana Man" beaming down to Earth from Apollo 12, the fiddling phenom embodies his native Southeast corner of Louisiana, La Louisiane, colonized by the French beginning in the late 17th century. Belonging to both the National Fiddler and Louisiana Music HOFs, he anticipated the pandemic somewhat by issuing The Ragin' Cajun: Memoir of a Louisiana Man in 2019.– Raoul Hernandez

Immolation, Imperial Triumphant

Come & Take It Live, Saturday 26

I believe it poor sport to localize otherworldly death metal bands as, like, "hailing from Baltimore." So instead, here's tonight's lineup identified by the precise bowel of hell their sound suggests they occupy. The growling, deliberate lurch of Mortiferum echoes within the million-mile digestive tract of the Belphegor worm, where gluttonous sinners are endlessly re-stripped of vital nutrients. Imperial Triumphant's urbanist jazz chaos soundtracks the old-fashioned electrical torments inflicted upon social media CEOs. And should you flee the scene of a fatal collision, the lashing, scorchingly precise hellfire of Immolation is what shall eternally consume you when Satan himself greets your arrival. Openers Death File Red are ... from Austin.– Julian Towers

Action Bronson, Earl Sweatshirt

Stubb's, Monday 28

Queens-forever renaissance rapper Action Bronson can spit bars like Ghostface Killah (his voice: eerily similar), speak fluent Spanish, and commentate on Michelin-starred food (see his cookbook, F*ck, That's Delicious). Born Ariyan Arslani to an Albanian Muslim father and an American Jewish mother, the 38-year-old boasts a discography as colorful as his career, ranging from boom-bap punchlines on his Blue Chips mixtapes to 2020's funky, eclectic LP, Only for Dolphins. Deep-minded ex-Odd Futurist Earl Sweatshirt rolls in on the heels of verse-heavy fourth LP Sick!, along with legendary producer the Alchemist and Griselda signee Boldy James.– Clara Wang

Conan Gray, Bülow

ACL Live, Wednesday 2

Before he became the prince of pop romance ballads, Conan Gray uploaded covers and originals to YouTube just like every other wannabe. In 2018, the Georgetown, Texas, native signed with Republic Records, ultimately becoming a global star. Slow burner "Heather" draws on wanting to be loved by someone unavailable, while opposing "Crush Culture" brings a swift hand-clapping tempo over giddy lyrics, both showing off the songwriter's ability to fuse mainstream indie rock with soft R&B. The witty rock of German Canadian viral hit Bülow (Megan Bülow) joins the love-pop takeover with a multitude of genre-bending chants and affectionate despair.– Morgan-Taylor Thomas