Crucial Concerts for the Coming Week

Emily Wells

Parish, Friday 3

Regards to the End was stirred up by an existential prompt: What inspiration can we take from the AIDS activists at the end of the 20th century to confront climate change? Dramatic, patient, and powerful, the resulting 45-minute contemplation by classically trained composer Emily Wells provokes feelings of love and pain, bravery and fear. Like much of the Amarillo-born singer and multi-instrumentalist's varied discography, February's LP is catchy, operatic, and atmospherically focused, but it finds Wells inhabiting a particularly dire essence. "Don't go easy on me," she sings with crumbling emotional resonance on "All Burn No Bridge," a song that could slot on a modern Pure Moods comp if it weren't ostensibly about self-immolation. – Kevin Curtin

Dwight Yoakam

Round Rock Amp, Friday 3

Dwight Yoakam is no stranger to the Nutty Brown family: The country radio outlaw has ventured out to the Hill Country to play the now-shuttered Nutty Brown Amphitheatre several times, including just months before the venue closed to make way for an H-E-B last November. So when Round Rock Amp, the new Nutty venue that opened this spring, announced its debut season billing, Yoakam made the list. Round Rock is the second stop on a summer tour for the Californian cowpunk, bringing over 35 years of genre-bending hits to a stage just north of Austin. – Abby Johnston

Rock the Park: Sir Woman

Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater, Friday 3

As essential as spring showers, Austin jukebox KUTX 98.9 quenched our town's thirst for communal commingling with free family concerts beginning in March. Fourth and final micro Woodstock nets its über headliner: Sir Woman. Garnering three local Grammys, aka Austin Music Awards, the local powerhouse took home Song of the Year for "Blame It on the Water," Music Video in "Party City," and Kelsey Wilson tied for Best Vocalist with roots channeler Ruthie Foster. Deeply emotive, earthy, Wilson's intonation swells into a "Seventies-drenched soul sound," opined Doug Freeman here last month on Sir Woman's expansive eponymous debut. – Raoul Hernandez

Tony Kamel, Calder Allen

Antone's Nightclub, Friday 3

Wood & Wire anchor Tony Kamel tossed a solo strike last year with Back Down Home. The LP, recorded with Bruce Robison at the Bunker and released via his Next Waltz label, stretches Kamel's musical muscles beyond string band bends with dives into Gulf Coast Cajun rhythms and East Texas blues, but the songwriter's gift for deep storytelling and scene-setting narrative still leads. Up first, Calder Allen continues the immense Texas artistic legacy of the Allen family (Terry, Jo Harvey, Bale Creek, Bukka, et al.) as the young local releases his Charlie Sexton-produced debut bow, and Pierson Saxon dishes fresh soulful country.  – Doug Freeman

Jake Lloyd

Soundspace at Captain Quack's, Saturday 4

Bar, bakery, music venue, Quackenbush's latest location in South Austin demonstrates legitimate booking acumen in staging ATX vocalist Jake Lloyd. Supported by homegrown locals in rapper Big Kee and hip-hop crooner Nubia Emmon, the 2021 Geto Gala breakout alongside Deezie Brown checked in on Memorial Day: "We're gonna walk you the listener through a few genres," he emailed of his Quack's bow. "Give you a couple covers you would not expect, with all the Jake Lloyd you can handle." Recent singles "Purple Pen Passage" and "Cold Summer" verify his genre fusion: "I've settled on genre-fluidity, with a focus on alternative R&B and rap-soul." – Raoul Hernandez

Whores

Parish, Saturday 4

It's been six long years since Atlanta's Whores – the best of the post-Unsane noise & roll revivalists – unleashed their full-length debut Gold, leading some of us to think they'd met an early demise, pandemic or no. Fortunately, a pair of blasting, beautifully ugly singles, "Imposter Syndrome" and "Have a Drink on Me," and hints of a forthcoming record signal that the intense trio isn't finished popping its neck veins and spitting bile just yet. Kansas City noise metallers Bummer and Lafayette hardcore outfit Capra also abuse eardrums. – Michael Toland

Check Out Chess Club

Friday 3 - Sunday 5

Since opening in March, Chess Club – with its nondescript exterior and bantam capacity – has already emerged as a proving ground for new bands (catch those masked punks Mugger?) and an "underplay" for established acts (…Trail of Dead blew the roof off). This weekend's got some good action: Expect a dance party Friday as local synth-pop empaths TC Superstar cram in with Louisiana's LeTrainiump, possessing an inviting mixture of mainstream pop, indie, and Y2K R&B. Sunday blackens with the appealingly disillusioned gothic post-punk of Single Lash, whose bold lyrics and musical density thrived Nick Cave-esque on 2020 single "To Laugh." Likeminded El Pasoans Lesser Care and dark synth-poppers Don't Get Lemon coincide. – Kevin Curtin