Dinosaur Jr. (courtesy of Cara Totman)

Lakeline Park Grand Opening

Cedar Park strengthens its case as Austin's best suburb with the recent opening of Lakeline Park – a 200-acre green space with a man-made lake for fishing and kayaking, sports fields, a playground, and a pavilion. That stage, built for community performances, gets a marquee christening with Dinosaur Jr., Soul Asylum, and A Giant Dog.

One of several bands that can be justifiably professed as godfathers of alternative rock, Dinosaur Jr. came into consciousness on Eighties punk stable SST Records before evolving into grunge-era MTV breakouts with hits like "Start Choppin'" and "Feel the Pain," though 1987 cut "Sludgefeast" appropriately highlights Dino Jr.'s pillars: gloriously heavy guitar, shy vocals, and loud-soft dynamics. After shutting down in 1997, guitarist/singer J Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow, and drummer Murph reconvened in 2005 for one of the sturdiest second acts in alt.

The notoriously decibel-pushing trio's a bold choice for an outdoor show in the 'burbs, but they follow a rare acoustic performance from Soul Asylum, best known for their mid-Nineties super-singles "Runaway Train" and "Misery." Much of their catalog reflects a strain of rock similar to Minnesota brother-band the Replacements. Austin favorites A Giant Dog set the stage with heart-on-sleeve punk at the grassy, general admission amphitheatre.  – Kevin Curtin

Adrian Quesada’s Jaguar Sound

Lounging on the rooftop of an Alhambra-esque Airbnb he and his brother-in-law Graham Williams of Resound Presents procured over Christmas break in Mérida, Yucatán, Adrian Quesada revealed plans to sequel Jaguar Sound. Released the previous month, November 2022, the all-instrumental companion to his solo debut Boleros Psicodélicos six months earlier fuses cultures with the same magical realism. Founder guitarist of both Grammy-winning Latin big band Grupo Fantasma and six-string spinoff Brownout, Quesada overlaid his long-running Mayan jaguars obsession with stealthy psych, leonine grooves, and razor-sharp riffs. Previewing its Austin Blues Festival bow the following afternoon, this full–album sneak peak should howl.  – Raoul Hernandez

Sunset Valley ARTFEST

Legendary Lone Stars Doug Sahm (1941-99) and Freddy Fender (1937-2006) now play for a far more cosmic bandleader, so Augie Meyers and Flaco Jiménez sitting in with Los Texmaniacs relives the Texas Tornadoes. Throwing down in Sunset Valley, originally a Coahuila, Mexico, and Texas land grant now incorporated into far South Austin, the accordion maniacs headline (4:30pm) the free, all-ages blowout rife with craft, culinary, and kiddie pop-ups. Western swingers Hot Club of Cowtown (3pm), pop dreamer San Gabriel (2pm), drum troupes from Bowie HS and the Crockett HS jazz band, plus tons more raise a heavenly native chorus.  – Raoul Hernandez

International Jazz Day w/ Paula Maya

Thank goodness for the Sahara Lounge: Their dedication to importing music from the world outside of Central Texas deserves every accolade thrown at them. For International Jazz Day 2023, the club throws the spotlight on Brazil in all its melodic, danceable glory. Born and trained in Rio (also bossa nova's birthplace), keyboardist and singer Paula Maya headlines this 3:30pm afternoon show with her band Bossa Nova Plus. She's joined by fellow expatriates in guitarist Marco Antonio Santos, whose debut album About: Silence comes out in May, singer-songwriter Sander Pinheiro, and San Antonio singer, flautist, DJ, and music professor Katchie Cartwright.  – Michael Toland

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

Perhaps the greatest surviving character from the midcentury folk revival, 91-year-old Ramblin' Jack Elliott remains the essence of America's free spirit. As a young New Yorker at the dawn of the 1950s he befriended, studied with, and traveled alongside Woody Guthrie, then became a link of authenticity for a generation of ensuing artists: mentoring Dylan and the Dead, and inspiring a school-age Mick Jagger to get a guitar after he saw Elliott busking at a train station in England. Cowboy, sailor, vagabond, minstrel, and National Medal of the Arts recipient, the singer/guitarist is, at his core, the ultimate wayfaring storyteller, absorbing the country and passing it on through song.  – Kevin Curtin

Wednesday, Cryogeyser

Wednesday is a young North Carolina band who makes starry-eyed, bleeding-ear shoegaze. Their alt.country dream fuzz crushes the oxygen like a scrunched Diet Mountain Dew bottle and, through singer/guitarist Karly Hartzman, sketches a lyrical portrait of Southern strip mall Americana like ... a discarded Diet Mountain Dew bottle. Depending on how much tolerance you have for the indie-Twitter-hype pipeline, perhaps you could have predicted their eventual elevation to outdoor Mohawk headliner way back at South by Southwest 2022. Sadly, Wednesday's stock options have since expired. Consider investing instead in opener Cryogeyser's softly sung (and even, uh, softly-er strummed) L.A. dream-pop.  – Julian Towers

OFF!, Die Spitz

Been a helluva year for Austin grunge revivalists Die Spitz: an EP, The Revenge of Evangeline; debut LP Teeth; Austin Music Awards winners as Best Punk Band, Best New Act, and Best Residency for their stay last July at Hotel Vegas; touring as far afield as NYC and L.A.; just returning from Amyl & the Sniffers dates. Now they open the tour commencement of Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris' postcore OFF!, eight days after he was here with his other band opening NOFX's two-day Punk in Drublic Fest. Gonna be a scorcher.  – Tim Stegall

Daisy the Great, Olive Klug, the Irons

Brooklyn pop duo Daisy the Great brings upbeat irony on their first headline tour, following the release of their sophomore album last October. All You Need Is Time coats with standout harmonies. Both voices sound trained and theatrical but, when combined, bring distinctive essences. Their often-angsty and borderline satirical lyrics – "I've got a record player that was made in 2014/ Dyed my hair blue, it came out a seasick sort of green" – pair with sonics that demonstrate a spectrum of influences, from rock to hyperpop.  – Katie Karp

Arc Angels, Madam Radar

As Doyle Bramhall II heads to Japan with Eric Clapton ahead of their appearance at the Royal Albert Hall tribute to Jeff Beck, the Southpaw Stratocaster samurai sweeps through town to jam with supergroup Arc Angels. Co-axe murderer Charlie Sexton pauses Elvis Costello commitments, Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton does the same with Kenny Wayne Shepherd roadwork, and new bassist Eric Holden climbs aboard to revisit 1992's Steve Van Zandt-produced Geffen Records sleeper Arc Angels. Austin standards from it, including "Living in a Dream," "Paradise Cafe," "Sent by Angels," "Sweet Nadine," and more should shake the stone palace.  – Raoul Hernandez

Music Notes

Batty Jr. (photo by John Anderson)

Quack's 40th Birthday Show

A free celebration of the original Captain Quackenbush's Intergalactic Dessert Co. & Espresso Cafe opening on Guadalupe in 1983, hosted at the bakery's latest location off Menchaca. Folkish band Batty Jr. headlines.

Grace Sorensen

Already one of Austin's brightest vocalists, the 20-year-old garnered two nominations at this year's Austin Music Awards. Latest single "Digits," released last December with a feature from Magna Carda, currently counts over 340,000 Spotify streams.

Ella Mai

On breakout 2018 "Boo'd Up," which simmered for over a year before reaching its U.S. Billboardpeak at No. 5, the Londoner demonstrated enjoyable, retro-styled R&B devoid of trap drums on Mustard's 10 Summers label. In 2022, Heart on My Sleeve ended the near-four-year wait after her debut LP with a more polished formula of love songs.