Heavy Meddo, Water Damage, Queen Serene
Thursday 27, The 13th Floor
A virtual early 2000s Austin supergroup, Heavy Meddo features Bill Baird and Jordan Johns, both of Sound Team, with Ichi Ni San Shi’s Jonathan Horne and more, for a mix of samples, electronics, and old-school guitar oddness that’s more on the electronic end than the strumming end. Queen Serene has been playing rough ’n’ ready indie rock since around 2020; both bands split a 7-inch late last year. In the middle is the almighty Water Damage, currently on the cover of brilliant zine Radio Dies Screaming and one of the best hypnotic, loping, instrumental psychedelic rock acts in America right now. – Joe Gross
ReCast: Hope Beyond Boundaries
Thursday 27 – Friday 28, St. Martin’s Lutheran Church
Local Grammy-winning performance choir Conspirare brings soaring vocals once again with a new performance of ReCast, two pieces examining the generational effects of faith cultures. Written by composer Mark Buller and author Leah Lax (respectively, a Fundamentalist Christian and an Orthodox Jew), the songs tell stories of the burdens and gifts behind cultural expectations, all within a complex choral structure. There’s nothing quite like facing your demons within complex musical motifs. – Cat McCarrey
Celebration of Queer Black Love
Friday 28, Carver Museum
Black History Month is always gone too soon – although real ones realize celebrating the Black community is a year-round type of deal – but you can send off BHM in style at this massive celebration. A collaborative effort from several Austin-area queer BIPOC orgs like Queer Black Women Alliance, Colors of Pride Gathering, and PRIDE in Black ATX, as well as wheeler-dealers Ride Bikes Austin, this night at the museum features multiple entertainment mediums. There’ll be live music from Blakchyl, Thelonious Love, Flow Sunshine Flow, and b. Spoke; dance from burlesque performer Tia Boyd and pole professional SPICE; tunes spun by DJ Schi the God; and drag extraordinaire Gothess Jasmine as the night’s emcee. While all this talent comes to you totally free, the event organizers do advise bringing cash so you can financially show your appreciation to the performers. – James Scott
Carnaval
Saturday 1, Ani’s Day & Night
Have you decided what you’re giving up for Mark Wahlberg’s 40 day challenge, aka Lent? Or are you normal? Whether you celebrate Carnaval as a pre-Lent bash where you get the meat-loving out of your immortal soul or you just love a costume and good music, Riverside coffee & cocktail house Ani’s has you covered. Brazilian musicians like Grupo Ladeira, Frederico 7, Seu Jacinto, DJ Sampa, and Nossas Novas add toe-tapping tunes and Austin Samba rouses the stage with exciting dance routines. Plus, Austin’s very own BIPOC and queer-focused Frida Friday market pops up with a selection of local artists and makers. – James Scott
Julian Neel Record Release
Saturday 1, Hole in the Wall
On his 2020 debut LP Call the Mountain, Julian Neel crafted a warm and intimate soundscape, an inviting world of contemplation fit for quiet city sidewalks and rural pastures. Neel has an artist’s eye and poet’s ear, profound yet playful in the intricate arrangements and catching quirks of his unique phrasing. The Austinite’s new release Gallery Show follows suit with swaying melodies that unleash small, beautiful moments. Dailey Toliver, guitarist for Devendra Banhart and Molly Burch, makes a rare supporting role with last year’s gorgeously hushed Earth Has No Sorrow, alongside local luminaries Carson McHone and Little Mazarn. – Doug Freeman
The 2024-2025 Austin Music Awards
Sunday 2, Antone’s
This weekend, a 43-year Austin tradition returns to Antone’s Nightclub for a celebration of our city’s robust music scene. The Austin Music Awards honor the winners and nominees of the Austin Music Poll, the Chronicle’s community-voted ballot that selects the best local players of all genres (including rock, folk, blues, and hip-hop) and instruments (including guitar, bass, drums, and fiddle). This year, nominees Font, Good Looks, the Point, Superfónicos, and more will perform at the party – and the winners of all 53 categories are revealed in this very newspaper. $20 tickets are on sale now, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the SIMS Foundation. – Carys Anderson
Big Wy’s Brass Band
Sunday 2, Meanwhile Brewing
Big Wy’s was born March 1, 2014, as a gang of Westlake High Schoolers opening for a Mardi Gras celebration. Eleven years later almost exactly, the group graces South Austin’s Meanwhile Brewing for the same Lent-prep holiday. This time, they boast a co-trek through college, TEDxYouth spotlight, performance for former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solís, and 2024 genre mash debut Built to Last. Seriously – it’s jazz, funk, rap, rock, and Dixieland, with a country twist. The only common thread? Brass and infectious party vibes. Come early to dance and snag New Orleans eats. – Amber Williams
Movements
Monday 3, Stubb’s
Fresh off the release of new single “Where I Lay,” Orange County quintet Movements leads a four-band bill of varying degrees of melodic post-hardcore and emo. Patrick Miranda fronts the headlining act with sweetly sung vocals atop Ira George and Crust Young’s shimmering guitars. Over a decade removed from landmark 2013 album Youth, beloved Michigan emos Citizen opt for a similarly earnest, and increasingly poppy, approach. Repping the subgenre’s next generation, thrashing Bay Area punks Scowl and fuzzy Tulsa quartet Downward round out the bill. – Carys Anderson
Killer Kaya
Tuesday 4, Hotel Vegas
Austin-via-Santa Barbara ensemble Killer Kaya describes their music as “foggy prog with a psychedelic rim.” Indeed, this trippy quintet recalls the sounds of Sixties psychedelia and Seventies funk: Apoorva Chiplunkar’s got the witchy vocals of Grace Slick, and guitarists Zach Rengert and Eric Engel anchor 2017 instrumental track “29 Lives” with the rhythmic strums of Nile Rodgers. The band debuts new LP Live at Wall of Fog alongside Latin fusion act Los Alcos and “Southern goth” post-punks Temple of Love, opening the night with a sonic curveball. – Carys Anderson
Swindlers
Wednesday 5, The White Horse
Grab your boots and dust off your two-step, because Swindlers are bringing their brand of “garage-tonk” to the White Horse. Sharing the stage, hometown crooner Hayden Butler keeps it classic, while Vancouver’s Ben Arsenault leans into the kind of old-school country that never fades. Swindlers’ latest single, “You Lie,” throws a curveball with its bossa nova sway – a sharp left from the barroom twang of “Bound to Break,” a honky-tonk heater built for boot scootin’. Catch both tracks live, plus a sneak peek at what’s next from this genre-spanning band. – Kyra Bruce
Hotel Vegas and Volstead 14th Anniversary Party
Thursday 6, Hotel Vegas
Fourteenth anniversaries are oddly specific to celebrate, and yet Hotel Vegas and Volstead decided it’s a magic number to pack in a loaded show featuring music, DJ sets, and some laughs. Alt-rock/punk fearsome foursome Die Spitz headlines the Vegas patio, on-the-verge post-punk band Urban Heat and noise-rap duo haha Laughing in tow. Even more driving post-punk awaits you inside with J’cuuzi, along with moody synth-pop maven Night Ritualz and Queen Serene’s propulsive shoegaze. Longtime DJ staples Ed West, ulovei, and Orión Garcia will have Volstead jumping until the lights come on. – Kahron Spearman
Russian Circles
Thursday 6, Mohawk
Repping Chicago as loudly as possible, Russian Circles’ instrumental mathcore and opening act Pelican’s speechless stoner rock blast big waves. RC have been redefining power trio post-metal for 20 years, with shifting time signatures and set ’em up/knock ’em down dynamics. Approaching a quarter of a century of existence, Pelican’s doom prog similarly rewrote the rules for riff-happy stoner metal. Both bands favor multifaceted compositions and otherworldly atmospheres, as evidenced by the recent vinyl catalog reissues that will no doubt fill their merch tables. (Pelican also has a new LP coming.) Dive deep into this luscious pool of art grunge. – Michael Toland
Justice
Thursday 6, Moody Center
French duo Justice ripped onto the dance scene in the early Aughts and pummeled it with supersaturated productions that made other sounds seem limp in comparison. Heavy without being dark, and tough without being mean, their signature distorted synth work was bright, wild, and impolite, leaving an indelible mark on the dance floor. If compressed but exuberant classics like “D.A.N.C.E.” made your heart jump with glee, rejoice. The massive men of electro sonically grind and shred once more supporting their first full-length in six years, Hyperdrama, which recruits Thundercat, Tame Impala, and Miguel to help tatter spacetime. – Christina Garcia
Music Notes
by Derek UdensiCold Body Club
Friday 28, Radio/East
Urban Heat frontman Jonathan Horstmann debuts his solo project for songs that fit outside his group’s darkwave realm. He opens a bill also featuring Josie Lockhart and Geto Gala.
Beethoven x Coldplay
Saturday 1, Long Center
Chris Martin wandering about in a forest in the music video for Coldplay’s “The Scientist” admittedly still lives rent free in my head. Conductor Steve Hackman somehow feels even stronger about the British band’s earlier work. This mix-and-match event combines some of Coldplay’s hits with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. A full orchestra, three vocal soloists, and Hackman himself on piano help make his bold vision a reality.
Tommy Richman
Wednesday 5, Empire Garage
Best known for his borderline-inescapable 2024 breakout track “MILLION DOLLAR BABY,” multi-genre artist Tommy Richman came under fire last October for tweeting-and-deleting “I’m not a hip-hop artist” before later clarifying he’s “not solely a hip-hop artist.” And as is usually the case when someone makes such a statement, they end up making more rap shortly afterwards. The Virginia native’s latest single “ACTIN UP,” released earlier this month, pleasantly channels Aughts snap music. Paco and mynameisntjmack support.
Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what’s happening now or in the coming week.
This article appears in February 28 • 2025.