Looking for the best shows happening in Austin this week? Check out the Chronicle music team’s handpicked “Crucial Concerts” below or in the paper every Thursday. And for our complete listings of upcoming live music events around town, head to Chron Events.

Gary Clark Jr. at Longhorn City Limits

LBJ Lawn, Saturday 28, 12:30pm

Radio-Television-Film professor Matthew McConaughey and last year’s Moody College of Communication awardee Britt Daniel received degrees from UT, but this free football pregame concert with Gary Clark Jr. might as well warrant an honorary degree for the homegrown blues slinger. First time at the LBJ Lawn tailgate event, the four-time Grammy winner warms up Longhorn nation goring BYU’s Cougars at Darrell K Royal Stadium.

“As soon as I got a hold of a guitar, my grades suffered,” admitted Clark to the Chronicle a decade ago, with last-call gigs at Joe’s, Babe’s, and Antone’s Nightclub, which now counts the guitarist as a part owner, winning out over schoolwork. “My parents were telling me, ‘Keep your studies up,’ but I felt I was getting the best education possible down in the clubs.”

Further proof of Clark’s UT bona fides extend to rechristening the university’s “first auditorium,” the 90-year-old Hogg Memorial Auditorium, the night before Longhorn City Limits. Reconfiguring the lobby, removing the orchestra pit, and replacing 1,000 seats, the renovation bows Friday, Oct. 27, as shredded by … Dr. Clark, I presume. The Hogg’s first performance will be for students and invited guests. – Raoul Hernandez

Shakey Graves

Six weeks ago Shakey Graves released his finest album, to less fanfare than the previous three studio full-lengths. That’s probably because Movie of the Week lands thematically abstract and far from the indie folk sound that broke him a dozen years ago. But the record is a trip, imbued with antenna-TV Hollywood dreams, crafty production, channel-flipping interludes, alternative stylings, and a handful of legit earworms like “Big in the World,” “Century City,” and Sierra Ferrell duet “Ready or Not.” Shakey’s traveling band remains a live force, selling out large clubs and frequently filling Red Rocks Amphitheater, so expect an epic homecoming. – Kevin Curtin

Full of Hell

Full of Hell is simply the ideal night-of-the-31st band. Like a gang of roving teenagers ransacking the racks of your local Spirit Halloween, the genre-hopping New Englanders are always on the lookout for the most fearsome sonic costume they haven’t yet tried on – be it metal, hardcore, or abstract industrial noise terror. Befitting their collaborative nature, Full of Hell selects openers to embody styles they have encompassed at some point in their history – be it the deathly, atmospheric sludge metal of Inter Arma, the majestic blackened grind of Wake, or the pit-stirring mathcore intensity of END. – Julian Towers

Jackie Venson

Austin’s own certified electric six-string machine, who kicked off the year with a sold-out Antone’s Nightclub residency and the re-recorded Evolution of Joy, Jackie Venson presents yet another LP with a free, pre-trick-or-treat in-store performance at 5pm. Perhaps more evolution on 2020 blast Vintage Machine, followed by last year’s acoustic rearrangement Unplug the Machine, the Berklee grad’s new Ghost in the Machine releases Monday (with a Wednesday listening party at Antone’s already sold out). – Rachel Rascoe

Genesis Owusu

After the breakout success of 2021 debut Smiling With No Teeth brought his high-energy rap/funk/punk worldwide, including stadium shows opening for Paramore, Ghanaian Australian singer Genesis Owusu dives into existential challenges on recent sophomore follow-up STRUGGLER. Influenced by Franz Kafka’s 1915 novel The Metamorphosis, Owusu envisions himself as a roach trying not to get killed by God. Harrowing shit, but lead single “Leaving the Light” bangs. – Kevin Curtin

Maxo Kream

In April, Maxo Kream posted his booking photo at a Houston area jail along with evidence photos showing pounds of weed, several guns, stacks of money, and jewelry. He explained that he had to handle “sum light Shit” in relation to RICO charges from 2016, adding that he’d never snitch. It’s been two years since the imposing H-Town street poet released his masterwork WEIGHT OF THE WORLD, reeling from the murder of his brother Money Madu, but he’s kept his discography flowing this year via collaborations with Key Glock, BigXthaPlug, and Luh Tyler. On Halloween night, Icebirds, Scuttino, and Double GGz join him at Antone’s. – Kevin Curtin

DIA on Día w/ Jimmie Vaughan

Backstage at ACL Fest this month, sole boomerang back after anchoring the initial event in 2002, Jimmie Vaughan sat like a sovereign but vibed like vintage ATX culturati. Imagine the T-Birds gunner painted Día de los Muertos-style. Unrelated, the Vaughn House, which supports adults with disabilities under the Easterseals Lonestar org, benefits from this bonkers convergence of homegrown blues, Latin, hip-hop, soul, and pop: Money Chicha, Lesly Reynaga, Taméca Jones, Tomar Williams, Nagavalli, Deezie Brown, Sabrina Ellis, J Soulja, Kalu James, Grace Sorensen, Megz Kelli, Angélica Rahe, BettySoo, We Don’t Ride Llamas, Frederico7, Blakchyl, Como Las Movies, Kiko Villamizar, Jaime Ospina, and AJ Vallejo. – Raoul Hernandez

underscores

Whatever hyperpop was – a stylistically agnostic, terminally tongue-in-cheek scene or a malarky music-marketing buzzword – there’s no denying underscores has left it behind. The solo project of April Harper Grey made a serious breakthrough last month with sophomore Wallsocket. The narrative concept album follows three residents of the titular fictional Michigan town through bank robberies, stalking, financial privilege, grooming, transphobia, and parental neglect – a can’t-miss for fans of progressive, unpredictable electro-indie songwriting. – Julian Towers

Music Notes

Freaky Deaky EDM Festival

Halloween weekend. Two days. Four stages. Highlights include Sydney-born artist Alison Wonderland (“I Want U”), Zeds Dead, Gryffin, and Austin-based DJ Sarah Pederzani (fka Sarahtonin).

Outside the City Limits Music Festival

If costume parties aren’t your Halloween style, Harvest Thieves and the Tiarras headline this family-friendly Driftwood event allowing dogs and free admission for children.

Armand Hammer

Underground rap heroes billy woods and E L U C I D return to Austin for a Levitation set after playing Oblivion Access in May 2022. The New York City duo recently released their new LP, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, last month. Magna Carda supports.

Vermin the Villain

The balaclava-wearing Laredo rapper channels MF DOOM with support from Ben Buck.

This article appears in October 27 • 2023.