The Front Festival
Thursday 28 – Sunday 31, multiple locations
Four days? You’re telling me that the minds over at Austin’s own cultural hub and support system Future Front Texas have compiled four whole days filled with music and movies? Okay, but about this music: Will it be Texan forward, with San Antonio- and Austin-based bands spanning contemporary cumbia to conjunto to experimental playing on the Antone’s stage? It will be?!? Woah. And you’re also telling me that the film showcase features 12 different Texan-made independent pictures from women and LGBTQ+ directors screened on the beautiful Contemporary Austin’s Laguna Gloria grounds? Sheesh! I suppose the whole event’s also bookended by two pool parties at the LINE Hotel, one at night with DJ HoneyPocket and one during the day featuring DJ Helios and Damino? Yeah, yeah: I should have guessed it. – James Scott
The Oxys, Quinn the Brain, Dregs, Actuators
Thursday 28, Hotel Vegas
The Oxys rip back into Hotel Vegas with their filthy punk/sleaze/power-pop cocktail, just weeks before dropping Casting Pearls Before Swine via Cleopatra Records. Guitarist Jason “Ginchy” Kottwitz (ex-Bulemics, Dead Boys, and Sylvain Sylvain) and snarling frontman Phil Davis lead Austin’s most prolific punks, channeling Seventies gutter rock with hooks sharp enough to scar. Expect less distortion this time out – Ginchy’s chasing raw analog punch over blown-out grit – but don’t think they’ve gone soft. Quinn the Brain, Dregs, and Actuators pile on the chaos first. – Tim Stegall
Kelsey Waldon
Friday 29, 3ten ACL Live
Fresh off joining Robert Earl Keen for a sold-out, stacked flood relief benefit in New Braunfels, Kelsey Waldon will head to Austin for a show at the much more intimate 3ten. Waldon has notched seven full-length albums in just over a decade, three of them on John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, which she signed to after a personal invitation by the man himself onstage at the Grand Ole Opry. With her band the Muleskinners, Waldon brings life to introspective, confessional songwriting through careful study of country folkways. – Abby Johnston
EYEHATEGOD, Crowbar
Friday 29, Come and Take It Live
The finest sludge band of its generation returns to a city that genuinely appreciates them – or sure did at one time. EYEHATEGOD have been making audiences uncomfortable with their aural lava and endless screaming for generations, which is to say that anyone who has never seen them and considers themselves a connoisseur of the deeply unpleasant owes themselves to be there. With fellow Nawlins doom savants Crowbar, who have been dragging tempos and making everything feedback for almost as long. An evening of very negative emotions designed to make one feel alive. At Come and Take It Live, a venue somewhat underrated for its acoustics and its copious parking. – Joe Gross
Fuck Money Album Release
Saturday 30, Hotel Vegas
Watching Fuck Money is like watching a house fire – it’s a compulsively cathartic reckoning with mortality and vulnerability you won’t want to look away from for even a second. Vocalist TaSzlin Trébuchet delivers transgressive punk lyrics with a desperation that suggests the devil may pull him beneath the stage at any second, while Alton Jenkins drums with relentlessly superhuman speed and precision. Their fervor is underscored by Bill Kenny’s furiously fuzzy guitar riffs and Jeremy Humphries’ bellowing basslines. The so-called space punks blend noise, industrial, and punk sounds with a surprising wealth of melodic cohesion throughout this debut LP. – Caroline Drew
Hard Proof, Progger
Sunday 31, Sahara Lounge
The Sahara Lounge never fails to celebrate sounds far beyond the boundaries of rock or pop. This show makes a particularly strong case for that vision. Local Afrobeat stalwarts Hard Proof return to their perennial stomping grounds to shake booties, joined by Austin’s jazz fusion mavericks Progger, who haven’t played at the Sahara or with Hard Proof in over a decade. Whether you want to stand agog at the level of musicianship or just dance your ass off, this is the show to attend. Doors at 5pm, Hard Proof at 5:30pm, Progger at 9pm. Florida virtuoso funksters the Gilmore Quandary add some transition in between. – Michael Toland
Louder Than Hate Presents: Now or Never, Louder Together
Sunday 31, 29th Street Ballroom
An absolutely stacked lineup comes together to raise some funds for Equality Texas’ LGBTQIA+ advocacy, with a festival-style all-ages matinee across two stages at the newly revamped 29th Street Ballroom. A dozen-plus acts include local indie rock staples BOOHER, Parker Woodland, Get Down Stay Down, and Como Las Movies to a recently re-reunited Schatzi to the stellar Stella & the Very Messed, whose dynamic new single “Not Dynamite” foreshadows a smashing September release. Check out the new compilation album for a preview of some of the artists, and buy tickets now because this one will likely sell out. – Kat McNevins
Vandoliers
Monday 1, Sagebrush
Vandoliers’ new fifth LP, Life Behind Bars, feels like both a culmination and a transformation for the Fort Worth country-punk sextet. This year singer Jenni Rose publicly came out as a trans woman, a realization that emerged for her over the past couple of years and subtexts much of the album’s balance between raucously cathartic and rawly reflective turns. Vandoliers pack layers into their songs, allowing them to strike simultaneously as wistful and joyful sing-along anthems. The show serves as queer country event producer Neon Rainbows’ Labor Gay celebration, with the Rock Bottom String Band and Brigitte Bandit adding support. – Doug Freeman
Youth Code, Street Sects
Wednesday 3, 29th Street Ballroom
Meet a four-act stack homegrown promoters Resound basically promised by assuming the 29th Street Ballroom. Sara Taylor of L.A. EBM duo Youth Code emotes grittier with age, sounding positively Joan Jett (“Wishing Well”) on May EP Yours, With Malice. ATX industrial hardcore pairing Street Sects match up with their first LP in seven years, Dry Drunk, as well as spinoff Street Sex and the techno-pop of its long-player debut FULL COLOR ECLIPSE. Youth Code’s Oregonian collaborator King Yosef inserts industrial metal via August full-length Spire of Fear, and don’t sleep on opener Insula Iscariot, who brands this month’s Bloodflow (A Milky Fluid) “anemic industrial” despite the Madison scenester crackling seethingly. – Raoul Hernandez
Marco Antonio Santos’ IN RAIN/BOWS
Wednesday 3, Monks Jazz
Overflowing with imagination and finesse, local guitarist Marco Antonio Santos is a go-to sideperson for everything from fusion to big band jazz. His IN RAIN/BOWS project may be his most ambitious yet. Joined by bassist Phil Spencer, drummer Brennan Howell, and an effects-frosted threepiece string section, Santos takes on the catalog of one of the most influential bands of the 20th and 21st centuries: Radiohead. Challenging arrangements, wide-open improvisation, and a dedication to sonic variety – there may not be a catalog more suited to Santos’ amalgam of jazz, chamber music, and progressive modern rock. – Michael Toland
FASHIONABLY LOUD(ER)
Thursday 4, Hotel Vegas
Leave it to Locket magazine to build a runway at Hotel Vegas. In celebration of its second issue, the fashion and music zine brings a host of local creatives to the Eastside patio, from designers like Rockstars Never Die, Auspicious Garments, and Prior Waste to freak rappers haha Laughing, post-punks Witches Exist, electropop duo Almost Heaven, and Los Angeles-based emos Hysteria. Visuals by TV Eye, live screenprinting by Goody Bag, a DJ set by Immediate Rush, and the promise of karaoke and tattoos round out the launch party. Austin DIY never looked so good. – Carys Anderson
Kidz Bop Live
Thursday 4, ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Back in my day, first concerts for kids might have been NKOTB, Britney, or Backstreet Boys – artists with a broad appeal that were innocent enough for youngsters but still fun for grownups. Kidz Bop, originating in 2001, has talented kids performing a compilation of current hits, meaning Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!,” Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey,” and a sanitized version of Sabrina Carpenter’s “espresso” swapping “give a care” for the alternative. Adults, limber up beforehand for the Daddy Dance Off, and get ready for the ultimate pop concert for the whole family. As one young fan gushed in a review, “this was the best concert ever i am 14 years of age and i had the time of my gosh darn life!” – Kat McNevins
Music Notes
by Derek Udensi
The ABGB Anniversary Weekend
Friday 29 – Sunday 31, the ABGB
The all-ages Oltorf locale celebrates its 12th anniversary by hosting a weekend bash full of entertainment. Frequent Wednesday performer Warren Hood plays on Friday as part of the South Austin Jug Band, Jackie Venson brings her electronic alter ego Jackie the Robot on Saturday, and a multi-act tribute to the Almost Famous soundtrack rounds out the festivities on Sunday.
Fitz and the Tantrums
Sunday 31, ACL Live at Moody Center
Alt-pop band Fitz and the Tantrums (“Spark”) tours in support of their new album Man on the Moon. Gable Price and Friends support.
Kali Uchis
Sunday 31, Moody Center
When I think of Kali Uchis (“telepatía”), I recall her spellbinding Saturday afternoon performance at ACL Fest 2019, when she stylishly sported a balaclava before it became a popular form of streetwear during the pandemic. Other Austinites may remember the Colombian-American singer’s abrupt decision to drop out of ACL Fest 2023 just days before the event’s start; she’d later reveal her pregnancy the following January. She makes her return to the Texas capital with new album Sincerely, in tow. Thee Sacred Souls 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 August 29 • 2025.