William Clark Green Credit: Courtesy of Gruene Music & Wine Fest

Gruene Music and Wine Festival

Thursday 10 – Sunday 13, Gruene Hall

Four days of music and wine in New Braunfels culminates at the historic Gruene Hall on Sunday with an all-day lineup of honky-tonkers and country songwriters. Micky & the Motorcars rock out early along with Red Dirt veterans the Great Divide, while Kody West and Catie Offerman strum acoustic sets. Highlights include the distinct cowboy twang of South Dakota’s Tyler Halverson, and solo showings from poignant Texas troubadour Vincent Neil Emerson and Oklahoma country kicker Kaitlin Butts, breaking out behind this year’s Roadrunner!, before William Clark Green closes down the dance hall with a full band.   – Doug Freeman


Credit: Courtesy of the Obsessed

The Obsessed: The Church Within 30th Anniversary

Thursday 10, The Lost WelL

Raise a glass for the doomed. That genre’s American pioneers roar into the last saloon in town on the back of Scott “Wino” Weinrich’s big, stoney hog to tip one last sacrament to the Eastside landmark. “I lived in Temple, Texas, when I was younger,” he said over Zoom last fall. “I lived in Dallas for just a little while when I was really fucking young. Texas I really like. I really like Texas a lot. Texas is one of my favorite states.” The Church Within, The Obsessed’s initial swan song, just saw induction into Decibel’s album HOF, and here the third-eye trio teams with fellow New Yorkers Restless Spirit.   – Raoul Hernandez


Credit: Courtesy of Spaceflight Records

S.L. Houser

Thursday 10, Waterloo Records

“I’ve been a woman on fire,” sings Sara Houser on the title track to last year’s Hibiscus EP, a surge of desire and determination for transformation wound tightly in her lingering vocals and the synth-scoured melody. The former Löwin frontperson’s solo emergence felt like an evolution, shedding her past and discovering a new self searching through Eighties-styled beats and poetically personal lyrics. The songwriter and producer delivers a deluxe vinyl version of Hibiscus with Spaceflight Records, which includes two exceptional new songs that delve even deeper into reflection, “When I Had Eyes” and “Grand Canyon 95.”   – Doug Freeman


“Dreaming Hildegard” With Alex Coke and Christopher Hynes

Friday 11, Cloud Tree Studios & Gallery

Eleventh century German Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen was a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, holistic healer, and science/natural historian. Though well regarded in her time, her legend has only grown since then, serving as an inspiration to artists across disciplines – including local jazz titan Alex Coke (the Coke/Michel Sextet recorded her music) and his artist pal Christopher Hynes. The pair’s second collaboration celebrates this remarkable figure with an opening reception also featuring drummer Masumi Jones and harpist Elaine Barber. Hynes’ art will be exhibited through Nov. 2, but this is the only night Coke will perform alongside it.   – Michael Toland


Gatecreeper, Frozen Soul, Worm

Saturday 12, Mohawk

Arise metallic undead, for October disembowels the hard arts hemorrhaging into our streets. Gatecreeper’s third crusher and first for mega imprint Nuclear Blast transcends its trad death metal predecessors atop the crucified cry of man as set to a Panzer division tempo and churn. Dark Superstition will top year-end lists as sure as the band’s Arizonan origin shares Texas’ parch. Fort Worth DM ice age Frozen Soul still crackles the land behind last year’s breakthrough for Century Media, Glacial Domination, while cloaked and blackened death-doom dealers Worm crawl outta Florida and Quebec oppressively. Don’t miss a second.   – Raoul Hernandez


Country Willie Edwards

Saturday 12, Sam’s Town Point

Like James Hand before him, Country Willie Edwards is a somewhat enigmatic entity who rolls into town periodically to deliver stunningly weary country tunes. Strumming a classic country sound, the East Texas farmer croons heartbreak and modern cowboy ballads with an easy melody and sharp eye. Although he’s written hundreds of songs, few recordings are available beyond 2021’s Midnight Cowboy, the title track of which Charley Crockett covered on this year’s $10 Cowboy. Arrive early for Austin Stambaugh’s deep twang as the Ohio songwriter sets up in Texas for October, and stay for Ramsay Midwood’s wild jams.   – Doug Freeman


Credit: Courtesy of Ticketmaster

TsuShiMaMiRe

Saturday 12, Hotel Vegas

Some of the biggest names in music light up Zilker Park this weekend, but if underground freak-punk is more your speed, add TsuShiMaMiRe’s Austin stop to your itinerary. The Tokyo-based trio boasts a truly prolific output, spanning 20 full-length releases over their two decades of existence. If their bounteous discography feels intimidating, start with 2005 release Pregnant Fantasy, a gleeful merry-go-round chock-full of art rock riffs. Arrive early for a pitch-perfect lineup of local punk support – Pussy Gillette continue their path of destruction with August single “Haters,” while Dead Tramps deliver head-bangers with delicious brattiness.   – Genevieve Wood


Credit: Photo by Michael Schmelling

Vampire Weekend

Thursday 17, Moody Center

Yes, Vampire Weekend was just here, but that daytime eclipse show was just the warm-up for the indie rock veterans’ subsequent arena tour. Climbing the “Moody steps,” as singer Ezra Koenig put it at the Moody Amphitheater in April, VW returns for a proper concert at the Moody Center. The trio’s earned the graduation. This year’s Only God Was Above Us highlights their unwavering admiration for Afrobeat and Paul Simon while also charting more mature, melancholy territory (“The Surfer” fans, unite!) – and that says nothing about the now-fathers’ descent into jam band territory. Recent shows have welcomed spontaneous covers of the Seinfeld theme, “New York, New York,” and “Mr. Brightside,” among others. I’d buy a ticket just to see what songs they try out next.   – Carys Anderson


Credit: Courtesy of Mohawk

Soul Asylum With Juliana Hatfield Three

Thursday 17, Mohawk

Anybody desiring a crash course in Gen X musical tastes could plan worse anthropological digs than this Mohawk outdoor bill. Headliners Soul Asylum initiated as Loud Fast Rules, in the same early Eighties hardcore scene spawning Replacements and Hüsker Dü. As those bands’ songwriting chops and pop smarts grew, Soul Asylum equally evolved into a riot of ringing guitars and intelligent early Nineties hits such as “Runaway Train.” Hatfield began in Eighties indie darlings Blake Babies, before having Nineties alt-rock smash hits like “My Sister” with Juliana Hatfield Three and packing such august venues as our own Liberty Lunch.   – Tim Stegall


Music Notes

by Derek Udensi

Cha’keeta B

Friday 11, Antone’s

The ferocious MC highlights a trio of impressive local rappers supporting “the Mo City Don” Z-Ro. Interestingly, she used to study the Houston MC’s lyrics in her high school poetry class (see Sept. 12, 2022 story “Cha’keeta B Goes From Running Track to Running Tracks”). Professional hooper-turned-rapper J. Mill and J Soulja also perform.

A Split-Second

Friday 11, Elysium

Belgian new beat band fronted by Marc Heyndrickx is still kickin’ nearly 40 years after its original inception. Houston-based industrial rock band the Hunger and H-Town darkwave act raudiver provide support.

Credit: Courtesy of Third Side Music

Zack Fox

Thursday 17, Kingdom

Before gracing television screens as Tariq on the ridiculously hilarious ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary, stand-up comedian/actor Zack Fox collaborated with producer Kenny Beats for the unintentionally viral 2019 track “Jesus Is the One (I Got Depression).” The Atlanta-raised multi-hyphenate has since released a studio album (2021 release shut the fuck up talking to me) and featured on a Zelooperz single earlier this year. He also performs as a DJ regularly; his Austin stop is the first of a three-stop trip through Texas.

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 October 11 • 2024.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

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Carys Anderson moved from Nowhere, DFW to Austin in 2017 to study journalism at the University of Texas. She began writing for The Austin Chronicle in 2021 and joined its full-time staff in 2023, where she covers music and culture.

As the Chronicle's Club Listings Editor, Derek compiles a weekly list of music events occurring across town. The University of Texas alum also writes about hip-hop as a contributor to the Music section.

Tim Stegall contributed to The Austin Chronicle 1991-1995, and was a staff writer 1995-1997. He returned as a contributor in 2013. He has also freelanced for publications ranging from Flipside to Alternative Press to Guitar World. He plays punk rock guitar and sings in the Hormones.

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.

San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.