The Abyssinians Credit: Image via The Abyssinians


The Abyssinians Credit: Image via The Abyssinians

The Abyssinians, H.R. From Bad Brains, and Lion Heights

Friday 25, Radio/East

Kingston’s Abyssinians emerged as reggae’s original Rasta conscience with their 1971 signature hit “Satta Massagana,” prior to Bob Marley’s international emergence. It’s Rastafarian liturgy, spiritual war music, invoking rebellion and prayer in the same breath. The title translates to “He Gave Praise” in Ethiopia’s official language, Amharic, and its booming bass and nyabinghi-flavored drumming formed hardcore reggae’s blueprint. Eightysomething original Abyssinian Donald Manning will be chanting down Babylon on Friday with a lineup featuring two of his sons providing rhythms, alongside Bad Brains vocalist H.R. and homegrown roots reggae-ists Lion Heights.   – Tim Stegall


Credit: Image via Antone's

The Temptations Review

Friday 25, Antone’s Nightclub

Live music legacies seldom transcend the actual life of the artists, but even before the Tony Award-winning run of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Motown Records’ baddest boys outlived their mortal sovereignty. The Temptations Review trafficks in the Dennis Edwards era of the Detroit fivesome, which produced the acid-tinged soul of early Seventies masterpieces “Ball of Confusion,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” and “Psychedelic Shack.” David Sea leads those as well as classics “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” and at Antone’s Nightclub’s 50th birthday on July 15, matriarch Susan Antone singled out this show. Local psychedelic soulman Kalu James opens.   – Raoul Hernandez


Credit: Courtesy of Juice Consulting

Buddha’s Light International Association Presents the Peking Opera

Saturday 26 – Sunday 27, the Long Center

Peking Opera’s history goes all the way back to 1790, when opera troupes traveled to Beijing to entertain the emperor for a birthday party and the performers were so beloved they stuck around. Experience the magic for yourself over two days: Saturday night features a showcase with three excerpts including “Farewell My Concubine,” and Sunday’s matinee is an intriguing presentation of “Monkey King Fights the Skeleton Demon.” With unforgettable music, intricate costumes, and even acrobatics, it’s a spectacle fit for royalty.   – Kat McNevins


Wilson Marks Album Release

Saturday 26, Captain Quack’s Soundspace

Wilson Marks’ music rolls a cavalcade of endless surprises. His jazz instincts, layered atop contorting pop and sly wordplay, ring playfully provocative across fourth LP Canaries in the Coal Mine, which balances his creative cataclysm between existential angst and intimate, moving moments. Marks refuses to be pinned down, but sparks with touches of everything from the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel whirling in a Harry Nilsson-esque blender. Aaron Parks and James Suter join to form a trio to translate Marks’ swirling soundscapes live, while Lindsey Verrill and Dan Grissom reconvene the subtle chamber folk of Some Say Leland to open.   – Doug Freeman


Credit: Photo by Greer James & Connor Mizell

The Grandmaster’s Gala

Saturday 26, Paramount Theatre

2024 was a big year for Grandmaster. The costumed, world-building funk collective debuted with a self-titled album produced by local jam auteur Nolan Potter, took home two Austin Music Awards, and produced the Grandmaster’s Gala, a concert/auction at the State Theatre that raised thousands of dollars for SIMS. Leveling up to the Paramount, this year the band rolls out the red carpet for Potter’s Nightmare Band, viral local darkwave trio Urban Heat, and rising New York City rockers the Thing. Grandmaster themselves wrap the fundraiser with a classically theatrical performance complete with costumes, CGI, and a giant castle background.   – Carys Anderson


Celebrating Mike Mordecai

Saturday 26, Parker Jazz Club

Scores of players have left their marks on Austin’s jazz scene. Celebrating his 75th birthday, Mike Mordecai reminds us that his stamp is longer-lasting than most. Since arriving in town in the early Seventies, the Denton native founded Fable Records and BBA Management and Booking, co-founded Beto y Los Fairlanes, hosted the Monday Night Jazz Jam at the Elephant Room, which he also books, and served as a city of Austin music commissioner. He’s also blown his trombone for everyone from John Mills to Maynard Ferguson to Willie Nelson. Show him love with music, stories, and maybe even some cake.   – Michael Toland


Credit: Photo by Daniel Kelly

Wiz Khalifa

Tuesday 29, Germania Insurance Amphitheater

Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa had an apparently shelved Wizzlemania album on the docket, but has elected to hit the road and is on the smoked-out second leg of his multi-artist Good Vibes Only tour. Dom Kennedy burst through with a signature laid-back flow on his L.A. Leakers-collaborated mixtape, Best After Bobby, in 2009. New Orleans spitter Curren$y will have a treasure chest of up-in-smoke bars. Earl Sweatshirt has most recently rocked heavy bar-surplus features for MAVI, MIKE, and NxWorries (producer Knxwledge and Anderson .Paak). Ab-Soul released the critically acclaimed, yet unusually undermarketed, Soul Burger in 2024.   – Kahron Spearman


This Will Destroy You

Tuesday 29, 29th Street Ballroom

Formed in San Marcos in 2004, This Will Destroy You – whose massive instrumental rock music, alternately thunderous and drifty, earned them comparisons with Explosions in the Sky, which they pretty well hated – is on the road again. The intermittently active band, now located in Los Angeles, is in the middle of celebrating its 20th anniversary in distinct fashion. Two separate lineups of the band have been touring on and off since 2024, one headed up by co-founder Jeremy Galindo and one helmed by co-founder Chris King. This show features the Galindo-led band and will likely be very loud indeed.   – Joe Gross


Middle Mass Credit: Image via Bandcamp

Porcelain, Middle Mass, Virginia Creeper, and Variety

Thursday 31, 29th Street Ballroom

Four acts. Zero filler. Porcelain returns home from tour, bringing home a sound that folds lush noise rock into scorched-earth post-hardcore, reminiscent of great Nineties alt-rock groups like Failure and Slint. Middle Mass round out the bill with songs from their newly released album Songs for the Sapphire Hare, while Virginia Creeper churns up doom-soaked Americana fit for the end of the world. Variety brings their brand of genre alchemy, equal parts art-rock and post-punk with no shortage of poppy hooks. Word on the street is that a very special guest will open things up. Come early, leave rattled.   – Kyra Bruce


Jamal Mckinney Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Welcome to My Trap: iLL Manner Shows Birthday Celebration

Thursday 31, Antone’s Nightclub

“Some venues, they don’t want hip-hop,” Jamal McKinney told the Chronicle in 2023. “They don’t want to produce hip-hop shows because they feel like hip-hop has a certain stigma to it … people smoking, drinking.” Seeking to class up the joint – in the public’s eye, at least – the producer/promoter inked a successful deal with Antone’s, booking stalwarts like Boldy James, Maxo Kream, and CupcakKe alongside locals J Soulja, Lynn, and Ladi Earth, at Austin’s home of the blues. McKinney celebrates his 36th, and iLL Manner’s ongoing success, with Quin NFN, Diego Money, S3nsi Molly, J Rich Tha Don, Anaya Kobe, J-Mill, Lynn, and Shirt Off Fe.   – Carys Anderson


Credit: Image via Facebook

Strange Bangs

Thursday 31, Hotel Vegas

Sometimes twinkly, sometimes jangly, the keys in Strange Bangs arrangements rarely fail to pique the ear’s interest. Heather Mills’ warm and resonant vocals tie together her richly embellished, psychedelic-influenced pop-rock tracks, moving amid synth, guitar, and percussion like a stream through a rocky bed. Opening act daphne falls dips their similarly styled, vocal-driven psych-pop compositions in a healthy amount of Nineties-reminiscent distortion, making them a natural bill companion for Strange Bangs. Plus, I bet you’re wondering how strange those bangs could really be. Find out for yourself.   – Caroline Drew


Music Notes

by Derek Udensi
Big Sean Credit: Image via S10 Entertainment

Austin to Sydney Fundraiser

Friday 25, DAWA HQ

Austin-based hip-hop collective College of Hip Hop Knowledge looks to raise funds to support their efforts in putting together an official showcase at SXSW Sydney, which will transpire Oct. 13-19. This July show is the first of two fundraisers scheduled to occur at DAWA HQ, with the second set for Sept. 5. A $10 suggested donation grants entrance.

Texas First Response

Saturday 26, Mozart’s Coffee

All of this event’s proceeds will benefit Texas Search & Rescue (TEXSAR) and Texas State Troopers flood disaster response. Teenage, London-based blues guitarist Rhys John Stygal headlines the concert portion with Stevie Ray Vaughan covers.

Big Sean

Wednesday 30, Germania Insurance Amphitheater

I’d still argue Big Sean doesn’t get his deserved respect. Before 2015 release Dark Sky Paradise brought commercial hits “Blessings” and “IDFWU” along with motivational track “One Man Can Change the World,” classic 2012 mixtape Detroit helped close the latter portion of DatPiff’s prime years. His most recent LP is last year’s Better Me Than You. Sean tours in support of headliner Russ, who continues to demonstrate what a musician can accomplish without a record label.

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 July 25 • 2025.

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.

Caroline is the Music and Culture staff writer and reporter, covering, well, music, books, and visual art for the Chronicle. She came to Austin by way of Portland, Oregon, drawn by the music scene and the warm weather.

Kyra Bruce is a freelance writer and videographer from Tulsa, Oklahoma—bringing her love for fringe music scenes and her docu-concert series People To Wave To with her to Texas.

Kahron Spearman is a journalist and writer with bylines including The Austin Chronicle, Austin Monthly, Consequence of Sound, Texas Highways, and the London-based journal The Break-Down. He currently serves as Senior Editor at Atmosphere TV.

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.

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.

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.

Kat grew up in Dallas and got to Austin as soon as she could, attending UT and sticking around afterward like so many Austinites. She started at the Chronicle as a proofreader in 2015, and became an events listings editor in 2020, covering community events, film screenings, summer camps, sports, and more.

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.