Reviews – Austin Town Hall

Show Review: Andrew Bird with the Central Texas Philharmonic @ Bass Concert Hall (9.17.25)

September 28, 2025 jon.wagner Leave a comment

You know that feeling like slipping into an old favorite pair of jeans after a wash, familiar, but just a little different. You know the fit, the feel, and the comfort. But there’s a stiffness and a strangeness. And then slowly the fabric gives, and you remember why you loved them in the first place. That’s what it felt like stepping into the cavernous Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus to see Andrew Bird perform his 2005 LP The Mysterious Production of Eggs with the Central Texas Philharmonic in its entirety. Read more

Show Pics: The Psychedelic Furs @ ACL Live (7/15)

July 18, 2025 brian.gray Leave a comment

…with The Chameleons.

I was out and about earlier this week for a show at ACL Live featuring a couple more bgray throwback bands. If someone mentions The Psychedelic Furs, your mental soundtrack may jump at a movie soundtrack hit. I happen to think of the darker tail end of new wave that crossed over into post-punk. Being at a show where there are equal numbers of people are unironically wearing Wham! shirts as there were wearing Sisters of Mercy shirts is about the best description of the Psych Furs split personality. “Pretty In Pink” and “Heartbreak Beat” versus “Love My Way” and “No Easy Street”, pop bangers to introspective mourning.

Opening the show, The Chameleons have their core back together. You may know them as The Chameleons UK due to publishing issues, Chameleons Vox due to the breakup, but they’re back at it. I caught a bit of Mark Burgess playing solo during SXSW, but the full band experience, getting Smithies and Burgess back at it, is what I wanted. Got it. If you don’t know the band well, have a listen to Script Of The Bridge and tell me it couldn’t be released today.

Click through for the piccies!

Show Review: Thievery Corporation @ Stubb’s (06.28.2025)

June 29, 2025 jon.wagner Leave a comment

On Saturday night in our fair city, the air hung thick like a sweaty veil of heat and incense. Writhing and swaying bodies passed the vibe check under the towering live oak canopies of Stubb’s Amphitheater. In a quick annual return to the Capital City following a stop at Emo’s in May 2024, this was once again the kind of performance where reality feels soft at the edges. The audience was ripe for a descent into Thievery Corporation’s kaleidoscopic world, and they delivered over the sinuous two-hour set that served as the final stop of this leg of tours until the fall. With a well-deserved break imminent, the touring group pulled no punches and left it all on stage. Read more

Kilby Block Party 6: Thursday in Pics

May 27, 2025 brian.gray Leave a comment

I traveled up to Salt Lake City to take in one of the newish festivals that seems to be doing things right, Kilby Block Party. The lineup is one of the best of the year for my tastes, by far. Previous years, KBP was only two or three days; they hit four days this go round for a stellar group of artists to accomodate touring schedules with New Order, Yo La Tengo, Future Islands and Devo featured.

Click through, I have some thoughts and plenty of photos to peruse. If you were at the rail, see if you made the crowd shots. If you weren’t there, blast you favorite tunes by each artist and pretend.

Show Review: Austin Psych Fest

May 2, 2025 nathan.lankford Leave a comment

The group over at Levitation have been dominating the Austin landscape with incredible lineups for nearly two decades, and we were fortunate to be on-hand this year at The Far Out Lounge. The line-up did not have a single weak spot, and the weather was actually pretty great, all things considered (warm but not hot!). Take a jump below and read some thoughts on the festival and the acts on hand. Special thanks to Michael Maly for his photography gifts. Check more of his work HERE.

Show Review: Napalm Death + Melvins @ Emos (4.18)

April 22, 2025 Case Cockrell Leave a comment

It’s hard to shield yourself from the world’s current events in 2025. There are wars going on, a Russian-happy president in the Oval Office, and Elon Musk is our billionaire asshole-in-chief. For a band like Napalm Death witnessing the perils going on all over the world and their overseas allies going to complete shit in the US, they have a lot to say. Helping them deliver their message came sludge metal titans Melvins and long-running Wilmington stoner doomers Weedeater, a triple threat gauntlet that brought all the heavy – and more. The billed appearances on this run have been aptly titled the “Savage Imperial Death March Tour,” a fitting moniker for the traveling caravan of the long-running performing acts.

Hit the jump for more with fancy photos from Casey Chumbley.

Show Pics: Hey, Nothing @ 3Ten (3/28)

April 3, 2025 brian.gray Leave a comment

After a grueling run at SXSW 2025 a couple weeks prior, a pallet cleanser was due. Ryan and I headed out on a Friday evening to catch Hey, Nothing, a two human project out of Georgia making the dream of the 90s come alive. Along with them, we got the check out Sean Solomon‘s solo project. Sean is a member of Moaning and also a talented animator. It was a younger crowd, attending BECAUSE of social media, not in spite of, and I was happy to meet a new group of live music fans talking about traveling to see shows. Rad.

More on the show and PLENTY of pics to come. Click through, fam.

Show Review: MJ Lenderman @ Emos (2.6)

February 10, 2025 Michael Maly Leave a comment

Breaking up is hard to do, but it sure does make for good music.

MJ Lenderman’s lyrics aren’t sprawling, poetic pleas for understanding. Instead, they arrive as snapshots intimate, personal, and timeless observations of everyday life. Wrap that up nice and tight with music that echoes the highlights of a sound delivered within a newly appointed label aptly titled No Depression in the 90s, which found itself a successful hybrid of Americana and Rock, spawning the genre Alt-Country. Breathing life into its faded wake comes Lenderman.

“Coward cutting Joker lips into a rubber mask
Please don’t ask how I’m doing
Draining cum from hotel showers
Hoping for the hours to pass a little faster.”

Show Review: Cunningham Bird @ Paramount Theater (01.25.25)

February 1, 2025 jon.wagner Leave a comment

“Do you always trust your first initial feeling?”

This seemingly innocuous, yet thought-provoking question speaks to the nature of foresight and perception. Humans, by nature, are notoriously bad at predicting the future. Listen to your gut, the saying goes but our big brains often get in the way. Read more

Show Review: Sigur Ros @ Bass Concert Hall (10.04.24)

October 7, 2024 jon.wagner Leave a comment

On a balmy October Friday night, opposite the insanity of the first night of the Austin City Limits Music Festival, something of another story altogether was brewing across town at the 40 acres. After skipping our fair city the last time around during this orchestral iteration, the Icelandic trio, Sigur Ros returned triumphantly to the University of Texas campus. The experiences between the Zilker park faithful in contrast those in attendance at the Bass Concert Hall could not have been starker. Here was the trio and their rotating accompaniment on their last show date of their 8-date orchestral tour in the US and in the process simply expanded time and altered consciousness. Adjectives and prose fail me to describe just how hauntingly beautiful, breathtakingly colossal, and overwhelmingly entrancing they can be when in form.

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