When it comes to concerts, this week you’ll have the option to hear the most important song of the year live, see a hidden gem in the
Pick of the Week: Childish Gambino
9/22 - Toyota Center
Once you get that time machine built, travel back to mid-2013 and find yourself. Tell that version of you that’s trying to make sense of Yeezus that five years from now Childish Gambino would make the most important hip-hop song of the year and that we’d all be, at
The Best of the Rest
Zhu/TOKiMONSTA
9/20 - Warehouse Live
The team behind “Light It Up” hit Warehouse Live for a night of big beats. Zhu’s rise to headliner is pretty impressive when you consider he’s been on the scene for less than have a decade, a testament to dance fans' ability to embrace the new. As for TOKiMONSTA, I’m always happy to see an artist who is a woman get a platform to show off her work, especially in the world of electronic music.
9/21 - House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room)
Do you remember Tracy Bonham’s excellent debut The Burdens of Being Upright? Meg Myers is the closest artist I’ve come across that features the musical flexibility and sharp lyrics that made me fall in love with that record. Both of Myers’s albums — 2015’s Sorry and this year’s Take Me to the Disco — are masterworks in trusting an audience to follow you as you create songs that work as a package without necessarily having a defined sound. She should definitely be playing bigger rooms, but I won’t complain about seeing her in the intimate confines of the Bronze Peacock Room.
Andrew W.K.
9/23 - White Oak Music Hall
Maybe you think Andrew W.K.’s gimmick as
Thrice
9/25 - House of Blues
With Palms having just been released into the world, it’ll be interesting to see how Thrice’s setlists evolve moving forward. Recent setlists were a nice mix of old and newer favorites, and I’m personally curious to see how heavy their shows will be with new material; “The Dark” should be pretty fun if it makes it in. Fun fact: Thrice is in the top 2 percent of bands I’ve seen live in terms of sound engineering; their sets just sound impeccable.
Bonus Road Trip Option: River City Rockfest
9/22 - San Antonio
Still sad that you didn’t get a full Nine Inch Nails set at Day For Night on account of the weather? (“The Background World” was a pretty amazing closer though.) Well, you could wait a few months and drive up to Irving (gross) or east to New Orleans (both shows are sold out though so good luck if you don’t already have tickets), or you make the shorter drive this weekend to catch them headliner River City Rockfest, a fest no one really talks about, which is a shame because the lineups are fairly solid if that’s your scene. NIN headlines a lineup that includes that band pretending to be Stone Temple Pilots, Primus, and Joan Jett among others.