Live music in Austin: Lizzo, Green Day, Post Malone, Mary Gauthier and more
Here are our top picks for live music in the Austin area Oct. 20-26.
Thursday: Spellling at Mohawk outdoor
On her latest, “The Turning Wheel,” the experimental pop artist aka Chrystia Cabral winds her ethereal pipes through sweeping compositions that veer from sunny soundscapes that bubble with hope to shadowy avenues where vague danger looms at every turn. Cabral worked with a cast of 31 musicians to create the album, her third and most ambitious to date. BluMoon opens. $16. 9 p.m. parishaustin.com.
— D.S.S.
Friday: Green Day F1 concert at Circuit of the Americas
The Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix always brings a couple of major concerts as evening entertainment after the daytime race sessions, and this year it’s Bay Area punk-pop heavyweights Green Day who’ll kick it off. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, the trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool were the right band at the right time in the mid-1990s, riding the wave of post-punk that followed Nirvana’s 1991 breakthrough to multiplatinum sales of their 1994 disc “Dookie.” But it was 2004’s “American Idiot,” their first chart-topping album, that assured their longevity, especially after it spawned an award-winning Broadway musical. Single-day tickets, which include Friday’s racing, start at $59. circuitoftheamericas.com.
— P.B.
Friday: Mary Gauthier, Jaimee Harris at 3Ten
Nominated for a Grammy for her 2018 album “Rifles & Rosary Beads,” which was co-written with military veterans, Gauthier is on tour for this year’s follow-up, “Dark Enough to See the Stars.” It’s more along the lines of Gauthier’s previous albums, which proved her to be a master of blending the political and the personal in folk-based songs. Playing in Gauthier’s band and opening this seated show is Harris, who was one of Austin’s finest singer-songwriters of the 2010s before moving to Nashville a few years ago. $25-$35. 8 p.m. 3tenaustin.com.
— P.B.
More:Our 2019 interview with Mary Gauthier
Saturday: Post Malone at Moody Center
Look, the oddball rapper turned pop superstar has an uncanny knack for an earworm. Even the haters hum along to “Sunflower.” On his latest, “Twelve Carat Toothache,” Malone projects sincerity as he packs a surprising spectrum of emotional depth into slow burners like “Reputation” and “Lemon Tree.” On this tour, he’s been mixing the new tracks with his megahits in a show that softens ample pyrotechnics with acoustic interludes. Roddy Ricch opens. $139.50 and up. 8 p.m. moodycenteratx.com.
— D.S.S.
Saturday: Four Tet at Concourse Project
The pioneering indie electronica artist aka Kieran Hebden is known for atmospheric sound poems that morph into dance floor bangers. In a career that has spanned over two decades, his open-form exploration of electronic sonics has included experiments with folk sounds and global trance. He’s logged collabs with Thom Yorke, Laurie Anderson and Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman. Last year, he and hip-hop producer Madlib teamed up on the album “Sound Ancestors.” Ben UFO opens. $20 and up. 9 p.m. concourseproject.com.
— D.S.S.
Sunday: 'Turn Up the Vote' with Shawn Colvin and more at Sagebrush
Election Day is Nov. 8, and as usual, Austin musicians are at the forefront of get-out-the-vote efforts. An all-star lineup of locals will perform at this daytime event, including Shawn Colvin, Kelly Willis, Ray Benson, Marcia Ball, Darden Smith, Rosie Flores, the Bluebonnets, Ian Moore and the Derailers. $30-$40. 2-8 p.m. sagebrushtexas.com.
— P.B.
Tuesday: Lizzo at Moody Center
How many artists can actually say they changed the world? We first caught up with Lizzo backstage after her spectacular opening set at ACL Fest 2016. Six months earlier, pop superstar Prince — the icon of her adopted hometown Minneapolis — had died. In the wake of his passing, she made it her mission to use the platform she had to spread as much positivity and love as possible. Two years later, she was back at the fest preaching her gospel of self-love to a crowd so large it almost broke Zilker Park.
More:Lizzo at SXSW 2022
This year, she launched “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” a reality competition show. Her aim was to source plus-sized dancers, women rarely represented by traditional agencies, for her tour. She turned 13 big beautiful women into celebrities, and in the process, she demolished stereotypes about weight, beauty and health. “When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media. Someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” she said in her acceptance speech after winning an Emmy for the show this month. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I'd be like, ‘You're gonna see that person, but bitch, it's gonna have to be you.’” Atlanta rapper Latto opens. $200 and up. 8 p.m. moodycenteratx.com.
— D.S.S.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Live music in Austin: Lizzo, Green Day, Post Malone and more