Twin Shadow Fitzgerald's, March 23
Twin Shadow fans are living on borrowed time. The day will come when he's too big for those small venues he's been playing for the last few years; it's just a matter of when, really. George Lewis Jr. has always been a gifted songwriter, but he's taking things up a level on his major-label debut Eclipse. "To the Top" is a song too big for the venues that he's playing currently; it needs to be blasted on festival main stages and chanted by thousands. So yeah, enjoy the intimacy of these shows while you can. With Lolawolf. CORY GARCIA
Young Thug, Travis Scott House of Blues, March 23
Two rappers on the rise start the week fresh off headlining Yahoo Music's Saturday-night SXSW showcase. According to one recap, Houston native and Kanye collaborator Travis $cott went after the audience, the security and even his hosts for enforcing the fire code, but "when he wasn't ranting, he was rocking the house with his songs 'Quintana,' 'Don't Play' and 'Upper Echelon.'
Atlanta's Young Thug might be on some even more next-level shit. Another one of Lil Wayne's many spiritual godchildren, the 22-year-old was named SPIN's 2014 Rapper of the Year largely on the strength of his mixtape Black Portland, inspiring the magazine to note "few artists working in any genre are so simultaneously accessible and bizarre." CHRIS GRAY
Pentatonix Bayou Music Center, March 25
Pentatonix has already been announced as the opener for Kelly Clarkson's summer tour, which pulls into The Woodlands on September 1, but the Arlington, Tex.-based a cappella group could well be headlining the Pavilion their next time through. Emerging as champions of NBC's The Sing-Off in late 2011, the young quintet combines several key ingredients for contemporary pop success: impeccable singing, cool cover choices (Daft Punk to Beyonce), plenty of seasonal product (two holiday LPs against five overall), a pervasive social-media presence, and a wholesomely multicultural image. They'll win your heart if you don't cringe at all that cuteness. CHRIS GRAY
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