POTTY MOUTH
White Oak Music Hall, March 13
Potty Mouth exemplifies just how good punk music can be when we stop letting men (Julie) ruin it. Heavily inspired by ’90s riot-grrrl acts like Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, the Massachusetts-based band made a splash with critics on their 2013 album Hell Bent. Potty Mouth’s music bursts with grit and attitude, drifting through throaty bass lines and wistful, rage-y lyrics in tight, three-minute punches. While other groups in this genre fall victim to redundancy, Potty Mouth keeps their music fresh with unrivaled authenticity. This White Oak show is the right place to go if you need to dance out some aggression, or if you just love C, G and F chords. It doesn’t matter if it’s on a Monday — any day is a good day to rock. With PARTYBABY. KATIE SULLIVAN
SAM HUNT
NRG Stadium, March 13
Traditionalists scoff, but Sam Hunt blurs the lines between country, pop and R&B so completely he’s earned the (totally serious) nickname “Country Drake.” The former college quarterback’s 2014 LP Montevallo quickly became one of the most-copied sounds in Nashville, setting Hunt up for his chart-devouring latest single “Body Like a Back Road.”
DEMI LOVATO
NRG Stadium, March 14
Still just 24 years old, Dallas-bred Demi Lovato is nearly a decade removed from her Disney Channel star vehicle Sonny With a Chance. Led by coy single “Cool For the Summer,” 2015’s Confident is her strongest argument yet for initiation into the single-name pop firmament alongside Taylor, Katy and Ariana.
THOMAS RHETT
NRG Stadium, March 15
Son of ’90s singer Rhett Akins, Georgia-born Thomas Rhett wasn’t even 21 when Jason Aldean recorded a song of his on 2010’s My Kind of Party. His own breakthrough album, 2015’s Tangled Up, doesn’t skimp on party cuts, but the No. 1 hit was snuggly ballad “Die a Happy Man.”
LUKE BRYAN
NRG Stadium, March 16
Country music’s reigning Mr. Congeniality, Luke Bryan set out to prove he was more than just the King of Spring Break on 2015’s Kill the Lights, and largely succeeded. Onstage, though, he’ll always be the wholesome stud of Tailgates and Tan Lines, inviting the ladies to crash his party anytime.
BIG SEAN
Revention Music Center, March 17
About a month removed from the release of his fourth studio album — his second to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — Big Sean will bring his celebrity to a city whose love for hip-hop is insatiable. The California-born, Detroit-raised rapper has developed quite the following over the past half decade, much of which can be tied back to his signing with Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. He has since collaborated with the likes of Ye himself, John Legend, Common, 2 Chainz, Nas, Drake and fellow Detroit legend Eminem, among others. His latest album, I Decided, sees Sean at his most introspective. It follows an elderly Big Sean giving his younger self advice in hindsight, making for quite the contemplative tone despite some of the more accessible beats. MATTHEW KEEVER
FIFTH HARMONY
NRG Stadium, March 17
Shrugging off the side-eyes often thrown toward artists who incubate in the made-for-TV factory, Fifth Harmony — the R&B four-piece originally assembled by Simon Cowell on Fox’s The X-Factor (and recently pared down to a quartet) — prove compelling chemistry and choreography can trump even songwriting by committee. This St. Patrick’s Day, girl power runs roughshod over NRG.
CONOR OBERST
Warehouse Live, March 17
If Ryan Adams and Dave Grohl were one person, that would be Conor Oberst. Like Adams, Oberst seemingly puts out a new indie album every six months, but like Grohl, Oberst has about 87 side bands and ongoing projects. So who knows what to expect when Oberst takes the stage at Warehouse Live. Expect tracks from new solo album Salutations (Nonesuch), maybe some Bright Eyes for good measure — the storied Omaha indie-rockers’ catalog was recently remastered and reissued — and, what the hell, maybe even some Monsters of Folk. With the Felice Brothers. CLINT HALE
FOURTH ANNUAL CELEBR8ION OF BEER
8th Wonder Brewery (2202 Dallas), March 18
Never mind all the St. Paddy’s Day shindigs, SXSW spillover or March Madness watch parties, because 8th Wonder’s fourth-anniversary bash is shaping up to be the social event of the season. The warehouse-like brewery and taproom with one of Houston’s most awesome patios has quickly become a hub of the East Downtown community, bringing the same Houston-first attitude that inspired brands like Dome Faux’m and Rocket Fuel to its musical endeavors. Headlining is one of Texas’s most explosive live bands around — White Denim, the freaky Austin rockers who recently electrified Austin City Limits behind the quartet’s sixth album, Stiff. Coming over from New Orleans are the Neville family’s latest funk surgeons, Ivan’s Dumpstaphunk, and — naturally — 8th Wonder’s pint glass runneth over with H-Town talent: The Voice’s #TeamGwen hopeful Stephanie Rice and Colonial Blue; the stardusted glam-pop stylings of -Us; Guilla and iLL Faded’s left-of-center DJ/MC battle; and palate-cleansing blues-rockers Muddy Belle.
WILLIE NELSON
NRG Stadium, March 18
Demand for the pigtailed Texas legend’s tenth rodeo appearance has been off the charts, despite the whispers surrounding recent cancellations. As ever, his response is perfectly Willie: a new song called “Still Not Dead.” Its parent album, God’s Problem Child, is due on his 84th birthday in April.
TRUDY LYNN
The Big Easy, March 18
The grande dame of Houston blues divas is on a roll. Trudy Lynn is enjoying another Blues Music Award nomination for her latest album, last October’s I’ll Sing the Blues For You (Connor Ray), which scatters songs by the likes of Lowell Fulson, Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Clyde Copeland and even Mel Tillis around her funky original composition “Thru Chasin’ You.” As described by the website Jazz Weekly, the collection “[makes] you feel the sweat and blisters from each piece.” This year the Fifth Ward native is up for the Koko Taylor Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist — alongside fellow Houstonians Annika Chambers and Diunna Greenleaf, no less. Sponsored by the Blues Foundation, the BMAs will be handed out May 11 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, but until then a Saturday night at the Big Easy with Trudy and her band is about as close to a sure thing as it gets in this town.
BANDA EL RECODO/SIGGNO
NRG Stadium, March 19
Both first-timers, this year’s Go Tejano Day acts aren’t necessarily new: Sinaloa-based norteño outfit Banda el Recodo is 80 years old, with more than 200 albums to its credit; founded in 2000, San Antonio Tejano revivalists Siggno hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Albums chart with last year’s Yo Te Esperare.
This article appears in Mar 9-15, 2017.
