THE COATHANGERS
White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs), Feburary 8
Punk rockers aren’t supposed to age gracefully, but on their fifth and latest album, Nosebleed Weekend, Atlanta’s Coathangers are rounding into form. To follow up 2014’s Suck My Shirt, the decade-old trio relocated from their hometown’s The Living Room to Valentine Recording Studios in North Hollywood, where the likes of Bing Crosby and the Beach Boys recorded, but had been virtually untouched since the late ‘70s. Perhaps that’s what gives the album a bit of a vintage garage-y vibe, but the energy that pulses through tracks like “Perfume,” “Squeeki Tiki” or “Burn Me” is plenty modern. This show may start early, but the Coathangers play the kind of songs that could well keep you out late. With Cleen Teens. (Note: this show has been moved from Raven Tower.)
FEA
Fitzgerald’s, February 8
Girl In a Coma fans have learned the virtue of patience as the popular San Antonio femme-punks have effectively (though not completely) split into two branches. First, front woman Nina Diaz decided to step away to prepare a solo album, last fall’s The Beat Is Dead. Meanwhile, Diaz’s older sister Phanie and GIAC bassist Jenn Alva recruited a couple of friends and formed FEA, which followed GIAC onto Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records and recorded their own album, a self-titled affair produced by Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace; it actually beat Diaz’s to the stores by a couple of months. So far so good: GIAC still plays the occasional gig, rocking their hometown as recently as December; Diaz’s record met with widespread acclaim; and FEA’s rated four and a half stars from punknews.org, which called the album “a pitch-perfect revival of the riot grrrl genre with a new spin for a new generation.” With MyDolls and Only Beast.
GAL HOLIDAY & THE HONKY-TONK REVUE
McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, February 10 (9:30 p.m. seating)
New Orleans is one of America’s great music cities, but relatively few people probably think of it as a honky-tonk town too. For more than a decade, Vanessa Niemann — also known as Gal Holiday, or “The Rockin’ Lady” — and her Honky-Tonk Revue have been making people rethink that assumption, playing it straight with traditional country and rockabilly to the tune of many a crowded dance floor. These veterans will soon celebrate their tenth consecutive appearance at Jazzfest this year and currently hold an ongoing residency at Austin’s Driskill Hotel, as well as regular gigs at Crescent City watering holes like the Rusty Nail and Three Muses. They’ve only caught on in the Bayou City relatively recently, however, but their two-set debut at the Mucky Duck last July — drawing heavily on their 2014 album of originals, Last to Leave, and 2010’s all-covers Yes, Ma’am — is streaming on the Revue’s website and available as a name-your-price download.
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL
House of Blues, February 12
Dashboard Confessional vocalist Chris Carrabba remains as emotive as ever, channeling dogged sincerity as he makes a bid for a woman’s hand on the recently released acoustic track “May.” Though Carrabba has not set a firm date for the release of his band’s next album — their seventh, and first since 2009 — this monthlong tour from New York to California might be his way of testing the waters to see if the climate is right for the next A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. New music would be great, but so long as the set list includes “Hands Down,” “Screaming Infidelities” and “Vindicated,” longtime fans will continue buying tickets. With Vinyl Theatre. MATTHEW KEEVER
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2017.
