Ariana Grande NRG Stadium, March 17

Little Cat Valentine is all grown up, figuratively speaking. Ariana Grande, the former Nickelodeon TV star turned pop diva, is still all of 5 feet tall, but she's becoming an increasingly big figure in the pop-music landscape, while only courting some of the tabloid drama that surrounds similar stars. While she's probably never going to chop all her hair off and become a twerk queen, the stories about her being carried around like a baby or that she wants her fans to die are kind of weird, true or not.

It's enough to forget that she has some real solid pop gems to her name, including her collaborations with Zedd ("Break Free") and The Weeknd ("Love Me Harder"). Will her voice be enough to fill NRG Stadium? Either way, it's set to be one of the most talked-about shows of rodeo season. CORY GARCIA

Down Under Sounds Continental Club, March 17

Put down that green beer on St. Patrick's Day and head over to the Continental to soak up some fresh sounds from the land that gave us AC/DC, INXS, Midnight Oil and Iggy Azalea...mate. Sponsored by the Houston branch of the Australian-American Chamber of Commerce, the annual Down Under Sounds night is now in its sixth year, offering Houston music fans yet another opportunity to reap the benefits of SXSW without actually going to Austin.

This year's lineup looks pretty stout, too: Canberra's Safia, whose moody, soulful electro-pop won them a spot on Lorde's Australian tour last year; fashion-forward Melbourne boy-girl duo Satellite Sky, who take their cues from Franz Ferdinand rather than the White Stripes; and Anthony Snape, a singer-songwriter in the Pete Yorn/Bob Schneider mold who has already recorded one album, Live at the Vintage, in Houston. These cultural-exchange boosters must be on to something. CHRIS GRAY

Gang of Four Warehouse Live, March 17

Among the handful of late-'70s bands seduced by punk's no-frills musical ethos but disgusted by its "Pretty Vacant" intellectual bankruptcy - see also Public Image Ltd., Wire, the Fall, Mission of Burma, etc. -- Gang of Four applied the same intensity to their lyrics, which were often hypercritical of capitalism and various other social maladies, as to their bristling guitars and rhythms that were funky almost in spite of themselves. In so doing they helped establish a sonic template that would soon be adopted in various quantities by alt-rock heavyweights like R.E.M., U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana.

Gang of Four's half-life was a long enough to outlast a lineup that began to splinter after 1979 debut Entertainment!, but the band itself wasn't easily stamped out, either. Various members have come and gone since 2005 "reunion" album Return the Gift, and in 2015 founding guitarist Andy Gill is the one carrying on the brand; last month's What Happens Next features Allison Mossheart of the Kills, among other guests. CHRIS GRAY

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