This Week's Best Concerts

Hey, the Astros are in the World Series (again, New York Yankees! Ha!), but with tickets at a premium, in terms of both availability and price, concerts might be the way to go this week. You can always DVR a game and watch it later if there is a scheduling conflict, but don’t let anyone tell you the final score.

It’s not just anybody who is invited to play a crystal flute made for U.S. president James Madison. No, that honor only goes out to people like, well, Lizzo. Born in Detroit and raised in Houston (Alief Elsik High School, Class of 2006 – represent!), Lizzo distinguished herself as a first-chair flutist but left the classical music world to pursue rap. In fact, she acquired the “Lizzo” nickname while performing with a high school rap group, the Cornrow Clique.

Since then, Lizzo has added singing to her collection of talents, building a career that exploded in 2019, when her single “Truth Hurts” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It’s better to show you Lizzo than try to explain her artistry or theorize as to how she plays the flute with way-long fingernails while twerking. So check out her performance from the Glastonbury Festival (above) and its message of positivity, empowerment, inclusivity, and self-love. Lizzo is back in Houston on Wednesday at Toyota Center and, as her song says, it’s “About Damn Time.”

So what do punk musicians do for fun? If they are a bunch of guys from San Francisco, they form a cover band called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Since 1995, the band has been ripping through unique takes on songs that are not typically associated with the punk genre. “Mandy,” “Seasons in the Sun,” “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” — that sort of thing. This approach is, of course, loads of fun, but in many cases, the new interpretations reveal possibilities hidden in the original recordings. The latter example lets us hear what John Denver might have turned into had he stopped listening to his parents, started wearing black leather, and taken a bunch of cheap speed. It’s a revelatory experience, one which can be experienced Wednesday at the House of Blues.

Aging Gen Xers will be heading for the Heights Theater this week for two shows featuring bands whose legacies loom large for folks of a certain age: the Gin Blossoms on Thursday and the BoDeans on Saturday. Both bands were formed in the ‘80s and achieved their greatest success in the alt-rocking early ‘90s. The BoDeans’ “Closer to Free” was used as the theme song for the television show “Party of Five,” but we won’t hold that against them.

After electing to abandon his studies in engineering at Vanderbilt University, Chris Stapleton began writing songs in Nashville, cranking out hits for Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Luke Bryan. He released his first solo album in 2015, attracting notice by opening for Guns N’ Roses, Tom Petty and the Eagles. Stapleton’s brand of country has plenty of rough edges and guitar crunch, lending to his crossover appeal. This guy is retro in the best possible way. He would have fit in well with Waylon and Willie during their outlaw years, and many of his songs wouldn’t have been out of place on a rock and roll radio station in the ’70s. Stapleton’s county / rock hoedown is at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Friday. Hope they don’t run out of beer.

If you’re in the mood for something trippy, head to the White Oak Music Hall on Saturday for Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The Canadian aggregation (it doesn’t seem quite right to call it a band) has been exploring the nether regions (hey, I’m talking about metaphorical subterranea, not naughty bits!) of music since the mid ‘90s. Blending violin and other stringed instruments with electric guitars, tape loops, and samples, GY!BE (that’s how the cool kids spell it) has staked out a musical turf that might be described with words like atmospheric, gloomy, and ethereal.

Following in the tradition of the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, and the Butthole Surfers, they perform in front of projected film clips, with the visual element commenting on the musical one. Where did they get that name? I was curious too. As it turns out, Godspeed You! Black Emperor was the title of a 1976 documentary about a Japanese motorcyclists. So there you go. Hey, knowledge is power!