Six Concert Picks to See This Free Week(end)

Forget immobilizing on your parents' couch or overindulging on NYE; the calendar doesn't officially flip for local music fans until Free Week. Launched to boost winter-slogged bar sales, the annual event has expanded into a full-throttle fest already chugging at Hotel Vegas, Feels So Good, and beyond. The Red River Cultural District's weekend edition – tonight through Saturday – plays Cheer Up Charlies, Chess Club, Elysium, Empire, Flamingo Cantina, Mala Vida, Mohawk, Stubb's, Swan Dive, the 13th Floor, Valhalla, and Vaquero Taquero. Find Austin standards like American Sharks, Alexalone, Big Bill, Disko Cowboy, Sabrina Ellis, and the Bright Light Social Hour in the unticketed, made-for-hopping mix. Alongside a House of Lepore ATX Vogue Night at Swan Dive tonight and a KUTX-curated Friday at Cheer Up Charlies, find more standouts below.

Yung Bambi, Doeman, Mason Flynt

Empire Control Room, Thursday 5

While Ringo Deathstarr helms the Garage, Empire's indoors hosts impactful producers and hard-hitting lyricists from beyond Texas. In L.A. via San Antonio, EDM-integrating sinister wordsmith Yung Bambi returns from South by Southwest and national fests with latest "Geek." Longtime Austin-based affiliate Mason Flynt, heard elegantly producing Bambi on predictive 2018 single "Lockdown," joins alongside Houston rapper Joseph "Doeman" Gonzales. With Brian Hobbs' SXSW email as the contact in his IG bio, Doeman brings Motown-mixing July record Barrio God Vol 2. UK-born, Cincinnati-based Suave's moody alt-pop, plus Austin's Moscato J and Dallas' D. Smiley, round out the lineup.  – Rachel Rascoe

The Crack Pipes, High Heavens, Tyler Keith

The 13th Floor, Friday 6

The Crack Pipes have been in earnest stylistic flux since 1995, showcased in the melancholic blues of Beauty School (2005) and the glazed psychedelic/garage rock conviction of Every Night Saturday Night (2001). Last year, High Heavens duo Ernest Salaz and John Matthew Walker crafted immensely soulful soft rock prayers "Life Is a Loan Shark" and "Hundred Bullets" with producer Stuart Sikes, featuring instrumentation by members of ...Trail of Dead and Glorium. Rockabilly soloist Tyler Keith of the Neckbones visits from Mississippi, while Narrow Haunts underscore angst rock in this Free Week phantasm.  – Mars Salazar

Swass Nite w/ God Shell, Discreet

Feels So Good, Friday 6

We apologize for the inconvenience: This week's "Buns of Steel" aerobics class has been relocated to the seventh circle of hell. As twerkable as it is ear-piercing, Austin's perennial Swass Nite showcase shrieks into Free Week, gathering the city's most fearsome punk/metal noisemakers under a party-positive banner. Whereas Discreet and God Shell occupy opposing rhythmic ends of the blackened screamo sludge continuum – groovy and pummeling, respectively – ExCxLxCxCxBxPxCxTxSx pulls up to the function repping the, uh, "gorenoise" genre. While the Chronicle has yet to discover an aerobic dance fit for their bubbling liquid pus sound, we will keep trying. Necklace opens.  – Julian Towers

Amplified Heat, Duel, Sudden Deaf

Valhalla, Friday 6

Conjuring the doom-braised kraken brings a like-minded metal triumvirate to steamroll through Seventies fuzz distortion and omnipresent overlord vox. Duel's Lord of the Rings sorcery couples with ricochet bullet solos and brick and mortar riffs in Valley of Shadows (2019), and In Carne Persona (2021) could soundtrack the Odyssean voyages in Game of Thrones. Opting for searing blues and electric boogie, Amplified Heat cooks chord slabs in Texas-scorched heat on Southern stomp "It's Hard" and bourbon-fueled romp "In a Forest of Love." New metalheads on the block Sudden Deaf released debut Havoc brimming with hellfire aggression reminiscent of Thin Lizzy.  – Alejandra Ramirez

El Tule, the Tiarras, Los Kurados

Flamingo Cantina, Saturday 7

Grupo Fantasma gets the press, but fellow travelers El Tule cast as wide a net in ATX. Cumbia, merengue, Afro Latin, reggae, and psychedelia forge the octet's own distinctively groovy Latin sound. The band hasn't made a full-length album since 2015's Cuatro, but keeps the flame burning with steady gigging and a run of digital singles and EPs. El Tule never fails to light up a stage, so this is a good time to make their (re)acquaintance. Having dropped "Girls" from their name, the Tiarras – aka the three Baltierra sisters – open with their own spin on Latin pop rock like latest "Cumbia en el Cielo."  – Michael Toland

Annabelle Chairlegs, Queen Serene, Heavy Meddo

Hotel Vegas, Saturday 7

Annabelle Chairlegs' heavy blend of blues- and psychedelia-tinged rock erupts like a match strike. November single "Tolls (To See Me)" follows suit: all hazy vocal reverb and glockenspiel twinkles, before the track blazes into a sprawling, shrieking guitarscape, zipping quiet-loud-quiet as singer Lindsey Mackin beckons whimsically. Emerging bedroom rockers Queen Serene wield slinky hooks and guitar-fuzz melodrama across twofer Better Things / Waiting Room, while Heavy Meddo bears Great News and mosaic noise rock, starting with the sonorous "Tepid Ted." Dream-pop multi-instrumentalist Chuck (Emily Ng of Nevil) opens.  – Kriss Conklin