For more live music to see in Birmingham, check out Weld‘s Live Music Calendar or visit our music section.
Saturn | Friday, June 19 | 8 p.m.
Local shoegaze group Wray bring their wall of sound to Saturn for the first time on Friday for the Happenin Fest pre-show. They’re sharing a bill with Plains, who will be celebrating the release of their excellent jangle-pop album Delicate Living, which will be available that night on cassette. Also performing: Tulsa-based rockers Native Lights, whose ethereal tunes will fit right in with the two Birmingham natives also on the bill.
Great Lake Swimmers/The Weather Station
WorkPlay | Friday, June 19 | 8 p.m.
Canadian folk rockers Great Lake Swimmers imbue their songs with gentle melodies that recall the work of musicians such as Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens. The group’s latest album, A Forest of Arms was released in April, and the group will translate its environmentally focused songs — including the inventively titled “I Must Have Someone Else’s Blues” — to the stage at WorkPlay on Friday.
Iron City | Wednesday, June 24 | 8 p.m.
Yelawolf was born in Gadsden, but he traveled around the country doing a variety of odd jobs before finding success with his 2010 mixtape Trunk Muzik. Since then, Yelawolf has honed his particular brand of country-tinged hip-hop with his latest album, this year’s Love Story, finding a surprisingly lucrative, fascinating middle ground between Kid Rock and Eminem.
Man Man/Ed Schrader’s Music Beat
Saturn | Wednesday, June 24 | 8 p.m.
Man Man are classified as “experimental,” but don’t think that means “inaccessible.” The band’s latest album, 2013’s On Oni Pond, is a collection of bouncy tunes grounded by lead singer Honus Honus’s smoky vocals. If anything’s experimental about Man Man, it’s the carnivalesque instrumentation — horns, organs and xylophones lend a catchy chaos to the band’s danceable music.
Sam Pointer & Friends: A Tribute to John Hartford
Moonlight on the Mountain | Thursday, June 25 | 7:30 p.m.
Bluegrass legend John Hartford died of cancer back in June 2001, but his legacy lives on in the form of newgrass, a progressive permutation of the bluegrass genre which Hartford helped pioneer. On Thursday, Birmingham multi-instrumentalist Sam Pointer will lead a group of musicians — including Herb Trotman and Leo McDermott — in performing selections from Hartford’s discography, including the entirety of his influential album Aereo-Plain.