Glitch-Pop, Math Rock, and Retro Soul Take Over Austin's Underground This Week

Austin’s live circuit is leaning hard into technical nostalgia and retro grooves this week. Over at the Mohawk on Wednesday, the dual-guitar math rock intricacy of Pool Kids collides with the legendary midwest emo stylings of Tigers Jaw. If you want to see complex, kinetic time-signature shifts paired with visceral, throat-shredding emotional hooks, this outdoor stage is your ground zero. Meanwhile, if your soul demands something smoother but no less raw, Antone's Nightclub hosts The Altons on Thursday, delivering a masterclass in lowrider retro soul that feels like a dusty 45 RPM platter brought to life with pristine modern urgency.

On Friday, the digital-decay wave sweeps through the Scoot Inn as hyperpop iconoclasts Underscores and Umru construct a glitchy playground of art pop and experimental pop. Underscores, still riding high off the critically acclaimed chaos of recent releases, is known for violent genre-switches mid-song, translating bedroom production into a sweat-soaked, punk-adjacent live spectacle. With Umru setting the stage with his trademark metallic, hyper-compressed textures, expect a high-volume, neon-lit sensory overload that represents the cutting edge of internet-born songwriting.

Finally, round out your weekend with some high-fidelity escapism on Saturday night. The Concourse Project is transforming into a glittering sanctuary for nu disco and house courtesy of Purple Disco Machine. Armed with a deep crate of funk-infused basslines and synth-heavy grooves, the German producer is set to turn the industrial warehouse space into an sweat-drenched homage to the Paradise Garage era. It is a mandatory pilgrimage for anyone who prefers their dance music sophisticated, soulful, and relentlessly kinetic.