Ekali, 21 Savage, $uicideboy$ and the rest of December’s concerts
Wednesday, December 6
Ekali’s name might not ring a bell, but if you’re a hip-hop fan, you’ve already heard bits and pieces of his work. Portions of his 2014 single “Unfaith” are sampled on Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Since then, the Vancouver electronic producer has signed to Skrillex’s OWSLA label and dropped the first single from his upcoming debut. Joining Ekali on tour are Dallas producer Medasin and Kansas City native Judge — who is riding high after landing his first string of festival appearances and big placements from Young Thug and Blackbear. — Aaron Rhodes
Ekali With Medasin and Judge
RecordBar, 1520 Grand ($17)
Dustbowl Revival
Knuckleheads
Ekali, Medasin and Judge
RecordBar
Thursday, December 7
Decades Rewind
Lied Center, University of Kansas
Friday, December 8
Jewel
Uptown Theater
Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith
Sprint Center
Saturday, December 9
Fans were already excited for this show back in September, but Atlanta trap star 21 Savage upped the ante on Halloween with the release of a surprise collaborative album with Migos member Offset and super-producer Metro Boomin’. Without Warning hits where Savage’s solo Issa missed, delivering the murky, gruesome murder raps that his base first fell for. Before the kids can count along with Savage during “Bank Account,” they’ll have an opening set from young Louisiana rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again, who draws influence from a long line of street-smart Southern rappers, the most evident being fellow Bayou State star Boosie Badazz. — A.R.
21 Savage, YoungBoy Never Broke Again
Uptown Theater
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Sprint Center
The Folly Jazz Series: Spanish Harlem Orchestra
The Folly Theater
KPR Presents: Big Band Christmas
Liberty Hall
Freedom Sounds Collective, Go Generation, Boomtown United
RecordBar
Dream Ritual, Bummer, Youth Pool, Doubledrag
Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club
Gee Watts, Sauce, Heartfelt Anarchy, Shawn Majors, Clark Rooseveltte, Terence Tyrone
MiniBar
Sunday, December 10
Traindodge, Bummer, Sundiver, Nouveau
The Riot Room
The Hip-Hop Nutcracker
Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
Monday, December 11
Evanescence
Music Hall
Friday, December 15
New Orleans rappers and cousins Ruby Da Cherry and $lick $loth teamed up as $uicideboy$ in 2014, then started pumping out an absurd number of EPs and mixtapes, topping the SoundCloud charts with a fusion of 1990s Memphis flows and trap-rap instrumentation. This KC visit marks a first, but friend and frequent collaborator Pouya worked his way up from playing the Jackpot in 2015 to the Granada in 2016. A packed house at the Uptown would be something of a Midwest milestone for this latest wave of lo-fi rap stars. — A.R.
$uicideboy$
Uptown Theater
Todd Rundgren
Voodoo Lounge, Harrah’s North Kansas City
caesars.com/harrahs-kansas-city
Jackyl
The Truman
Saturday, December 16
Shinedown
The Truman
Pokey LaFarge
Knuckleheads
The Interrupters, SWMRS, the Regrettes
The Bottleneck
thebottlenecklive.com
Sunday, December 17
Tatsuya Nakatani and Friends
Tatsuya Nakatani played the first show at the 1900 Building, back when the performance space was just a concrete shell with exposed pipes — a reverberant space perfectly suited to the overlaid textures of the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. This month, Nakatani performs here again, this time in the spruced up recital hall, joined by a cohort of local artists ready to apply themselves to his unique soundscape of bowed and scraped percussion. The ensemble grew out of Nakatani’s experience as an avant-garde soloist, creating a layered array of sounds that defied comprehension as the product of one player. His improvised, free-form sets — the wistful ringing of singing bowls, shimmering bowed gong, erratic bass-drum thumps — generate a visceral, uncanny aural experience. — Libby Hansen
1900 Building (5:30 p.m.)
Wednesday, December 20
Handel’s Messiah
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, December 21
Illenium, Said the Sky, Dabin
Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
Thursday, December 28
Sonic Spectrum Tribute Series: New Order
RecordBar
Saturday, December 30
Black Label Society With Corrosion Of Conformity and Eyehategod
Every act on this tour is important to heavy metal in a different way. Black Label Society, founded in 1998, is the project of longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. Despite hailing from New Jersey, Wylde injects a distinctly gruff, Southern attitude into the band’s groove-inflected songwriting. Both opening acts are pioneers of their respective subgenres: Corrosion of Conformity began as a hardcore punk band in 1982 before introducing elements of metal and becoming one of the first purveyors of crossover thrash. A handful of bands preceded Eyehategod in creating sludge metal, but few have contributed more sludge anthems. — A.R.
Uptown Theater
Homestead Greys, Ricky Dean Sinatra
The Bottleneck
Black Label Society, Corrosion Of Conformity, Eyehategod
Uptown Theater
Sunday, December 31
Kid Rock
Sprint Center
Split Lip Rayfield
Grassfed
The Bottleneck
The Zeros
Ameristar Casino Kansas City
Casi Joy (The Voice)
Uptown Theater
