Music Forecast: Waaves and Best Coast, St. Lucia, Dwight Yoakam, AC/DC
St. Lucia
St. Lucia’s latest album, Matter, finds the group in a swirling vortex of ’80s-inspired synth-pop highs, each song reaching higher than the one before it. South African–born frontman Jean-Philip Grobler recalls the saccharine pipes and energy of Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, but there is considerably less darkness in St. Lucia’s songs. Matter is a joy-filled dance album that invites you to rave all night and restart yourself not with sleep but rather a five-mile run — to which it would provide an inspiring soundtrack. The relentless energy of this album can get a little exhausting and self-indulgent, but the ride is so enjoyable that it’s hard to hold that against the band.
Friday, February 26
The Madrid Theater, 3810 Main
Wavves, Best Coast
California surf-rock acts Wavves and Best Coast are perfect for each other. So it’s no surprise that five years after the first go-round, both bands have reunited for another Summer is Forever tour. Each group is promoting a recent album — Wavves released V in October, and Best Coast put out California Nights last May. And now that Best Coast lead singer Bethany Cosentino and Wavves’ Nathan Williams are officially (finally) dating, you can expect an especially jubilant set from each act. L.A. garage rockers Cherry Glazerr opens.
Friday, February 26
Midland,1228 Main
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam’s Second Hand Heart is a red-blooded, true-blue country album, and it sees Yoakam coming full circle to his early ’80s roots. The difference is that now — when Yoakam laments that all of his dreams were made of clay (“Dreams of Clay”), or when he suggests the answers to all his sorrows lie in the sky’s formations (“V’s of Birds”) — he sounds less like a sad-sack singer weeping into his whiskey and more like a seasoned veteran of the road reflecting on decades of ups and downs (all set within a career that has been, by most accounts, filled with far more ups than not). This is a modern cowboy serving up classic country the way God and Merle intended.
Saturday, February 27
The Uptown Theater, 3700 Broadway
AC/DC
Australian rock legends AC/DC are on tour again, despite some rather hard-rock drama surrounding a couple of band members. Notably, drummer Phil Rudd was sentenced to home detention for threatening to kill someone, so he’s off the tour. Founding member and guitarist Malcolm Young had a stroke last year, and he also isn’t touring. Nonetheless, you can look forward to everyone’s favorite 60-year-old schoolboy-
guitarist, Angus Young, and lead singer Brian Johnson stringing out the band’s best-loved hits — “Thunderstruck,” “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Highway to Hell.”
Sunday, February 28
Sprint Center, 1407 Grand
