The rock never stops- Rocktober carries on–

With summer-like temps still continuing, there’s still time to take advantage of the fine weather to go and see live music, though understandably, most outdoor venues have closed for the season. Halloween approaches, holiday season gear is already in stores, and clocks are soon to ‘fall back’– Rocktober’s end is near!

Let’s take look at the Kansas City / Lawrence KS metro musical happenings for the upcoming week, from October 22^th, to 25^th.

(ticket hyperlinks are embedded in each show’s headline)

TUESDAY OCTOBER 22

Andy Grammer, Oct 22, Kauffman Center, $43-$103

Keep your head up! The positive singer-songwriter is back on the road with “Greater Than: A One Man Show’ which promises a night of songs, poetry, and storytelling, in a special solo acoustic set.

Grammer also recently shared a country-driven single “I Do” that saw him collaborating with award-winning country duo Maddie & Tae. The track follows on the heels of previous June release “Without You,” an empowering track that introduced fans to the Emmy winner’s new era.

Grammer has over three billion global streams under his belt and a social media footprint of over four million followers. His catalog consists of numerous hits, including the quadruple-platinum single “Honey, I’m Good;” the platinum singles “Keep Your Head Up,” “Fine By Me,” “Don’t Give Up On Me,” “Fresh Eyes” and “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah);” the gold single “I Found You” and we caught him live, most recently with Fitz and The Tantrums in St Paul in 2022. VIP premium preshow experience available.

Sofi Tukker, Oct 22, The Midland, $47-$113

The dance duo of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern have returned to live shows, in support of their third album Bread, just released in August. Bread is actually an acronym for Be Really Energetic And Dance.

The current single off the album is “Woof” on which Hawley-Weld sings in four languages – Portugese, French, German and English. Nigerian artist Kah-Lo is also featured on the track.

Asking Alexandria, Memphis May Fire, The World Alive, and Arches, Oct 22, The Truman, $45-$80

After a successful Spring leg of their “All My Friends Tour”, the roadshow continues into the fall with a KC stop forthcoming.

Asking Alexandria boasts over 1.4B combined streams and over 700 million views of their music videos on YouTubeand their sound offers a modern hardcore reverence to icons like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Queen. In 2023, long-time comrades Ben Bruce (lead guitar), Danny Worsnop (vocals), Cameron Liddell (guitar), Sam Bettley (bass), and James Cassells (drums) released their eighth studio album “Where Do We Go from Here?”

Memphis May Fire is a metalcore band not from Memphis but Denton TX and has released five recent singles (“Chaotic”; “Paralyzed”; “Necessary Evil”; “Infection” and “Hell Is Empty”), all ahead we assume of a new full-length (the follow-up to 2022’s “Remade in Misery”) but no official announcement just yet.

Daniel Nunnelee, Oct 22, Bottleneck- Lawrence, $17-$20

The Memphis-born, Nashville-based art folk musician is touring in support of his debut album June, Baby (One Riot Records). Once he began to release his own music, his approach to community through song connected with fans immediately; he sold out his first five headlining shows ever.

2022’s self-released single “Pick and Choose” garnered over one million streams within ten days of release and now has over six million streams to date and he was previously on the road, touring with Ashe.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23

Jesus and Mary Chain w Psychedelic Furs, Caroline Rose, Oct 23, Uptown, $55-$99

The longtime Scottish indie rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain are amping up the fuzzy guitar rock and back out, on a great co-headlining North American tour this fall with ‘80s new wave band Psychedelic Furs, also featuring special guest Frankie Rose of Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls. An all-around great line-up that we just caught last week live in Minnesota.

It’s two sets of non-feuding UK brothers, kind of a recent theme with the big Oasis comeback, but these guys have been more consistent and real for years comparatively.

We caught Richard Butler, his brother Tim Butler and the band previously in St. Paul in July 2022, making up for their aborted 2020 Made of Rain Tour that was scuttled from stopping in MN due to the pandemic. JAMC’s Jim Reid and his brother William and the band released their latest album, Glasgow Eyes, earlier this spring and is focused more on synth-heavy sounds than JAMC’s traditional dreamy guitar rock.

Make sure to show up early for opener Frankie Rose, promoting Love as Projection, which The Big Takeover Magazine thought could be part of the Stranger Things soundtrack. It is a retro love letter to the type of electronic pop that would find a home in any John Hughes movie.”

THURSDAY OCTOBER 24

Hatebreed w Carcass, Harms Way, Crypta, Oct 24, Uptown, $35-$75,

Hatebreed are celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band by embarking on a Fall 2024 North American tour featuring support from Carcass, Harms Way, and Crypta.

Frontman Jamey Jasta and company kicked off the outing September 26th in Portland, ME, and wraps on October 27th in Norfolk, VA. “We are extremely grateful to have hit this milestone and to be able to celebrate it with the some of the best bands and fans in the world,” stated Jasta in a press release. “We cannot wait to see everyone on the road.”

Xiu Xiu, Oct 24, Bottleneck-Lawrence, $20-$25

The experimental art-pop group just released its new full-length uniquely titled, 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips (via Polyvinyl), which follows 2023 album, Ignore Grief. The trio of Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo, and David Kendrick—have a lead single too, “Common Loon.” “The song ‘Common Loon,’ for us, is about reveling in perversity, cuckooness, queerness and/or the unquenchable personal requirement to wild out,” Stewart said of the new song.

Although the band made a recent move from Los Angeles to Berlin, they’re back touring the States before flying over to the Netherlands in November for the European leg.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 25

The Struts, Oct 25, Ameristar Casino,$40-$189

Not exactly the venue we thought they’d book, but the UK rock band excels wherever they play live and have released their brand-new single ‘Can’t Stop Talking’, via Big Machine, where frontman Luke Spiller details escapades he’s gotten himself into (and out of) for his lack of filter. It’s described as a new sound and era for the acclaimed band. Spiller explains, “We can get away with a song that is beautifully bizarre. It’s because I actually mean the lyrics, even if they do come across light-hearted. Believe me. I lived through that character in the song many times.”

Best known from their US certified-Platinum anthem, ‘Could Have Been Me’, off their critically acclaimed debut, 2016’s Everybody Wants, lead vocalist Luke Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer Gethin Davies have reached the No. 1 Spot on Spotify’s Viral Top 50, garner more than 850M on-demand streams, and have collaborated with Robbie Williams, Kesha, Tom Morello, and Def Leppard. Their latest is their 2023 debut Big Machine album, Pretty Vicious.

Sammy Rae and the Friends, Oct 25, The Midland,$35-$55

The New York based pop jazz phenom Sammy Rae, have released their debut album Something For Everybody via Nettwerk, at the end of last month. Our E-I-C Vu says “This band is wild and fun! Go see them, if you want to have a good time… they literally have “something for everybody” at their show.”

Sammy Rae & The Friends is a band fronted by breakout queer frontperson Rae, but also a collective of dreamers and artists that consider themselves a family first. That camaraderie ignites their unforgettable and can’t-miss live shows as the band of classically trained jazz musicians with incredible energy and no commitment to genre, put on a memorable live experience. We caught the show live last month in St. Paul.

Singer/songwriter Sammy Rae burst onto the scene with her two EPs The Good Life (2018) and Let’s Throw a Party (2021) and have since become a juggernaut. She’s has had an explosive rise since the release of her two EP’s thanks to a singular live show.

Slow Joy, Oct 25, Granada- Lawrence, $28-$32

Slow Joy is the solo project of Dallas-based, New Mexican-born Chicano artist Esteban Flores, in support of new EP, Mi Amigo Slow Joy, released on June 7th via Mick Music. The release was produced by Mike Capone (Oso Oso, The Front Bottoms, Grouplove) and follows up his 2023 EP, Wildflower.

In addition to the change of perspective and the sonic growth, it was important to Flores that the EP’s visuals and title reflect his Hispanic heritage and culture. “Naming it Mi Amigo Slow Joy is like, ‘Hey, this is rock music. It’s serious, and it’s important, and it’s me.’ And one thing that is me is being a Mexican American person, and being proud of that culture, and showing it off.”

Can’t Swim headlines- the NJ alt rock band is out in support of new LP, “Worst Ain’t Over Yet”.

M.A.G.S. w Barely Civil, Oct 25, Encore at Uptown, $14

Aka indie prodigy Elliott Douglas has a new re-imagined version of Destroyer (via Smartpunk Records) called Creator, an accompaniment to last year’s fan-favorite album.

Each song from Destroyer has been reconstructed and bent into new forms to create a new tracklist that is an exploratory showcase of M.A.G.S.’s imaginative, diverse capabilities as a multi-instrumentalist.

When discussing the album, Douglas says, “With Creator’ I wanted to subvert the expectations of my listeners and bend my genre to a nearly unrecognizable extent. With the help of 2 of my most talented friends, we reimagined my previous album ‘Destroyer’ over the course of 9 days in an apartment in Chicago in late 2023. Constructed entirely from my acoustic demos, we experimented and collaborated our way into a sound that goes far beyond what I ever thought M.A.G.S. was capable of.”

National Touring act coming to Kansas City, Lawrence, KS, Topeka, KS, or vicinity? Let us know so we can spotlight the appearance-email johnc@weheartmusic.com