Concerts in Atlanta

May 24, 2026June 6, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows

RadATL’s Live Music & Events Calendar

A good night in Heaven at the Masquerade. Photo by Elena de Soto

Click here to submit shows and other events for consideration.

Saturday, June 6
— A Benefit For Tom Cheshire feat. Black Cat Rising, Gas Hound, Higher Choir, Highriders, Soiled Doves, Blake Rainey, and DJs Vikki V & Ravioli Jesus. Hosted by Rotknee, with artwork by Jas M Stacy. $20 (cash at the door). 7 p.m. (doors). The Star Bar

— Sad Fish (album release show) w/ Grebe, Bayou Princess, and Slime Ring. $15. 8 p.m. (doors). 8:30 p.m. (show). The Earl

Sunday, June 7
— Portrayal of Guilt, Street Sects, the Infinity Ring, and Malevich. $20. 7 p.m. The Earl

Monday, June 8
— Monday Night Creative Music Series: Jeff Crompton. First set feat. Jeff Crompton & Ben Shirley. Second set feat. Crompton, Shirley, John Arthur Brown, and Majid Araim. $20 (suggested donation). 8-10:30 p.m. Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery

Wednesday June 10
— Neptune, Teresa, Slick, and Japan Trip For Wayward Youth. $15. 8 p.m. The Drunken Unicorn

— Anagrams (Jeff Crompton playing saxophones, clarinet, and keyboards with JD Walsh playing guitar, keyboard, and electronics). With Brainworlds and DJ Ryan Rasheed. $12. 7:30 p.m. Commune
Make a reservation

— Tim Kasher (of Cursive), Old Canes, and Coyote Bones. $20 (advance). $25 (door). 7:30 p.m. (doors). 8 p.m. (show). The Earl

—Art Star and Split Silk. 7-11 p.m. Eyedrum

Thursday, June 11
— Musicians & Movers: Live Performance. 7:30-11 p.m. Eyedrum

—Goose: Big Modern! listening party. 5-7 p.m. Commune
Make a reservation.

— An Evening of Shorts: Silent films of the early 20th century with live experimental scores by The Nebulous Orchestra. 7-10:30 p.m. Eyedrum

Click here for more show listings

May 24, 2026June 6, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows, New music

David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets plays Electron Gardens on Thursday, June 18

For more than four decades, bass player, songwriter, poet, and raconteur David J Haskins has occupied a singularly mystical place in underground music. Whether anchoring the shadowy architecture of Bauhaus, shaping the widescreen dream-pop of Love and Rockets, or pursuing a rich and eclectic solo career, David J has always treated performance as something closer to ritual than mere entertainment. On June 18, he returns to Electron Gardens Studio in Avondale Estates for an intimate Summer Solstice celebration. It’s a seasonal companion to the Winter Solstice-themed performance he brought to Electron Gardens last December.

Poet Lisa King opens the show reading works that are steeped in alchemical symbolism, dreamlike themes of transformation, and imagery drawn from woodland creatures, coastal landscapes, and the unseen currents connecting them all. Her words will be accompanied by atmospheric soundscapes created by Penelope Courtney, creating an immersive prelude to the music.

The Hot Place set the music in motion with a stripped down lineup featuring King performing alongside guitar players Jeff Calder and Mike Lynn, playing a few songs from The Language of Birds and the 2022 self-titled LP.

James Hall of Mary My Hope and Pleasure Club joins the bill performing a solo set.

David J will draw from every corner of his catalog, playing older material alongside selections from his latest release,Tracks from the Attic Revisited—10 songs taken from his sprawling 2024 demo anthology, reworked, rewritten, and reinterpreted.

The Revisited album transforms decades-old home recordings into a fully realized collection shaped by four decades of artistic growth. He’ll reel through a few fan favorites that have followed him across decades and continents.

As the evening reaches its conclusion, guests will join David J on stage for a communal finale: James Hall will join in to collaborate on a handful of songs, as will King and Calder from the Hot Place, culminating in what promises to be one of the summer’s most memorable musical gatherings.

David J plays Electron Gardens Studio in Avondale Estates on Thursday, June 18. With Lisa King, James Hall, and the Hot Place. $50. 7 p.m.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

May 13, 2026May 17, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows, New music

Setting and Brainwolrds play the Earl on Thursday, May 14

The North Carolina Piedmont-based outfit Setting finds three deeply intuitive musicians—Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly, and Joe Westerlund—summoning rhythms and textures from deep within the Appalachian soil.

The group’s collective resume boasts contributions to projects such as Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Pelt, Sylvan Esso, Black Twig Pickers, Acid Birds, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. In Setting, these disparate histories are distilled into a transportive sound that unfolds like an extrasensory conversation among musicians who know when to push and when to leave space in their music.

The album’s meticulous textures underscore the warmth and flow of a group that moves as a single organic unit, blending synths, banjo, zithers, cassette loops, keyboards, and hand percussion into hypnotic patterns that drift between exploration, minimalism, and ecstatic improvisation. The song “Heard a Bubble” shimmers and expands with a patient glow. “Derring-do” builds on a locomotive pulse that gathers force until it rattles the walls and lifts the roof clean off.

“Gum Bump” swirls like a weather system gathering at the horizon. Its slowly blooming pulse of harmonium, guitar, and percussion draws listeners into a meditative state. Each number builds, illustrating a singular gift for making expansive, transcendent music that blurs the lines between ritual and revelation, culminating in an immersive journey where every rhythmic turn opens onto a new horizon.

Director Morgan Maassen’s video for “What Kind of Fish is a Turtle,” offers a visual accompaniment to the song’s slowly-moving synth waves with striking detail.

For Thursday night’s show, Atlanta guitarist Mason Brown of Maserati makes a rare appearance performing under the name Brainworlds.

With Brainworlds, Brown makes music that feels like a transmission from the outer reaches of the cosmos—propelled by a motorik Krautrock drift. Each song unfolds in hypnotic layers of pulsing rhythms and spiraling synthesizers.

Brown’s immersive soundscapes provide an ideal entry point into the night’s meditative terrain.

$20. 7:30 p.m. (doors). 8 p.m. (show). The Earl. 488 Flat Shoals Ave SE.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

May 9, 2026May 12, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows, New music

Shane Parish plays Eyedrum’s Monday Night Creative Music Series on May 11

Shane Parish. Photo by Courtney Chappell

On Monday, May 11, Athens-based guitarist, composer, and improviser Shane Parish plays two sets as part of Eyedrum’s Monday Night Creative Music Series.

The first set features Parish performing solo selections from his latest album, Autechre Guitar, a striking collection that recasts the intricate electronic structures of British duo Autechre for acoustic guitar. What seems an unlikely translation becomes, in Parish’s hands, an act of revelation—stripping away circuitry to expose the skeletal beauty of Autechre’s looping, asymmetrical phrasing and shifting repetition, rendering each number with breathtaking precision and warmth.

This kind of imaginative transformation has long defined Parish’s work. Whether fronting Ahleuchatistas or reinterpreting sea shanties on Liverpool, Shane Parish has long balanced Appalachian roots, experimental composition, and a quietly dazzling command of the guitar.

On Repertoire, he turns his attention to a wide-ranging set of compositions—from Alice Coltrane to Kraftwerk—recasting them as intricate solo guitar studies that highlight both his technical virtuosity and instinct for reinvention.

For the second set, Parish reunites with longtime collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Libro (Michael Libramento). Libro joins Parish on drums for an improvisational duo performance, offering another glimpse into the pair’s deeply expressive approach to sound.

Read more about Shane Parish’s latest album in my Flagpole Magazine feature story, “Shane Parish Bridges Wood, Steel and Circuitry with Autechre Guitar.”

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

April 9, 2026April 27, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows, New music

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis ignite with ‘Deface the Currency’

The Messthetics (from left: Anthony Pirog, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty) with James Brandon Lewis.
Photo by Pat Graham

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis’ latest album, Deface the Currency (Impulse!), captures an increasingly bold and rebellious sound for the ensemble. Drop a needle on the opening number and the barreling rhythms explode with force. Drummer Brendan Canty and bass player Joe Lally have spent a lifetime honing their shared musical instincts in Fugazi. With the Messthetics, guitarist Anthony Pirog and saxophone player James Brandon Lewis elevate their collective efforts to a higher plane of consciousness, communication, and chemistry, distilling punk, hardcore, free jazz, and the avant-garde into a singularly defiant spirit.

Born from long stretches on the road and captured in a blur of first and second takes, Deface The Currency trades polish for immediacy without sacrificing precision.

Songs such as “30 Years of Knowing,” “Rules of the Game,” and “Serpent Tongue (Slight Return)” lock into grooves that are both grounded and volatile. Each song stretches, collapses, and builds again, veering from tightly coiled funk to an ecstatic squall. Pirog’s guitar fractures and refracts around Lewis’ saxophone, as both move with urgency toward chaos, but always maintain structure.

“Serpent Tongue” is the album’s grand finale, recalling moments from the Messthetics and Lewis’ previous, self-titled album. Here, everything is pushed forward by a brighter fire.

Of course, live and in the moment is when the music truly ignites.

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis play The Earl on Monday, April 27. $20. 7:30 p.m. (doors). 8:30 p.m. (show).

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

March 17, 2026March 18, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows

An evening with Marc Ribot at the Garden Club at Wild Heaven West End on Friday, March 20

Marc Ribot is a shape-shifting guitar player whose style dissolves the boundaries between genres as quickly as it defines them. When Ribot takes the stage at the Garden Club on Friday, March 20, expect nothing less than a musical séance performed on six strings.

Ribot’s solo work stretches across a body of stark, deeply personal recordings, ranging from interpretations like Plays the Works of Frantz Casseus to the haunted drift of Silent Movies, and his latest release, 2025’s Map of A Blue City.

Ribot’s live sets rarely settle into anything so fixed. Rather, they unfold in real time: fragments of melody, bursts of free improvisation, and ghostly echoes of everything from Haitian classical music to downtown New York noise. It’s a language that Ribot has spent decades refining alongside collaborators like Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, and John Zorn, helping shape records that are as strange as they are timeless.

That restless spirit traces back to Ribot’s early days studying under Frantz Casseus and cutting his teeth in New York’s late-’70s underground before surfacing as a defining voice in projects like John Lurie’s the Lounge Lizards. Since then, he’s become a connective thread between worlds, jumping from avant-garde jazz to roots music, film scores, and beyond.

On Friday night, Ribot will perform solo on acoustic and electric guitar, stripping everything down to instinct and possibility. It’s an all-seated, first-come affair—fitting for a night that rewards close listening. With Ribot, the only certainty is that nothing will unfold quite the way you expect, and that’s exactly the point.

$30 (adv. + fees). $35 (door + fees). 8 p.m. The Garden Club at Wild Heaven West End.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to@Chad-Radford-6or click on the PayPal link below.

January 13, 2026January 14, 2026 RadATL Atlanta shows

West End Fest: West End Motel celebrates Brent Hinds’ birthday at Eyedrum Friday, January 16

WEST END MOTEL: Brent Hinds (left) and Tom Cheshire. Photo by Chad Radford

West End Fest is the kind of gathering that Atlanta does best: a celebration of community, history, and one of the city’s most enduring creative forces, Brent Hinds. For decades, the guitar player, songwriter, and restless spirit whose work with Mastodon, Fiend Without A Face, Four Hour Fogger, and West End Motel shaped the heavy-fisted country, punk, hardcore, surf, and metal outer limits of Atlanta’s musical identity.

Hinds died in a motorcycle accident in August 2025. West End Fest celebrates his birthday kicking off at 3 p.m. with a full roster of music, toasts, and eulogies—equal parts heartfelt and hilarious—setting the tone for a day that’s as much about storytelling as it is about volume.

By 6 p.m., the amps are on and the music rolls through the evening, wrapping up by 11 p.m. with plenty of time for reconnecting, reminiscing, and raising as many glasses as one can muster with friends old and new.

The Night the Sky brings their expansive heft to the stage. Michael Rudolph Cummings (of Backwoods Payback) taps into raw, road-worn intensity. Ironbound, Lefty & His Right Hand Men, and the almighty W8ing4ufos add their own distinct flavors to the mix, before Black Daniels teams up with Kevn Kinney (of Dryvn N Cryin) for what’s sure to be a memorable collaboration. West End Motel closes out the night, grounding the celebration exactly where it belongs.

At its core, West End Fest is about honoring a creative lifer and the scene that grew up around him—a reminder that Atlanta’s music culture thrives in shared spaces, long drunken conversations, and nights like this one.

The Night the Sky
Michael Rudolph Cummings (of Backwoods Payback)
Ironbound
Lefty & His Right Hand Men
W8ing4ufos
Black Daniels & Kevn Kinney
West End Motel

SOLD OUT (but try your luck on the day of the show. A few tickets might open up). 3 p.m. Edyedrum Art & Music Gallery.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

November 28, 2025November 28, 2025 RadATL Atlanta shows

David J, Kevn Kinney, and the Hot Place play Electron Gardens on Thursday, December 4

On Thurs., Dec. 4, David J Haskins of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame joins Kevn Kinney of Drivin’ N Cryin,’ and the Hot Place for an evening of songs, spoken words, and sonic revelry at Electron Garden Studios.

For one night only, each act brings their signature wavelenghth of Southern-gothic glow and post-punk introspection to the intimate confines of Electron Gardens in Avondale Estates’ Rail Arts District.

Lisa King of the Hot Place sets the night in motion reading selections from her book of poetry, Dark Queens and Their Quarry: Boneshadows of Motherskin. Framed by hand percussion and the crackling intimacy of her voice, King will read poems that drift between dream logic and ancestral hauntings, dovetailed by an atmospheric backdrop created by sound artist Penny Courtney.

From there, bass player and vocalist King leads the Hot Place—a trio filled out by guitarists Jeff Calder (the Swimming Pool Q’s) and Mike Lynn—delving into a set pulling equally from the shimmering noir-indie pop of the group’s debut LP, The Language of Birds, and the crystalline tension of their 2023 self-titled LP. They’ll slip in a few freshly minted numbers as well as a cover or two—songs that glide between post-punk minimalism and melodic spells sharpened by years of collaboration and collective experience.

Drivin’ N Cryin’ frontman Kevn Kinney follows with a solo set that delivers the kind of stripped down and intimate performance that’s become his signature each time he steps outside the band’s rock ‘n’ roll roar. Kevn’s solo sets take shape like opening a notebook that’s filled with decades of road stories—funny, bruised, wandering, mystical, and deeply human.

Capping the evening, David J, founding bass player of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, threads poetry, storytelling, and songs from across his vast catalog into a singular performance.

Each number floats like a lantern through a library of obsessions: goth punk standards, solo deep cuts, and hymns of romance and ruin. And yes—expect a few beloved Bauhaus and Love and Rockets classics to work their way into the set as well.

$50. 7 p.m. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

November 5, 2025November 6, 2025 RadATL Atlanta shows

Das Damen and Bebe Buell play the Masquerade (Altar) on Friday, November 7

Das Damen plays the Masquerade’s Altar stage this Friday, November 7, bringing a night of post-punk, grunge, and rock ’n’ roll spectacle. The group’s name carries weight among late-’80s and early ‘90s noise-rock aficionados. Das Damen was the rare band that channelled the fuzzed-out psychedelic sprawl of Sonic Youth with the melodic instincts of the Meat Puppets.

Longtime Atlanta showgoers might recall one of their previous local appearances opening for Nirvana at the old Masquerade in October 1990—35 years ago. The following year, Das Damen disbanded, leaving behind a cult legacy of warped riffs and stoned-out, high-volume catharsis. Now, the later lineup is on the road playing a short Southeastern run that doubles as both a reunion and a rebirth.

For this tour, singer and guitar player Jim Walters, drummer Lyle Hysen, bass player David Motamed, and new guitarist Diego Ramirez are pulling from across the group’s entire catalog, revisiting standout moments from albums such as 1987’s Jupiter Eye, ’88s Triskaidekaphobe, and ’89s Mousetrap. They’ll also roll out a previously unreleased song that’s slated for a possible (or not possible) new LP with the working title Nobody Wants This.

After Das Damen’s proper set, the group will back up singer and songwriter Bebe Buell—Playboy Magazine’s November 1974 Playmate of the month, a fixture of NYC’s rock ‘n’ roll scene, and mother of actress Liv Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler). Buell’s set leans into classic rock ‘n’ roll energy, offering a counterpoint to Das Damen’s heavy grooves.

$26. 8 p.m. (doors). 9 p.m. (showtime). The Masquerade (Altar).
If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.

October 15, 2025October 16, 2025 RadATL Atlanta shows, New music, Podcasts & Interviews

Randall Frazier & Erik Drost get Orbit Service off the ground while finding their way within the expansive universe of the Legendary Pink Dots

ORBIT SERVICE: Erik Drost (left) and Randall Frazier. Photo by Joep Hendrikx.

The Legendary Pink Dots and Orbit Service are two bands bound by a shared sense of mystery, atmosphere, and musical exploration. Over the years, both projects have cultivated an aura that’s equal parts cosmic and deeply personal—music that drifts between dream states, where melody and texture blur into something transcendent. Now, the connection between the two acts runs deeper than ever. Guitarist Erik Drost and keyboard and electronics player Randall Frazier—both longtime fixtures in the Pink Dots’ ever-evolving lineup—are on the road performing sets steeped in the ethereal tones of both Orbit Service’s Spirit Guide and the LPD’s latest album, So Lonely in Heaven, and the more abstract, experimental energy of Chemical Playschool 23–24.

When the tour stops at Purgatory at the Masquerade on Friday, October 17, expect a performance that stretches perception as much as sound—a collision of meholy, beauty, and otherworldly tension.

In conversation, Drost and Frazier reflect on their creative chemistry and how their paths crossed during the making of 2004’s The Whispering Wall. They trace the evolution of Orbit Service from its early recordings to its current incarnation, and share what it means to inhabit the ever-expanding universe of Edward Ka-Spel’s songwriting. Together, they reveal that for all the mystery and gravity that surrounds their music, the heart of it all remains simple: connection, experimentation, and the pursuit of transcendence through sound.

Before playing a show in Purgatory at the Masquerade, on Friday, October 17, Drost and Frazier took an hour out of their day to talk about collaborating with each other, collaborating with Ka-Spel, and their go-to Waffle House meals while traveling across the United States.

Press play below to listen in on our conversation.

The Legendary Pink Dots and Orbit Service play The Masquerade (Purgatory stage) on Fri., Oct. 17. $23 (+fees). 7 p.m. This is an all ages show.

If you have enjoyed reading this post, please consider donating to RadATL. Venmo to @Chad-Radford-6 or click on the PayPal link below.