This Weekend: Garage Rock, Rap and a Sunday Singer-Songwriter Cool-Down
Mid-August in Memphis: the air is soup, the AC in every club is fighting for its life, and the calendar — bless it — does not care. Between the Hi Tone and Growlers alone, this weekend offers a genuine choose-your-own-adventure, from a five-band garage-rock marathon to Memphis rap history to the gentlest possible Sunday landing. Here's how we'd play it.
Friday, Aug. 14 splits neatly. Over at Growlers, it's the WHITE $OSA bill featuring Frayser Boy and Yvng $ick — the one we spotlighted earlier this week, and still the weekend's biggest history lesson per square foot. Meanwhile the Hi Tone's Friday belongs to the guitars; if you'd rather sweat to distortion than 808s, this is your building. Two very different Memphis traditions, a few blocks apart, both cheap. You can't lose.
Saturday, Aug. 15 is where the Hi Tone earns its rent. The upstairs bill stacks Eternity's Pillar, Spek Was Here, Ash Leon, Starbunny and Deaf Revival — a five-deep local lineup for $13.50 that's essentially a sampler platter of what Memphis's underground sounds like right now. Shows like this are the actual engine of the scene: no touring headliner, no hype cycle, just a room full of bands playing for each other and whoever's smart enough to buy a ticket. Down the street, Growlers counters with Mala Leche, keeping Saturday loud from a second stage. Our advice: pick the Hi Tone's five-band bill, get there early, and treat the openers as the point rather than the warm-up. The best discovery of your month is probably in that room at 8:15.
Then Sunday, Aug. 16 offers mercy. Two rooms quietly pivot to the songwriter side of the ledger. Growlers hosts Simon Michael with Mary Hatley, while the Hi Tone brings Deerfields with Mr. Scientist and Wagoneer. After a Saturday of ringing ears, there's something perfect about a Sunday spent letting a songwriter talk you down. Bring the person who complained about the volume Saturday. Make amends.
What we love about this particular weekend is how completely it argues for the small-room ecosystem we keep banging on about. No arena, no lawn seats, no $12 parking. Just two independent Midtown venues, a short walk or shorter drive apart, covering rap, garage rock and folk across three nights for less than the cost of a single upper-deck ticket to a touring act. This is the scene doing exactly what it's supposed to do — giving a dozen-plus Memphis artists a stage and giving you a reason to leave the house in August.
A logistical note: cross-check start times and door prices on each venue's own channels before you go — small-room lineups shuffle, and the difference between catching the opener you'll obsess over and missing them is often fifteen minutes. Bring cash, bring water, tip the bands, buy the merch. Every dollar you drop this weekend is a vote for these rooms still being here next summer — and after the news out of Poplar Avenue this year, that's not a given we take for granted.
Three nights, two rooms, a whole lot of Memphis. We'll see you in the sweaty part. Save us a spot by the fan.
Sources: Hi Tone Cafe Events; Growlers Memphis concerts — Songkick