Sometimes, when bands head to the Southern California desert to play the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, they schedule Las Vegas tour stops. It’s never a guaranteed thing, and we’ve seen “Vegaschella” wax and wane over the years. This month, however, is a feast, with a good number of Coachella acts playing Vegas dates throughout April. Here are 11 acts you should check out here, even if you’re Coachella-bound yourself.
Flume
A veteran of Coachellas and EDC Weeks past, the future bass pioneer born Harley Edward Streten returns to Las Vegas with a bunch of unheard material added to his already impressive repertoire (Palaces, his first album of new material since 2016’s Skin, drops in late May). We won’t predict what Flume will do with this festival-like outdoor set—his openers, fellow 2022 Coachella participant Floating Points and Chrome Sparks, which played the fest in 2014, make this show a full-fledged sattelite Mojave Tent—but if we get “Lose It” and the audacious remix of Eiffel 65’s “Blue,” we’ll flume home happy. April 14, 8 p.m., $50-$150, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, seetickets.us. –GC
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
As you read this, there’s a good chance King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have put out new music. The psychedelic rock sextet from Melbourne, Australia, is wildly prolific—20 albums in 10 years—and though the band draws from the progressive rock well more often than not, it has also flirted with synth-pop and even glam while keeping the grooves airtight. The live show is pure joy—the last time we saw King Gizzard outside at Virgin—in the Hard Rock days—members of the band took a dip in the pool, and returned to the stage to keep playing. We should all have so much fun on the job. April 17-18, 7 p.m., $40-$70, Event Lawn at Virgin, etix.com. –GC
Amyl and The Sniffers
These Melbourne punksters have earned noteworthy comparisons to Iggy & The Stooges and other notables of our thrash-and-wail past. Frontwoman Amy Taylor is a human livewire, crackling with feral energy on stage and in the studio. You can hear it in the band’s frenzied 2021 release Comfort to Me, in which Taylor hollers her declarations with all the brash bravado and spikiness of Wendy O. Williams in her prime. Come ready to rock as Amyl and The Sniffers prime the crowd for the arrival of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. April 17-18, 7 p.m., $40-$70, Event Lawn at Virgin, etix.com.–Amber Sampson
Beabadoobee
This bedroom-pop connoisseur’s first five EPs are essential listening for fans of the up-and-coming artist, but if you want to become a fan, start with Beabadoobee’s 2020 full-length debut, Fake It Flowers. Over the course of 12 tracks, it proves that this Filipino-British singer-songwriter is absolutely ripe for stardom. Beabadoobee so thoroughly resurrects the “slacker rock” of the ’90s, you can almost see the flannel in your periphery. Her single "Talk" is out now and her sophomore album, Beatopia, drops July 15. She’s confessional, soft-spoken and easily one of Gen-Z’s most refreshing new voices. Catch her set when she rolls into town with support from Mannequin Pussy and Luna Li. April 18, 7 p.m., $24-$47, 24 Oxford, etix.com. –AS
Omar Apollo
This bilingual barrier-breaker switches as fluidly between languages as he does genres. Breakout album Apolonio brought listeners into Apollo’s world of lush guitar funk, R&B and Chicano soul. The artist draws from a diverse well of talent—think Bootsy Collins, Frank Ocean and the shirtless “How Does It Feel” era of D’Angelo. The Weekly recently spoke with Apollo about his new album, Ivory. Read the Weekly's interview with Apollo before he plays Brooklyn Bowl with Deb Never and Tora-i. April 19, 7 p.m., $23-$28, Brooklyn Bowl, ticketweb.com. –AS
Alec Benjamin
Folk-pop suits this flourishing storyteller, whose uniquely high register lends itself to a range of songs that feel modern and memorable. The Arizona-born singer gained popularity after his song "I Built a Friend" appeared on the 12th season of America's Got Talent during a riveting dance number performed by a 12-year-old boy. In the song, Benjamin narrates the story of a boy who creates a robot he hopes will befriend him forever, but the machine sadly becomes unstable and self-destructs. Fans lauded the 27-year-old Benjamin for this form of storytelling, but in his latest album, (Un)Commentary, he puts aside his characters to look inward. Watch this exercise in self-reflection unfold as Benjamin plays House of Blues with supporting act Sara Kays. April 19, 7:30 p.m., starting at $32, houseofblues.com. –AS
Orville Peck
Who is that leather-fringe masked man? Three years on from the release of his critically-acclaimed debut Pony, the true identity of Orville Peck remains a mystery. We know this much: He’s Canadian, he’s gay, and he makes atavistic, inventive and starkly gorgeous country music that owes as much to Nick Cave and Uncle Tupelo as to Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell. His latest album, Bronco, doesn’t build on Pony’s foundations as much as it deepens them, reaching further back into tradition and further ahead into invention. Who and what Orville Peck is can be fully divined through his art. April 22, 8 p.m., $55, House of Blues, ticketmaster.com. –GC
Black Coffee
There’s no sleeping on this Grammy award-winning deep house producer. Considered as one of the top DJs in South Africa, Black Coffee has kept crowds grooving worldwide for more than two decades. In one instance, he even breezed through a 60-hour set, DJing with just one hand. With stamina like that, we’re confident he’ll have plenty of Coachella energy to spare for a Vegas audience. April 23, 10:30 p.m., $20-$30, Marquee Nightclub, events.taogroup.com. –AS
Buzzy Lee
It’s likely that musician and actress Sasha Spielberg records under the name Buzzy Lee to avoid using her famous filmmaking father’s name, but listening to her 2020 debut LP, Spoiled Love, it’s clear she has paved her own way. The singer-songwriter projects an immense, quiet confidence right from the jump, layering her piano-and-voice tracks with warm synths and subtle downtempo beats. Spielberg’s dreamily cinematic songs should easily win over a Vegas audience primed to see her musical contemporaries in headlining trio Haim. April 24, 8 p.m., $40-$90, the Chelsea, ticketmaster.com. –GC
Disclosure
From The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk to Chromeo and Adventure Club, the best electronic outfits always seem to come in pairs. This English duo, comprising brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence, joins the ranks with a pantheon of styles ranging from dubstep and house to R&B and pop. Disclosure’s iconic collaborations with artists like Sam Smith, Lorde and The Weeknd puts these brothers at the forefront of club music and beyond, well into pop territory. April 24, 10 p.m., $20-$30, Ayu Dayclub, zoukgrouplv.com. –AS
Yola
Recent two-time Grammy nominee Yola—née Yolanda Claire Quatney—is the kind of musical polymath that knocks down barriers simply by following her artistic curiosity. The eye sees a Black woman making her way into the predominately white realm of country music (those Grammy nominations were in the Americana and American roots categories). But the ear hears richly layered, organic compositions that evoke classic country and R&B in equal measure, with Yola’s dreamy, affecting vocals uniting all. Americana, indeed: Yola interprets multiple American musical forms simultaneously, to near-perfection. April 26, 7:30 p.m., $30, House of Blues, ticketmaster.com. –GC
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