Benson Boone Fills The Arena

The Marquee

The tour that started in Pittsburgh on July 7 has four shows left in it by the time it reaches Charlotte. Benson Boone plays Spectrum Center on Wednesday, August 26 with Luna Li, one of thirty four dates on the Wanted Man tour, which wraps in Casper, Wyoming on September 3. The name comes from Young American Heart, the last track on American Heart, the album he put out on June 20, 2025 and then toured for most of a year before deciding it had another lap in it. That is the useful thing to know about this show. It is not a new album cycle, it is a second pass at one that worked, which usually means a setlist with the guesswork taken out of it. Two Uptown notes. The Blue Line drops you at the Charlotte Transportation Center beside the arena, which beats paying show night rates at the decks that ring it. And if you do drive, park four or five blocks north and walk, because the closest garages charge the most and empty the slowest.

Around The Neighborhoods

Uptown has the strangest Saturday it has had all year. Rick Ross closes out the Port of Miami 20th Anniversary orchestra tour at the Belk Theater on Saturday, August 29, and closes it for good, because Charlotte is the last of seventeen cities on a run that opened in Miami on May 29. He is not doing it alone. The Renaissance Orchestra and the Sainted Trap Choir travel with him, black tie is encouraged rather than required, and the whole thing is built to feel like a gala instead of a rap show. The Sainted Trap Choir part is the local wrinkle. They were founded in Charlotte in 2020 by DJ Fannie Mae and Dennis Reed Jr., they took a Golden Buzzer on America's Got Talent Fantasy League, and Fannie Mae also works as Charlotte FC's DJ. A hometown choir finishing a national tour on a hometown stage is not a thing that happens often.

Three nights earlier, the same room does the opposite. Josh Groban brings Stage, Screen and Symphony to the Belk on Wednesday, August 26, which puts him head to head with the arena show a few blocks away. If you have been waiting on one of them, this is the week you pick.

The Music Factory spreads its week across three of its four stages. Eslabon Armado has the Fillmore on Friday, August 28 on the Amor Nocturno tour, which launched in Phoenix on July 24 and heads into Mexico this fall, so the American leg is the shorter half of it. Saturday, August 29 puts Blues Traveler on the Skyla lawn with Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, the same triple bill the three of them ran last summer and liked enough to take back out for thirty five more dates. John Popper said plainly that they built this one to hit the cities they missed. Downstairs in the Underground, Clarent takes Thursday, August 27, and Jutes closes the week there on Sunday, August 30 with In Color opening, out behind Chin Up, Beautiful, his third record in three years.

NoDa books four nights in a row at the Neighborhood Theatre and does not repeat itself once. Greek opens a North American run there on Tuesday, August 25, which makes Charlotte the first stop before the tour eventually turns into Berlin and London dates in the winter. Teenage Bottlerocket play Thursday, August 27, still on the far side of Ready To Roll and the Invisible Man EP that Pirates Press put out in March. Don Trip has Friday, August 28, a Memphis rapper with Juicy J and Young Dolph in his history, and Scarlet House take Saturday, August 29.

Out past the center city, Monday starts loud. Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson bring Freaks on Parade to Truliant Amphitheater on August 24 with The Hu and Orgy, four nights into a twenty one show run that opened in West Palm Beach on August 20. Zombie is carrying The Great Satan, his eighth solo album, out since February 27. Then the weekend belongs to Blackbox, where Carolina Open Air takes over the outdoor lot on Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29, with LSDREAM topping the first night and Liquid Stranger the second. Both nights spill into afterparties, one at Blackbox and one over at The Rabbit Hole, which is how that crowd has always handled a two day festival in August.

South End sits this one out entirely, no Music Yard show and nothing at Amos', which is unusual for the last full week of summer and worth knowing before you drive over expecting otherwise.

The Comedy Card

The Comedy Zone splits its weekend between two comics who share nothing but a room. JB Smoove runs four sets across Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29, and the Leon Black voice from Curb Your Enthusiasm is the whole reason most of the room is there, though the live act leans harder on improvising than the show ever let him. Mike Goodwin then takes the Saturday matinee and Sunday, August 30 on his Open Mike tour. He works in a bow tie, keeps it clean, came up in South Carolina, and spent time as an Army soldier and a teacher before this, all of which shows up in the material.

Duckworth's gives its whole midweek and weekend to one name. Pablo Francisco plays five sets from Thursday, August 27 through Saturday, August 29, doubling up on both weekend nights, and he is using this stretch of the year to build toward his next special. Early sets at a club that size are the ones where new material actually gets tried.

The biggest comedy night of the week is not in a comedy club. KevOnStage brings Grief Sucks to the Fillmore on Sunday, August 30, a one man show about the four years since his older brother Jason died, and the first thirty one city tour he has built around a single subject. It began in Birmingham on August 14 and runs to Atlanta in December.

Next Week's Radar

Tuesday, September 1 asks Charlotte to be in two places at once. Brandi Carlile has Spectrum Center with The Head and the Heart on the Human tour, behind Returning To Myself, while Kehlani has the Truliant lawn the same evening. Pick early on that one. Then Thursday, September 3 does it again on a smaller scale, with Bryson Tiller at Truliant and Jack Harlow at the Fillmore.