Grey Day Lands At Truliant

Grey Day reaches Truliant on Saturday, September 5, a week into a thirty three date run. Brandi Carlile and Kehlani split Tuesday between Uptown and University City, Jack Harlow takes the Fillmore, and NEEDTOBREATHE bring The Long Surrender back within driving distance of home.

The Marquee

Grey Day opened in Shakopee, Minnesota on August 29, so Charlotte catches it while the whole thing is still finding its shape. $uicideboy$ bring it to Truliant Amphitheater on Saturday, September 5, one of thirty three dates that run through October 20 in Birmingham. The New Orleans pair have spent a decade building a touring operation that behaves more like a festival than a rap show, and this year's version is the clearest example yet. Destroy Lonely rides the opening leg, which Charlotte falls inside. Shakewell, Black Kray and $lim Gucci fill out the middle of the bill. Then there is Drain, a Santa Cruz hardcore band, on a rap tour, in an amphitheater, which tells you how little the genre lines matter to this crowd. One practical note about Truliant. It empties onto a small number of roads out toward Harris Boulevard, and the lot after a full night moves slower than anyone expects the first time. Either leave during the last song or make peace with sitting a while.

Around The Neighborhoods

Tuesday, September 1 is the night the calendar argues with itself. Brandi Carlile plays Spectrum Center with The Head and the Heart on the Human tour, her first road year behind Returning To Myself, the album that landed at number seven on the Billboard 200 and closed a four year gap in her solo work. Out northeast the same evening, Kehlani has the Truliant lawn with Durand Bernarr, Isaia Huron and TheARTI$t, a stop on a world tour that started in Minneapolis on August 6 and does not finish until Manchester in December. Uptown or University City, one or the other. We flagged this collision last week and it has not softened.

University City keeps that amphitheater busy all week. Bryson Tiller takes it on Thursday, September 3 with Majid Jordan and Ty Dolla $ign on the Neo Trapsoul tour, leaning on a sound he named and then spent ten years complicating.

The Music Factory runs three of its stages and lands the week's most interesting booking. Jack Harlow plays The Fillmore on Thursday, September 3 with James Savage, another Louisville act, on the Monica tour. Monica arrived on March 13, written across a year at Electric Lady after he moved to New York, and the Charlotte date sits between Louisville on August 29 and Atlanta on September 4. Two nights later the Skyla lawn gets NEEDTOBREATHE with Drew and Ellie Holcomb, and this one is closer to home than most. The band formed in Seneca, South Carolina, The Long Surrender is their tenth album and first for MCA with Dave Cobb producing, and the run ends on September 20 in Greenville, ninety minutes down I-85. Sunday, September 6 belongs to Hulvey, out behind Could Be Tonight and traveling with indie tribe and Kijan Boone on a thirty three city run of his own.

Downstairs, The Underground takes the odd ones. Rio Da Yung OG has Thursday, September 3, The Aquabats bring the costumes on Friday, September 4, and Channel Tres closes it out on Saturday, September 5. Upstairs that same Friday, Trap Karaoke turns the big room into a crowd sing along, which is either the best or the worst idea in the building depending on how you feel about strangers with microphones.

NoDa books four nights at the Neighborhood Theatre and starts the week before anyone else does. Loe Shimmy opens Monday, August 31 with Lakeyah. Emarosa follow on Tuesday, September 1 with VEAUX. The 4411 take Thursday, September 3, and The Dirty Guv'nahs close it Friday, September 4, a Knoxville six piece out on a twentieth anniversary run behind Promises. Twenty years is a long time for six people to keep showing up, and the room they still draw in NoDa says it worked.

South End comes back after a dark week. Amos' Southend bookends the calendar, with EIHWAR on Tuesday, September 1 and Anees on Sunday, September 6. Anees is the one to know, a Virginia songwriter who stayed independent, put out Homesick last spring, and watched sun and moon spend six weeks atop the Billboard Philippines chart on its way past two hundred million streams.

The Comedy Card

The Comedy Zone gives its whole weekend to Bill Bellamy, five sets from Friday, September 4 through Sunday, September 6. He has been working since the MTV years and has more than forty dates on the books this year, a heavier schedule than most comics of that vintage bother with.

Duckworth's splits its week in two. Casey Balsham doubles up on Wednesday, September 2, then Darren Brand takes five sets from Thursday, September 3 through Saturday, September 5. Brand is the local pick. He was born in North Carolina, spent parts of eight seasons on Wild 'N Out as Big Baby, and put out Sincerely Sorry in 2023. A North Carolina comic getting the longer run at the Uptown club is the right way around.

Next Week's Radar

Two Truliant nights are worth putting in the calendar now. Hayley Williams brings The Hayley Williams Show there on Tuesday, September 8 with Magdalena Bay and Rico Nasty, pulling from all three of her solo records including Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Then on Saturday, September 12, Iron Maiden and Megadeth arrive on Run For Your Lives, the fiftieth anniversary tour, which puts only about a dozen dates on the ground in North America. Charlotte is holding one of them.