Barfield, The Tyrant

Barfield, The Tyrant plays The Continental Club this Thursday, August 27, as part of their weekly residency. They're on every Thursday night, so if you miss this one, you can just catch them next week.

They call themselves Texas Funk, and the sound is a bit of a collision. They pull from Johnny Cash, The Clash, James Brown, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and they blend it all into a funky, garage-soul stew. It's a wide reach—country, punk, soul, and R&B all in one set—and the live show is where it actually comes together. The band is a spectacle on stage, and that's a good way to describe it: it's as much about the performance as it is about the music.

That's because the people behind it are Austin mainstays. The members come from across the city's country, blues, soul, and rock'n'roll scenes, so they're not just playing these styles—they're part of the community that keeps them going. When they get together, they bring those different backgrounds into the same room, and that's where the garage-soul sound comes from.

It's a late one, starting at 10:30 PM, and the show is 21+ only. There's a $10 cover at the door.