Silverada and Vandoliers

Silverada and Vandoliers play the Longhorn Ballroom on Friday, December 11, with Jason Scott & The High Heat Evolution opening the night. It's a double bill of Texas country from two bands that have spent years working their way up from the dancehall circuit.

Silverada is the name Mike Harmeier gave to a reinvigorated version of his band Mike and the Moonpies after the original lineup moved on. He started the group in his early twenties as a workingman's country band that cut its teeth on Austin's dancehall circuit; by the early 2020s they'd become global ambassadors of homegrown Texas music, recording 2019's Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and playing the Grand Ole Opry. The current lineup recorded Silverada, the group's ninth release, at Yellow Dog Studios with producer Adam Odor.

Vandoliers are a Dallas band whose fifth album, Life Behind Bars, follows frontwoman Jenni Rose's journey through addiction and gender dysphoria, culminating in her coming out as a trans woman while working in the macho worlds of Texas country and punk rock. Ten years into their career, the record is described as more stripped-down and intimate than their typical fare, with more substantive and politically pointed lyrics.

Between the two, you've got a band that's played the Opry and a local act ten years in, both coming from the same Texas country soil. The show starts at 8 PM, and tickets run $32 to $70, all ages.