A punk album-cover parody marking this week's Northeast Kansas Weekend Concerts guide, Sept 17-20, 2026.
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Northeast Kansas Weekend Concerts
Your Northeast Kansas weekend concerts guide for Sept 17-20, 2026 · Live music in Topeka, Lawrence & Kansas City · combined from NEKS.show, venue sites & submitted flyers
There’s a lot of punk rock going on this weekend, even with the cancellation of the Sex Pistols. The seminal and legendary Black Flag is returning to recordBar, and I hear they’re actually pretty good. Sure, we all have our opinions about Greg Ginn and Black Flag, and honestly, for most of you: Henry Rollins ruined Black Flag before you were born, so shut up about that. Black Flag: Greg Ginn gets older, but the band stays the same age.
Funny enough, Billy Idol is playing Morton Amphitheater in KC the same night — Wednesday the 16th, same as Black Flag at recordBar. Our robot overlords have not, as of yet, shortened the workweek enough to count Wednesday as a weekend. But since when do punk rockers save it up for weekends? None of that “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend” nonsense for us. Maybe Billy shows up at recordBar to sing a song with Black Flag — he sang for a Ramones tribute recently with Billie Joe from Green Day and friends. But he will absolutely not be showing up to step in on vocals for the Sex Pistols. That show is just not happening.
And if your hipster punk rock cred sensibilities won’t allow you anywhere near a legacy act, I’d suggest The Bottleneck on Thursday the 17th for The Sounds Of Many instead. Details here.
Charley Crockett and Eric Clapton landed on the same night, Violent Femmes are marking 45 years, and a charity two-dayer at Sk8bar is raising money for the Kansas City Indian Center. [T] marks a Topeka-area show.
Got a gig to list? Make a Facebook event page for it, then email the link to submitshow@neks.show and dystopeka@gmail.com — as early as possible.
🖤 Before we get into it — rest in power to Cheetah Chrome, Dead Boys guitarist and co-writer of “Sonic Reducer,” who died this past week at 71. The man helped build the whole foundation everything in this calendar is standing on. Go put the record on loud tonight. Full send-off on ChromeTuna →
This Weekend’s Northeast Kansas Weekend Concerts, Day by Day
Thursday, September 17, 2026
🍒 Cancellation Silver Lining
Wood Roses (Acoustic) w/ surprise pop-up Cher UK appearance, Medicine Theory
Thu, Sep 17 · ~6:00 PM · Woodyard BBQ
Straight from Cody Wyoming: “Sex Pistols cancelled, so I jumped on this bill. Now there’s gonna be a pop up Cher UK appearance after the Wood Roses Acoustic set.” Medicine Theory will be scarin’ the squares, and there’s yet another bitchin’ show poster from Tyson Schroeder to go with it.
Fri, Sep 18 · 6:15 PM · $12 at gates · Compass Point, home of Dirty Girl Adventures, NOTO
Presented by Topeka Blues Society & Compass Point. An evening of rock ‘n roll with Topeka’s favorite rock band on the Courtyard — local talent, high energy, great for dancing. Opening is touring artist McKinley James, off his debut Working Class Blues. Full bar, dinner from El Chac Mool, family-friendly, dogs on leashes welcome. Compass Point is part of the NOTO Common Consumption Area.
“Take your refund money and get tickets to see The Rip Offs at The Ship. DUH.” — Sex Pistols fans in this market got hit with cancellations on both the Nashville and Kansas City dates this week (refunds processing automatically, per the band). Bazooka Joe says stop sulking and spend that money local instead.
🛹 Charity Weekender — Sk8barpalooza 2026
Ten bands over two days at Sk8Bar, all proceeds going to the Kansas City Indian Center in Westport. Raffles, vendors, and a food truck both nights. Friday doors 6 PM / show 8 PM; Saturday doors 4 PM / show 6 PM.
Friday: Second Chance, Shakira Chinchilla, Madlion, Milkwave Saturday: The Bad Ideas, Sewer Urchin, Sabot Cat, Wayne Pain and the Shit Stains, Gascan, John K Stark
💾 ChromeTuna’s Special Pick: Violent Femmes: 45 Years of Violent Femmes Tour — Grinders, KC. “Blister in the Sun” is older than most of the bands playing this weekend. Go pay respects.
This is a great week for hardcore, punk and alternative music in Northeast Kansas. Black Flag is playing on Wednesday, the Sex Pistols are on Thursday, and Violent Femmes are on Friday, but I’m going a different route by suggesting a metal show at the miniBar on Sunday that might have flown under your radar. Volcandra, from Louisville, is on tour with GraveRipper from Indianapolis. Joining them is Tortured Form, a newer death metal band from Kansas City. Volcandra released their third full-length album, Beyond the Will of Mortals, about five months ago, and are touring in support of it. If you’re a fan of Dissection, Sacramentum, or Uada, you probably would love Volcandra — they even have elements reminiscent of Opeth. This will be my fourth time seeing Volcandra since 2023, and I will see them every chance I get because I enjoy their show so much. GraveRipper plays a fast and furious blend of black, thrash and speed metal, similar to Midnight and Hellripper. Tortured Form is an up-and-coming local death metal band I’m excited to see for the first time.
If you haven’t been to the miniBar, the little sister to the recordBar, it’s the kind of independent venue that’s a great alternative to the Ticketmaster and AXS giants. The miniBar isn’t trying to bleed you dry — they just want to bring great underground music to Kansas City at an affordable price. So if you’re sick of spending $75 on tickets, $25 for parking, and $31 for a can of beer, give these underground venues a chance. The hot dogs at the miniBar are pretty good too!
Gimme Some Money.
I don’t sell advertising on this website. I make little person trades with local businesses that I like and respect.
This calendar and many of the articles on here are a labor of love. I do it for free hoping that it will rekindle the sparks of a music scene.
But it gets very frustrating when I see the bands artists and venues not even bothering to promote their own shows. But i DO enjoy the part where they cry about no one showing up after their gig, with the hopes that maybe this time they will learn the lesson.
In the mean time, these websites do incur a certain expense, that I pay for out of my own pocket.
So would it really hurt you to throw me a few bones? Below are my donation routs.
🎸 Keep The Roundup Running 🎸
Every week I dig through Facebook events, venue pages, and the NEKS.show feed by hand to build this calendar, because somebody in Northeast Kansas has to know what’s actually happening on a Friday night besides doomscrolling. No algorithm, no press release, just a guy tracking down show times so you don’t have to.
Your support keeps the roundup free for every band and every fan, funds the flyers and the write-ups, keeps the lights on at the Dystopeka compound, feeds Larry & Chewy, and props up the increasingly haunted van that gets me to half these shows in the first place. Honestly, it’s a lot more fun for me when you chip in – I get to keep doing this instead of getting a real job.
⚠ WARNING: Excessive support may result in more weekend roundups, more flyers like the ones above, deeper dives into bands nobody’s covering, and a noticeable decrease in Bob’s willingness to shut up about local music.
That’s this week’s Northeast Kansas Weekend Concert Roundup – see you out there.
Event feed sourced from NEKS.show. Come for the guitars. Stay for the weird.
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Updated September 17, 2026
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