OKLAHOMA CITY – We all know that the summertime means late nights and unbound energy, and there’s no better place to put all the pent up angst and fire that everyone’s surely feeling right now than into some crushing, crashing live metal.
I mean, you’re already dazed and sweaty from the sweltering heat, anyway. Why not dive into the pit and headbang it out?
OKC has never had any shortage of ripping metal, but over the next few weeks, local venues are serving up an overrunning-eth cup of some of the best sludge, doom, psych, and alt that the hard rock scene has to offer.
So unfurl your hair, get some neck stretches in, and maybe invest in some earplugs, because we’re going riff-hunting.
Sisteria / Medicine Horse – Blue Note – Saturday, June 27th
OKC’s historic Blue Note has been one of the city’s foundational stages for some of the most intense doom and heavy rock acts for years, and as they’re recently pushing to reconfirm their reputation as one of our best local venues, they’re leaning hard as ever into the louder sound of things.
And of course I couldn’t pass up the first OKC appearance of Free Press friends and faves Sisteria in well over a year.
The folklore-rich psych-metalers are readying to finally return to the city proper after another eye-popping, brain-rattling set at April’s Norman Music Fest that saw the sextet offering up their most fluid and evocative yet set, sprinkled with a few new tracks and loads of new texture and mystery.
But if that wasn’t enough, they’ll be backed up by one of the most devastating and defiant metal acts that Oklahoma has to offer with Tulsa’s own Indigenous-driven institution of intensity, Medicine Horse.
This one is bound to get pretty heavy – and inside the relatively tighter walls of the Blue Note, pretty loud – so make sure you bring those ear plugs along with whatever void you need to scream into.
Keep Oklahoma Heavy presents: MyWitchMyBlood / Deity / weepcar – Opolis – Thursday, July 2nd
For the past year or so, Keep Oklahoma Heavy has been an online hype, resource, and review page for the state’s persistently fluid and ever-developing heavy rock and metal scenes, all launched and managed by OKC writer Jason Salthouse.
But earlier this year, eager to establish some more hands-on help in growing the scene and inspired by the Jarvix-led Weirder Wednesday showcase – Salthouse pitched his own recurring series at Norman’s Opolis, flying the Keep Oklahoma Heavy banner atop a new slate of crushing, boundary-pushing acts each first Thursday with Monthly Metal.
For July, that lineup boasts the full-on, growling speed-metal thrash of Deity, the dissonant, jagged-edged hardcore of Weepcar, and the immensely powerful, transcendently textural doom of the mammoth MyWitchMyBlood.
If you’re into the heavy stuff and you don’t already have every first Thursday blocked out, you should probably start rearranging your calendar.
Traindodge 30th anniversary show – Resonant Head – Saturday, July 11th
Is Traindodge one of OKC’s most important musical institutions? Probably, yeah.
Formed in ’96 and still as fresh, electric, and active as ever, the perennially heavy rockers are coming off another triumphant NMF set and a busy 2025 filled with road shows and slots alongside the mighty Chat Pile (a gig they’ll revisit this coming September when the Pile celebrates their new album drop at Tower Theatre.)
The long-running local hard-rock heroes have by now stretched the “post-hardcore” label about as far as it can go in any direction, and in the process, have ended up developing a three-decade body of work that spans from riffing grunge to stoner-y psych-rock to synth-tinged alt to all-out doom, but comes together to form something altogether unique.
It’s rare to see any band anywhere make it to 30 years, so the opportunity to celebrate such a milestone for some of our own hometown heavy-hitters is bound to be pretty special.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
