OKLAHOMA CITY – I get it. It’s a thousand degrees outside, gas costs as much as the car you put it into, and we’re all too busy doomscrolling to fit much else of anything on the schedule.
So it can be hard to drag yourself out to a local show.
While my obvious, immediate advice is just to get up and do it anyway (seriously, support your local scene!) some of the OKC metro’s most unique musical artists have recently dropped some projects online that let you engage with all the energy of a live concert without leaving the struggling air-conditioning of your home.
S. Reidy – The Depot’s Summer Breeze Concert Series in Norman
The Depot in downtown Norman is a pretty historic place, and in its current iteration, it’s something of a community hub for arts and creativity of all kinds, including curating and presenting a local-favorite live music series each summer in Norman’s Lions Park.
Well, if you’re putting together a lineup of Norman-based acts that are guaranteed to bring the heat needed to light up a summer evening, high-energy emo-rapper S. Reidy is bound to be right at the top of the list.
If you’ve never experienced one of Reidy’s full-intensity sets before – whether he’s hanging from the rafters at an indoor blowout or getting a pizza delivered on stage at the Norman Music Fest – then you’ve never seen just how passionately communal and soul-stirring a local hip-hop show can be.
Luckily, his entire hour-and-a-half-plus-long headlining Summer Breeze set from last month is up on YouTube right now, so you can relive the whole thing in the comfort of your home, courtesy of The Depot’s YouTube channel, which also hosts loads of other full-length sets from artists like Chanda Graham, Jared Deck, and Carter Sampson.
Watch the full performance – and find many others – on The Depot’s YouTube channel HERE.
Lauren Sonder – ‘Are you here? (Live at Factory Obscura)’
While a lot of artists are all pushing to express the burning anger and seething intensity that we’re practically feeling right now, pianist/composer Lauren Sonder is actually doing the opposite, inviting listeners to slow down, ease their minds and bodies, and accept the rest that we need to live to fight another day.
Her calming, hypnotic piano pieces are already transcendent, but they’re often meant for communal spaces in which audiences are encouraged to sit or lay down and engage in one of the most rare and unique experiences: a large-scale group rest session.
Just like a packed crowd of people all going wild and dancing together, there’s a singular spirit that can only be captured when a whole group is surrendering to the calm together.
That energy was elevated even further when Sonder took the stage at Factory Obscura earlier this month as part of the Future of Sound series alongside flow artist Sarah Abear, and almost immediately after, she dropped the full recording of her gently powerful (powerfully gentle?) set on Bandcamp as “Are you here?”
There’s a very different kind of electricity coursing through the live recording compared to Sonder’s standout “Missing EP” from last year.
Instead of the cheers and screams of a raucous live rock record, you can only hear – and more importantly, feel – the audience holding their breath, slowing their bodies, and settling into the sound.
And that might be exactly the feeling we all need to give ourselves right now.
“Are you here? (Live at Factory Obscura)” by Lauren Sonder is available now exclusively on Bandcamp.
Valley Sessions feat. Brad Fielder & more
The New Mexico-based live music video series Valley Sessions doesn’t seem to slow down much, dropping new, intimate, creative live clips on the regular, often focusing on raw, rootsy folk, protest music, and outsider voices.
Well, this month, the tirelessly traveling Valley Sessions crew rolled through Oklahoma City, filming some of our most spirited acoustic-bashers serenading their natural Okie habitats of humid backyards and blazing front porches.
First out of the gate from those sessions is hyper-raw folk-stomper Brad Fielder, who tears through his “If It Weren’t for Myself, I’d be Okay” sat amongst the wild greenery and wooden fences of any Oklahoman home with a song of resolved resignation and finite defiance that’s as tough to pin as the man singing it.
Keep an eye on the Valley Sessions accounts, though, as they’ve got plenty more to post from their time in OKC, including Peggy Johnson, Grey Thornton, and the riotous Rachel & Griffin.
Check out the full performance on the Valley Sessions YouTube channel and follow @avalleysession on Instagram for more.
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.
