October is the high holy season for the two-time Grammy-winning Brave Combo.

Called “the nuclear polka band,” Brave Combo stays busy playing its signature blend of polka, rock and anything else that comes to mind.

It keeps a calendar full from September to November of Oktoberfest concerts. And one of those stops the Denton-based band looks forward to each fall is Oktoberfest, Oct. 11-13 at Southlake Town Square. Brave Combo is a headliner, closing out the three-day festival in a scheduled performance 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 13 on the Main Stage.

“We love playing the Southlake Oktoberfest, and we love to close the show,” said Carl Finch, the band’s founder and leader. “And we want to close the show with polka music.”

Forget the lederhosen, the band doesn’t wear that kind of get-up. The band’s five members bring the instruments expected for an Oktoberfest, using an accordion and tuba to play its funky “nuclear polka.” For 45 years, Brave Combo has gathered fans. It boasts a cult-like following that has included Bob Dylan, who recorded a cover of the band’s version of “Must Be Santa,” and Talking Heads’ David Byrne who booked the band for his wedding reception.

Brave Combo also has toured internationally, performing in exotic spots such as Japan, has had its music featured in movies and also marched in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But for the band founded in Denton, the fall season gets booked with back-to-back Oktoberfests.

Not understanding why polka was always considered a joke led Finch to the unique mix of genres. Entrenched in the musical culture of the University of North Texas, he mulled this question in the late ‘70s.

“I had this idea about all music being equal,” Finch said. “There was always some yuk-yuk angle making fun of accordions and polka music.”

He listened to the music, bought polka records at bargain prices and thought about mixing it up. “I wondered if you just played it differently. What if you were a rock band but played it differently.”

He and his musician buddies started combining the polka’s 2/4 time. Its distinctive beat, which dates to 1830 Prague, is dance oriented, Finch said. But since then, Brave Combo has updated that polka beat by overlaying it on its popular version of the hokey pokey, rock songs by The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors, and even a Christmas tune. The new age polka-rock fusion has made Brave Combo a fixture at American Oktoberfests, another example of culture fusion.

“Polka was part and parcel to German culture,” Finch said. “Polka is the official music of Oktoberfest, worldwide.”

Brave Combo will be one of many musical acts booked to play Southlake’s 23rd annual Oktoberfest, sponsored by the Southlake Chamber of Commerce. Entertainment on two stages — the Main Stage and the German Stage — begins at 4 p.m. Oct. 11 and continues until 10:45 p.m. that day. It continues 10 a.m.-10:45 p.m. Oct. 12 and from noon-7 p.m. Oct. 13.

Music is a large part of the entertainment, but other highlights include the festival’s annual wiener dog races 10 a.m.-noon Oct. 12 on the German stage. The free, family event also will feature German food, art vendors, children’s activities and sports.

Brave Combo will be the group to close Southlake’s outdoor festival, giving it an oom-pa-pa sort of finale. Exactly which songs will be performed that evening depends on the audience as much as anything.

“The polka world is complicated,” Finch said. “We’re just the band that goes and plays music, and we really feed off the audience’s reaction. With polka, man, you’ve got to have the audience interact.”