Don’t even talk to me right now, Dallas. Twenty notable concerts in the next four days? We don’t have time for your problems, you need to figure out how to be at Childish Gambino and Bobby Patterson’s birthday party at the same time. Oh, you didn’t get a ticket to…
There’s anywhere from 1 to 10 billion bands at any given SXSW. This year I think there are more. This makes planning one’s festival schedule a daunting monstrosity. But don’t worry, The Dallas Observer is here to help. Because it’s our opinion that festivals should be about seeing great bands,…
Y’all, The Boss is coming! The biggest concert announcement of the week had the whole internet buzzing when it broke nationally that this year’s March Madness Music Festival will bring Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, fun., Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, and The Killers to Dallas. Though we can…
Festival season is upon us, and just because there’s no 35 Denton this year doesn’t mean things have slowed down for 2014. This week Untapped returns to Fort Worth, Three Links and Mad World Records will each celebrate their anniversaries with fests, and the inaugural ONE FEST will spend the…
My 16-year-old daughter, Iris, is probably the most enthusiastic and positive person I’ve ever known. So when I asked her to write up the Pixies’ show as part of our sporadic series of Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Music posts, I figured she’d have nothing but good things to…
Spring is here and what better time to kick out the cobwebs? I personally like to ring in the season with a good deep house cleaning, lots of “Let’s Dance”-era David Bowie records, and of course some good live music. This weekend presents plenty of opportunities to get your feet…
Every week, more and more shows are added to the Dallas concert calendar.This week is no different. The winter is drawing to an end, and our springtime bookings are starting to fill up fast. This week, the biggest bang on our radar came in the form of an AT&T Performing…
On Monday night at Three Links, Angel Olsen began her set with two rolicking numbers, “Forgiven/Forgotten” and “Hi-Five,” the second and third tracks on her outstanding new record, Burn Your Fire For No Witness. Olsen’s opening choices were auspicious because the songs let her show off her solid four-piece band,…
One of the first lines of Angel Olsen’s critically acclaimed sophomore effort, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, is, “Here’s to thinking that it all meant so much more.” Don’t let her soft wailing and palpable yearning for answers to mind-haunting questions fool you. To assume that this is just…
The last time Vanilla Ice played a show in DFW at Grover’s Bar and Grill in Frisco, an interesting, pop culture conversation popped up among my fellow concertgoers in the men’s room. We tried to recall one of the songs in Ice’s repertoire that wasn’t “Ice, Ice Baby.” The pause…
Dallas, do not be alarmed. I know this is a shift in your regular scheduled programming. Your eyes do not deceive you, we are indeed rolling out your weekly concerts post on a Monday, rather than the usual Thursday post. We’re trying out something a little different. From here on…
Neon-laced Texan trill was the theme of the night at Cowboys Dancehall in Arlington, where RiFF RaFF served as ringleader for a live set featuring Texas hip-hop legends, glow-in-the-dark twerking ballerinas and hundreds of entranced pre-spring breakers. It just might have been the greatest show on Earth, and it happened…
On Wednesday in Denton, leading Snarky Puppy through a two hour set at Hailey’s, Michael League dipped and waved his electric bass like a conductor’s baton. He also led the band with series of grimaces, smiles, laughter and frowns, his facial expressions helping to punctuate musical phrases and sequences, signal…
If Hayes Carll wants more in life than to play music for good people and write clever one-liners, he showed no signs of it last night at the Double Wide. Maybe it’s an act, but he does a good job of faking it. Here are some of the most Hayes…
Dallas, February is almost over. That means soon this cold devil weather will be behind us, and festival season will be in full force. So take this time now to enjoy the smaller shows and intimate venues. Perks include short lines at merch tables, high order turnaround at the bar…
Last night in Oak Cliff, Chris Thile proffered far more than a solo acoustic concert. As it often is when a noted artist performs without an opening band, the show was presented as, “An Evening with Chris Thile.” What an evening it was. Part classical history lesson, part stand-up routine…
On tape there’s something eloquent, even graceful about how Denton-formed Snarky Puppy blend various streams of sound. A great deal of these recordings capture the group in a live environment, reflecting the searing energy and fluid ease with which these artists navigate the modern (jazz) fusion frontier. It’s what has…
At about 2 p.m., I decided to purchase tickets to Demi Lovato at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie. Because why not? Now, I knew my friend and I would be some of the oldest people there sans parents, but we didn’t know just how old we would feel. I was…
Deep Ellum got a taste of Mardi Gras this weekend in the best possible way. In order to mark the occasion, Commerce Street’s The Free Man Cajun Cafe organized a proper New Orleans second line horn parade that circled the neighborhood. Owner and proprietor John Jay Myers lead the charge…
This weekend the staff at Majestic Theatre took every necessary precaution to ensure that no tomfoolery or shenanigans would take place for the long sold-out Neutral Milk Hotel concert this past Saturday. Lead singer and notorious recluse Jeff Magnum has been known to be spooked by over zealous fans, so…
This past Saturday night, the Gas Monkey Bar ‘N Grill in Dallas lived up to the name of the television series that features its owner: car repair reality show Fast ‘N Loud. With full sets scheduled from Austin’s Hank Senior-recalling, honky-tonk hero Wayne “The Train” Hancock (on the venue’s indoor…
I don’t know how many of you were at the Jeff Mangum show last January. For those of you who were not, though I assume the Venn diagram of the two crowds shares a considerable crossover, the crowd at the solo show could sense a frailty in Mangum that made…
