See also: A conversation with Sharon Needles After the bizarro performance art of last night’s RNC speeches, I think we all needed a palette cleanser. Thankfully, It’ll Do brought in RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles to christen Queen, their new Thursday drag party. She did a couple short sets,…
Flint, Michigan’s own Jon Connor returns to Dallas to headline this declarative statement of a show. That is, before he goes on tour with Big K.R.I.T. this fall, and no doubt becomes a little less “slept on.” There’s a nice sampling of Texas talent, too: Houston’s Doughbeezy joins Dallas’ Dustin…
35 Denton is bookending their successful spring festival season with this summer mess, featuring waterslides, wrestling, pools, booze and … there was something else. Maybe it was musical performances from Big Freedia, The Black Lips, No Age, Reggie Watts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Fergus & Geronimo, RTB2 and DJ Sober. See…
Two bands that both put out excellent albums this year — Mind Spiders’ Meltdown and Nervous Curtains’ Fake Infinity — combine forces in Rubber Gloves’ ashtray. Nervous Curtains are about to head off on tour, so this might be your last chance to catch their theater of synth. Mind Spiders,…
Have you been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race? Of course you have, so you’re familiar with the soul-shattering tower of terror that is Sharon Needles, aka Aaron Coady. She’ll be at It’ll Do as part of their new Thursday night Queen series, featuring the best local and national drag performers. If…
Few things mark a summer’s end in Denton quite like Rubber Gloves’ Free Week. This year’s seventh annual event hosts Danny Rush & the Designated Drivers on Monday, Vulgar Fashion on Tuesday, Cozy Hawks on Wednesday, and culminates on Saturday with A.Dd+, Shiny Around the Edges, Idiots and Atomic Tanlines…
And the award for local band name I love to say out loud goes to: Bitch Bricks. The Fort Worth trio just released a single called “Stop Smiling In My Direction,” an anthem they recently took on a mini-tour with fellow Fort Worth-a-shits the Longshots, with whom they also share…
Lightning Bolt, Drug Mountain, Wiccans Sons of Hermann Hall Tuesday, August 28 To the noisenik who wasn’t able to peek over the throng parked in front of Lightning Bolt last night, Brian Gibson might have been playing an electric chair through effects pedals. His bass, with a bonus banjo string…
Fort Worth’s Ice Eater have played around the area for the last few months, but Thursday’s set at Dada will be their Deep Ellum debut. We caught up with members Jordan Kline and Zach Edwards about the first Ice Eater gig and who plays a better Mr. Freeze. You guys…
Young/Forbes/Gonzalez Trio, Terminator 2, Bludded Head Rubber Gloves Monday, August 27 Mike Forbes was last night’s MVP. He started behind the kit with Bludded Head, who had literally just returned from a 10-day tour, providing the slowly melting glacier for guitarist Nevada Hill and cellist Darcy Neal to float their…
How I Quit Crack, Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride, Habu Habu Black Lodge Friday, August 24 Black Lodge is tucked in a corner of Deep Ellum that seems annexed from the rest of the area, and perhaps that’s what made Friday’s show at the tiny gallery space feel extradimensional. The space…
Tabula Rasa celebrated their 20th anniversary on Saturday, along with a reunion from the Chemistry Set, and sets from Sunward and Salim Nourallah…
Sandaga 813 is the perfect venue for this touring soul/hip-hop caravan, headlined by Shawn Chrystopher, who just released the Timbaland-produced mixtape, LoveStory. Fellow emcees Sean Falyon, El Prez, Raven Sorvino, Jabee, Austin’s QLee and Dallas’ Drama Tha King keep the verses flowing. Starts at 8 p.m…
Buckingham doesn’t get enough credit for how his mid-’70s addition transformed Fleetwood Mac, with too much of it flowing to his one-time paramour Stevie Nicks. The band hit their apogee on the new lineup’s first three albums together — Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk — before speeding downhill during the…
After forming in 1992, Tabula Rasa took Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton by storm, tidily earning “Best New Act” from the Dallas Observer in 1993. And then, as quickly as Deep Ellum’s Green Room dubbed its signature cheese pizza “The Tabula Rasa,” they disbanded in 1994. Members Ezra Boggs, Stephen…
When I first saw Lightning Bolt in a dingy club in Brooklyn a decade ago, I did not foresee the Providence duo still being around in 2012. Not that they weren’t good enough: That performance, in which drummer Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson set up on the floor and…
L.A. seems to be in the throes of a full-scale weed jam explosion, both in aesthetic and sound. Singer-guitarist Colleen Green doesn’t seem to care how much you know she’s influenced by The Ramones — she even has a song called “I Wanna Be Degraded” — or that there’s a…
Willie Nelson made a triumphant return to Dallas last night at House of Blues, and we were able to stop holding our collective breathe over his weekend health scare. We couldn’t handle him and Phyllis Diller in the same week…
These United States hit Lola’s on Friday with locals Jacob Furr & the Lonely Road and Nicholas Altobelli. The NYC group released a collaboration-heavy self-titled album earlier in the summer, lending a big-band feel to their roots rock. Frontman Jesse Elliott talked with us about playing Dallas, the first These…
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about dive bars, that sub-sect of watering hole fiercely guarded by established regulars. The type of place where the bartender and waitress know 90% of their customer’s names and take the time to invest in conversation past the precursory friendly pre-drink banter. I decided…
See also: The fans of Iron Maiden Iron Maiden, Coheed and Cambria Gexa Energy Pavilion Friday, August 17 Talking to a number of people who saw Iron Maiden’s last show back in June 2010, the common complaint was too many new songs and not enough old songs. The six-piece gave…
Fang Island, Adebisi Shank, Spacebeach Dada Thursday, August 16 It was West Nile aerial spraying night, so my wife warned me not to go out, but I was rewarded with one of the best shows of the year. As planes buzzed above, the band joked about the situation. “I guess…
