With July 4th coming up this Friday, this will be that most patriotic of weeks where we can sit back and bask in the glory of our homeland: Texas. (Well, America too.) And can mean only one thing: lots of and lots of country music. From singer-songwriters to outlaws and…
Merle Haggard Billy Bob’s Texas, Fort Worth Saturday, June 28, 2014 Country music is built on a bedrock of incredible artists like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, but you’d be an idiot to not consider the tremendous influence of everyone’s favorite former felon, Merle Haggard. His career has certainly seen…
Deafheaven With Wreck & Reference and Pallbearer Club Dada Saturday, June 28, 2014 Having Deafheaven play the patio at Club Dada seemed like a good idea. It was a breezy, cool (for June) night with occasional wafts of barbeque smoke floating in the air. But a mere minute before the…
It sounds like cathedral music at first. Then, like modern classical. A drone of swinging chimes and rumbling gong is Swans’ overture. Each tone is so exactly measured that, initially, it sounds like stock music pouring forth from the venue speakers. Look closely though, there to the back-left of the…
Diarrhea Planet With Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires and Party Static Three Links Wednesday, June 25, 2015 What’s it mean to party? The guys in Diarrhea Planet know a thing or two about it. In fact, they almost have it down to a science. It involves lots of…
José James With Dustin Cavazos and Buffalo Black Kessler Theater Tuesday, June 24, 2014 By Thierry Peremarti José James’ 2010 album, For All We Know, is an authentic jazz album that’s won its share of jazz prizes. But although the jazz community has accepted James as one of theirs, you…
In October of 2013, Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires had the plug pulled on them during their set at the Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge in Fort Worth. On that night, the group’s amp-busting brand of southern soul-rock was too much for the venue’s operators to handle…
Blake Shelton With the Band Perry and Neil McCoy Gexa Energy Pavilion Saturday, June 21, 2014 Saturday night was the first official night of summer and to celebrate some of country music’s biggest contemporary acts performed to a sold-out crowd at Gexa Energy Pavilion. Blake Shelton was the headliner, but…
Jeff Tweedy With the Handsome Family Majestic Theatre Sunday, June 22, 2014 By the time Jeff Tweedy and his four-piece backing band left the stage Sunday night, it was like he had played two shows in one night. Devoting the first half of a 28-song set to his forthcoming solo…
Cut Copy With Classixx and Nile Delta Granada Theater Sunday, June 22, 2014 By H. Drew Blackburn There comes a point when you go to enough concerts, the pomp and circumstance behind The Encore just fades away. You realize screaming like some sort of crazed social activist or Benghazi truther…
The Mountain Goats With Loamlands Dan’s Silverleaf, Denton Friday, June 20, 2014 By Jezy J. Gray I first saw the Mountain Goats in 2006 at The Opolis in Norman, Oklahoma. I was 19 and the band had just released their Get Lonely LP, songwriter John Darnielle’s most polite and somber…
Authenticity and impeccable simplicity have always been Kris Kristofferson’s stock-in-trade. On Saturday night in Fort Worth it couldn’t have been more apparent, as he performed a couple dozen of his plainly poetic songs in two nearly one hour-long sets at the classically beautiful Bass Performance Hall. It was the evening…
Future With Rico Love South Side Music Hall, Dallas Thursday, June 19, 2014 On his first-ever visit to Dallas, Atlanta rapper Future played his crowd at South Side Music Hall like a yo-yo. With flashing LED lights synched up to the music and smoke machine billowing into the room, the…
Next month, the Kessler will open its doors to hundreds of people in celebration of Trees, a music venue long revered for its contributions to the historic Deep Ellum community. As one of the neighborhood’s earliest and most popular venues, Trees has been part of Dallas nightlife for over 20…
Boston With the Doobie Brothers Allen Event Center Wednesday, June 18, 2014 You know the summer has officially started once the oldies package tours make their way through town, or in this case, the suburb of Allen. But last night was a bit different as two legendary acts from the…
What a production. The folks at Index Festival have gone out of their way this year to build up anticipation for the show, now in its third year, which will happen in late September. Case in point was last night’s announcement party at Trees, which was sponsored by Chicago brewer…
Austin’s the Octopus Project are bringing their brand of lively, technicolor “indietronica” to Dallas on Thursday for the latest installment of Red Bull Sound Select. If you hate impassioned performances, dancing and having a good time, stay far away. This will be the first time the Octopus Project will play…
Vans Warped Tour Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Sunday, June 15, 2014 If I were younger or were a newcomer to the Vans Warped Tour’s annual Dallas stop, I suppose getting there at 10:30 a.m. when the gates opened and staying until the last barre chord decayed into the dusk would’ve…
I was not alive when James Taylor and his self-reflective brand of folk music were most popular. For my entire life, Taylor has been touring the country playing songs that are as familiar to my grandparents as they are to me. My own first experience with James Taylor was finding…
Centro-matic With True Widow and Cliffs of Insanity Kessler Theater, Dallas Saturday, June 14, 2014 Early on in Centro-matic’s Saturday night show at the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff, a shout from the middle of the comfortably crowded throng provided with a well-timed bit of levity — and a healthy…
It’s as if Dallas collectively decided to self-fulfill the prophecy of the full honey moon on the 13th causing a crazy night. As the whiskey flowed in the packed bars of Elm St., the bands of the festival smiled and played to crowds of freshly inked fans, the majority of…
Such is the way of the Elm Street Tattoo Festival: I went to Deep Ellum last night with the goal of watching locals Ishi headline at Club Dada and wound up spending the night bouncing between several venues along Elm St. Granted, such is the way of many a night…
