Anyone who’s been perusing the Dallas Observer’s extensive music calendar listings lately has likely noticed an influx of great artists stopping through town and local acts playing more gigs. There’s something about this time of year that brings about so many good shows. This week only further proves the point…
Kraftwerk The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016 It has been more than 40 years since Kraftwerk opened their interplanetary spaceship of future music in Dallas. Since that show, Kraftwerk have had a heavy hand in grandfathering all kinds of genres that did not exist in 1975. Kraftwerk set the template…
Black Sabbath With Rising Sons Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Wednesday, September 7, 2016 After nearly 50 years, Black Sabbath took the stage for the final time in Dallas on Wednesday night. Since their inception, the English quartet has had a mythic quality to it, as though there plausible deniability of…
September’s here and things are getting exciting as Dallas gears up for the cooler autumn months ahead. It’s not quite time to bust out the sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes, but no matter; a three-day weekend is plenty reason to get in the spirit, and there are plenty of concert…
Shake, shake, shake your booty this week, Dallas, and get down tonight (or tomorrow night, or the next). Yep, if it isn’t obvious already, KC and the Sunshine Band is funking things up this week, thanks to Mark Cuban’s concert series at The Bomb Factory. But if you can’t find…
Coldplay With Alessia Cara AT&T Stadium, Arlington Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016 Minutes into Coldplay’s set Saturday night at a sold-out AT&T Stadium, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin looked like a man who had already put in a hard night’s work. Drenched in sweat and adorned with a few strands of the…
Mad Decent Block Party With Kaskade, GRiZ, D.R.A.M. and more Victory Park, Dallas Aug. 26, 2016 Electronic dance music ricocheted off the underbelly of Woodall Rogers Freeway and down the streets of Victory Park, bathing the area in pulsating electronic beats on Friday. By 7 p.m., about a thousand people…
Slipknot’s return to Dallas on Aug. 25 marked three years in a row that the band has performed in the city at Gexa Energy Pavilion. It wasn’t particularly unique from the other two visits, but one detail remained obvious: no matter what, the people will come. Vocalist Corey Taylor was…
Those with long memories of Dallas’ music scene rejoiced when news broke this week that the owners of The Bomb Factory planned to reopen the space formerly known as Deep Ellum Live. Those who don’t know the venue may be a little confused. We dug into the Observer archives (OK,…
Explosions in the Sky With Preoccupations The Bomb Factory, Dallas Monday, August 22, 2016 Before Monday night, it had been five years since Explosions in the Sky played in Dallas. Their last show here had been at the Winspear Opera House, and since the much has changed for the band,…
Summer is officially over in exactly one month, but that’s not saying too much for Texas. The oppressive heat should linger for several more months. There’s been a lot of wet weather lately, however, which means an outdoor show this week may mean trudging though a little mud — but…
Snoop Dogg With Wiz Khalifa, Kevin Gates, Jhene Aiko and Casey Veggies Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa are hip-hop’s Cheech and Chong. It’s official. They already call themselves that, and on Friday night their High Road Summer Tour at Gexa Energy Pavilion…
Heart With Joan Jett and the Black Hearts and Cheap Trick Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Thursday, August 18, 2016 Everyone and their mom was at Gexa Energy Pavillon on Thursday night. That’s not just a bad joke. (OK, it is a bad joke, but it’s not only a bad joke.)…
It started as a meme, and then the meme became reality. Kristian Nairn — the actor who played Hodor on HBO’s Game of Thrones until earlier this year — performed at The Bomb Factory over the weekend, and the fans sure showed up. The show gave them a whole new reason…
For students, this week likely marks the end of another summer and the beginning of overpriced text books and early-morning alarms. It’s a farewell to late nights and lazy mornings, maybe, but not to great shows. Lose the blues and indulge in one last hurrah or three with the likes…
Gwen Stefani With Eve Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Saturday, August 13, 2016 If only everyone could be as lucky as Gwen Stefani. For most, dealing with heartbreak might just lead to drunken Facebook rants or passive-aggressive tweets. But not for Stefani. Instead, she responded with This is What the Truth…
The Monkees The Bomb Factory, Dallas Thursday, August 11, 2016 Thursday night at The Bomb Factory, Dallas got its first glimpse into Mark Cuban’s new TV concert series with a free performance from ’60s legend the Monkees. With the band celebrating its 50th anniversary, it was a night predictably heavy…
Where do you go after touring with Justin Bieber? That’s the question that Post Malone has known he’d eventually have to answer. And now he has an answer: Headlining this year’s Outbreak Tour, presented by Monster Energy drinks. Whether or not you have a problem with the corporate branding slapped…
Culture Club With Grove Verizon Theatre, Grand Prairie Friday, August 5, 2016 Around the midway point of Culture Club’s 90-minute set at a raucous Verizon Theatre on Friday night, Boy George turned reflective. “Well, 30-some years have passed since we started this thing. Remember, you were going to be a…
With election years comes a plethora of arguing, protesting and bumper stickers and this year is proving that to be especially true. Between scrolling past endless Facebook rants and figuring out which topics you probably shouldn’t discuss with your family, why not escape this crazy world with some live music?…
Dixie Chicks With Vintage Trouble and Smooth Hound Sound Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Friday, August 5, 2016 Girls everywhere, Friday night at Gexa Energy Pavilion. Old girls, young girls, middle-aged girls; girls in gangs of twos and threes and fours and fives; lots of girls in cutoff jeans and cowboy…
Rob Zombie With Korn and In This Moment Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Friday, August 4, 2016 Words like “togetherness” and “escapism” might not be the first ones that come to mind when you’re looking to describe a concert headlined by Korn and Rob Zombie. There’s all that pent up aggression,…
