Jonathan Tyler and The Northern Lights, Air Review, RTB2

Jonathan Tyler and his Northern Lights aren't aiming low with their March-slated release, Pardon Me. Rather, a screaming jet engine opens the album (and its title track), quite literally and figuratively signaling that the band is going all out on its Atlantic Records debut.

To their credit, the one thing Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights have always boasted was marketability. And with its good-time, Southern-rock sound now battle-tested on the road thanks to opening slots in support of AC/DC, Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the band's understandably eager to get started with its own push. This headlining, New Year's Eve performance at the Granada Theater—the second time in a row that the band's held this distinction—effectively sets in motion the most important year of the band's career. If nothing else, it should be an exciting couple of months. And, who knows, this could be your chance to say you saw them when.

Opening this show are two other local acts primed for a larger-than-just-DFW audience: The arena-ready, piano-driven rockers in Air Review and the awe-inspiring blues-rock duo of RTB2.