The 10 Best Concerts in Dallas This Week: Kurt Vile, Cam'Ron & More

Look, there's really no excuse to not see a show this week. In the next seven days, Dallas will be hosting Korean and '00s hip-hop, chillwave and chill indie rock, unforgiving punk music and fairly forgiving country music, and, well, DJ Snake. If you're finding yourself uninterested in any of these genres, then you probably just want to go see the Used at House of Blues.
Savages
With Angus Tarnawsky, 8 p.m. Monday, April 11, at Trees, 2709 Elm St., 214-741-1122 or treesdallas.com, $22
With the release of their new album Adore Life, London-based punk-rockers Savages have been hitting the circuit hard with a mission and a message. Beyond fame and accolades, Savages want their music to bring their fans into a new reality of physical and emotional revelation and connection. They have crafted a live music experience that they hope brings together their fans with a heavy but simple, message of change, empowerment, unity and love. They convey this message behind a intense, hard-hitting wall of sound that grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go. Savages want you to get the point, and they aren’t afraid of being as loud and messy as possible until they have drilled it into your head and your heart. Expect a rowdy performance that you will walk away from feeling more enlightened. Angus Tarnawsky, the Tasmanian experimental sound-artist, opens. Brandon Mikeal

AOMG
7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, at The Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St., $75-300
Record label AOMG settled on a modest acronym for its name. It means "Above Ordinary Music Group," which is pretty humble for a label that reps names like Jay Park, who is the quintessential entertainer and even co-CEO of the label. His Korean hip-hop reflects a lot of elements from the Atlanta-based trap that has been taking over the world lately, but his hooks are unapologetically K-Pop influenced and it somehow works. With his whole crew at his back, Jay Park should be in prime form at The Bomb Factory. Matt Wood

Cam'Ron
7 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, at Rockin Rodeo, 1009 Avenue C, Denton, $20-60
In keeping up their trend of picking up beloved 2000s hip-hop artists, Rockin' Rodeo got Cam'Ron to come to town thanks Thin Line. While '90s nights at clubs are all fine and well, I think it's about time we embrace the 2000s nights, since that decade was somehow six years ago. Something about the aughts made R&B and hip-hop music videos iconic. It probably had something to do wit the dawn of flip phones and sidekicks, using newly-developed text slang in song titles,and polos and backpacks. Maybe it'll take a few more years, but hopefully this is the first step toward Cam'Ron's much-deserved revival. MW

Blackbird Blackbird
7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at Club Dada, 2720 Elm St., $12
For a while there, it seemed like chillwave would take over the world. And while no one is doubting the charm of acts like Toro Y Moi, it seems like the genre has been craving innovation. Luckily, bands like Blackbird Blackbird are doing just that, adding elements of indie rock into their floating electronic atmospheres. Driving beats add some necessary weight to the arrangements and make it easier to dance to chillwave instead of just sway to it. If making your music more danceable can't save a subgenre, then nothing can, right? MW

DJ Snake
7:45 p.m. Friday, April 15, at South Side Ballroom, 1135 S Lamar, $26.50
What came first, the slang or the song? Did people start turning to each other and saying "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT" because Lil Jon made it an anthem? Or did Lil Jon capture the inner thoughts of millions of people who didn't realize how badly they needed to turn up? Regardless, DJ Snake was the conductor for this chicken/egg debacle. And his beat on "Turn Down for What" will likely end up in some Hall of Fame in six or seven years and be referred to as a drop that caused hundreds of thousands of bodily injuries and even more bad Snapchat videos. MW

James Taylor
7 p.m. Friday, April 15, at Winstar Casino, 777 Casino Ave., $85-195
He might be the self-consumed guy who inspired Carly Simon's monster hit, "You're So Vain," but that's something that probably won't ever be confirmed. What is an irrefutable truth is that James Taylor is a world-renowned musician, songwriter, vocalist and pretty much any other category he could be lumped into. Sure, his easy-listening, post-hippy folk balladry may seem like mindlessly pleasant pap, but in his best work there's depth — and pain — in Taylor's songwriting. He's battled with depression and drug abuse nearly his entire life, and his experiences in psychiatric institutions, as well as the suicide of a close friend, led him to write the defining song of his career, "Fire and Rain." Named for the whiplash sensations of shock therapy and the cold shower that follows, there's nothing light about it. Paige Skinner

Kurt Vile
With Purling Hiss. 8 P.M. Saturday April 16. At Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave.. 214-824-9933 or granadatheater.com, $24-$28
Kurt Vile’s solo success almost lets you forget about his rise-to-stardum with the War on Drugs. Since his departure from the band in 2008, Vile has released six solo studio album,s each one solidifying his status among the indie rock darlings, including his critically acclaimed b’lieve i’m goin down in 2015. His persona has remained intact through those six albums, never straying from his folk-rock roots inspired by legends such as Neil Young. His songwriting is impeccable, ever-flowing and always serves a purpose: “Pretty Pimpin',” for instance, uses disordered lyrics to illustrate a person trying to understand themselves through a messy mirror image. Vile's vocals are an easy listen and harmonize with the fingerpicked strumming of his guitar. The soothing track “Walkin' on a Pretty Day” sounds like an easy tempo walk down the street. Basically, if you’re in-the-know on indie rock, Vile’s is a must-see live performance. The Philadelphia native will be accompanied by his usual travel band the Violators as they make their way to the Granada on Saturday. Stephen Elliott

Old 97's County Fair
With Drive By Truckers, Lucero, Deer Tick and more, 1 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at Main Street Garden Park, 1950 Main St., old97scf.com, $35-$100
With Lilith Fair and Ozzfest placed well into the summer rear-view mirror, you’ll likely not find a more on-brand festival than the inaugural Old 97’s County Fair. Taking place in Main Street Garden Park, home of the Homegrown Festival, whose organizers helped plan this event in conjunction with the longtime set of favored Dallas sons, thousands of cool moms and dads will enjoy a twangy, rootsy bucket of high ABV alt-country. While the Old 97’s are the titular headliners, fellow Southern road warriors Drive By Truckers, Lucero and noted 97’s pal Brent Best of Slobberbone will roll into downtown to chug Jack Daniel’s out of the bottle and sweat along to the chugging rhythms, oddball stories and dueling guitars that hurt in all the right places. There will also be fair food like corn dogs available, which are every bit as ripe for air drumming as any plain old set of arms are. Who needs a wide-range of sounds when all we want to do is rock out with our corn dogs out? Kelly Dearmore

The Used
8 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St., $31-38
I never got why so many screamo/second-wave emo bands were so obsessed with formalwear. No matter where you look, whether it was My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy or basically anyone else, there was some fixation on wearing tuxedos in music videos. Anyway. The Used did it too, and even went as far as throwing on a fedora and trying to get all Clockwork Orange with it because it made them edgy and deep. But as a 15-year-old screamo band, the Used has been hugely influential to the post-hardcore genre and they've adapted their sound over the years to maybe preserve some vocal cords. Sartorial choices aside, the band has established themselves as exceptional musicians whose songs are still catchy in the year 2016. MW

Steve Vai
With Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi, 8 p.m. Sunday, April 17, at The Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St., 214-932-6501 or thebombfactory.com, $35-$350
The chops on display at The Bomb Factory on Sunday night will be almost as outsized as Yngwie Malmsteen’s ego and/or Nuno Bettencourt’s mid-‘80s hair spray budget. Those two hit town as part of the Generation Axe tour, a loaded bill of shredders assured to inspire carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing levels of air guitar in the crowd. Joining Malmsteen, metal’s premier six-string classicist, and Bettencourt, who’s been touring with Lady Gaga in recent years, on this technique-heavy line-up is a Mount Rushmore of guitar heroes. There’s headliner Steve Vai, whose 1990 masterwork Passion and Warfare remains among the greatest guitar-based instrumental records ever, and former Ozzy Osbourne sideman Zakk Wylde, the evening’s leading purveyor of the seismic riff. Don’t sleep on show-opener Tosin Abasi, however. Abasi is best known as the founder of tech-metal head-spinners Animals As Leaders, and he’s every bit as beastly on the eight-string guitar as the band’s moniker suggests. Jason Bracelin