This weekend would be top notch, if it weren't for the weather forecast. This is often the case because the weather in Texas is garbage. The Homegrown Fest was supposed to take place in Downtown Dallas, but alas, it'll be at the Bomb Factory instead. (Which should wind up being an awesome alternative, thank you very much.) Dirty South Rydaz have a reunion at Trees, nostalgia and American sexuality become sentient and perform as Lana Del Rey at Gexa, and Lord Huron and Leon Bridges do South Side Music Hall. This weekend truly is stacked. Just make sure to grab a raincoat.
See also: Homegrown Festival Moves Indoors to the Bomb Factory This Saturday The Best Band and Beer Pairings for Untapped Fort Worth 2015
Torres With Aero Flynn, 9 p.m., Friday, May 8, at Club Dada, 2720 Elm St., dadadallas.com, $12 Everybody moves out to Nashville to make it happen as a country artist. Torres, born Mackenzie Scott, migrated slightly north from Macon, Georgia to Tennessee's capitol to attend Belmont University, one of the top music schools in the country. She's gotten quite a bit of praise since graduating from the school in 2012. The indie rocker's debut single "Honey" got a Best New Track shout out from Pitchfork. The praise is more than warranted as Torres' music snaps like a whip from delicate singer songwriter into dirty guitar rock at any given moment. H. Drew Blackburn
Untapped Fort Worth With De La Soul, Big Data, The Lone Below, The Sword, Ariel Pink, and more, 3:30 p.m., Saturday, May 9, Panther Island Pavilion, 395 Purcey St., Fort Worth, http://untapped-festival.com/ftw/, $32-$65 Untapped is reliably a beer swiller's heaven. Throughout the year it pops up in four cities across the great nation of Texas: Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and Dallas. The main pull other than the dozens of craft beers on tap for sampling is always the music. This time around the Native Tongues veterans De La Soul headline the festival, with Big Data, the Lone Below, the Sword, Ariel Pink and more rounding out the bill. HDB
Dirty South Rydaz With J Whoa, DJ Ju$trill, Laydee Savage, AV The Great, The Outfit, TX, Kottonmouth and Rey T, Fat Pimp, 7 p.m., Friday, May 9, at Trees, 2708 Elm St., $25 After five years away, the perennial Dallas rap group Dirty South Rydaz are rising from the ashes and dusting off their throwbacks to make some new music. Before the process is complete, they've gotta do a welcome reunion show. The crew of Big Tuck, Tum Tum, Double T, Fat B, Lil' Ronnie and Addiction head to Trees to make all of us millennial rap fans a little bit nostalgic. There's also a little bit of the new school in the mix as well. The bill is clustered like a festival, but be on the lookout for AV the Great and the Outfit, TX if you aren't already familiar. HDB
Tony Bennett 8 p.m, Friday, May 8, at Winstar World Casino, Thackerville, Oklahoma, 1-800-622-6317 or winstarworldcasino.com, $55-$95 Tony Bennett was born in the year 1926. He was able to see jazz in its heyday with his own eyes, and in New York city at that. By the time he was a teen he was smoking jazz cigarettes with jazz musicians in the city. Even at his now-advanced age, he still packs a punch with a great voice singing standard tunes and some of his own. Last year, a bit of a surge of youth came his way with a fantastic duet album with Lady Gaga. Bennett is a national treasure and you'd be a fool not to see this master at work. HDB
Stoney LaRue 8 p.m., Friday, May 8, at Lone Star Park, Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, 1000 Lone Star Parkway, Grand Prairie, 972-263-7223, $5-$20 Stoney LaRue was born in Taft, Texas, which is basically Mexico. Actually all of Texas is kind of Mexico. Anyway, he moved to Stillwater and picked away at becoming a prominent red dirt country mainstay. LaRue, since he smartly packed up and headed north, has released four studio albums and two live projects. He's relatively well known by fans of the red dirt, subgenre of country, but he's got some crossover appeal that may come his way. Last year he sang some back up vocals on a Miranda Lambert song. HDB
Father With, Maxo Cream, Crit Life, KC$B, Team Next, Marlee the Hippie, 8 p.m.,Saturday, May 9, The Prophet Bar, 2548 Elm St., http://www.thedoordallas.com, $20-$25 At any given moment, there's something interesting brewing in Atlanta, Georgia. At the present moment the most interesting thing is the fact that Gucci Mane is releasing more albums than most people do in their entire careers from prison. What's going on here? Aside from that, there's this crew Awful Records who have taken a do-it-yourself sensibility, married it with rap and sprinted with it through the finish line and don't seem to be turning back any time soon. The marquee name among the band of misfits is Father, who earned the rap Internet's adoration last summer with "Look At Wrist," a wryly hilarious bass-thumping tune. Through the midst of loosies and innocuous albums Father is perhaps one of the most interesting rappers out at the moment, and fellow Awful Records cohort, KeithCharles Spacebar, who released he's debut project, We're All a Little Triflin', isn't trailing too far behind with his brilliant head bopping production. HDB
Homegrown Festival With Spoon, Old 97's, Shakey Graves and more, 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 9, at The Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St,., homegrownfest.com, $33 Even if you harbor a certain fondness for Texas' state-wide culture of self-regard, listening to the same jokes about the "bipolar weather down here" and the size of our food platters and pickup trucks can get more than a little tiresome. But if there's ever a right way to celebrate local pride, a day of live music acts with tangible reasons to love our not-so-humble state is it. The sixth year of Homegrown Music and Arts Festival sports a couple of pretty big names in Spoon and the Old 97's, and the rest of the docket should be interesting as well, even if you're not ready to secede from the Union. Among them, acts like old-school soul vet Bobby Patterson and dance-fusion upstart Wrestlers provide a wider variety of sounds and styles than non-Texans would expect from the Lone Star State, and all you parents out there can get your under-10 kids in free. Just remember to be responsible for your little ones, folks -- I know how Rhett Miller's jams can get the party going. Brian Peterson
Lana Del Rey With Courtney Love, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 9, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, 1818 First Ave., 214-421-1111 or gexaenergypavilliondallas.com, $25-$79.50 As a musician, crafting an alternate ego is an idea nearly as old as music itself. But Lizzy Grant's constructed persona of Lana Del Rey has proved confounding to her many detractors (or shall we say "haters?"), as the line between her genuine and farcical selves tend to blur. Even before this iteration of herself, Grant performed as Sparkle Jump Rope Queen, further separating the musician from the individual. But with last year's Ultraviolence it became undeniable that her listless ennui was not only self-aware, but concrete evidence of her abilities as an erudite songstress. Her shadowy, veiled vocal delivery coats a thick layer of gloom on her pastiches of '60s and '70s pop, with enough modern twists to make it her own. But be warned about reading into her lyrics too critically. Although her prose, like her persona, frequently embodies a "tragic beauty," she also offers such insights as, "That's not what this bitch wants/Dope and diamonds/ Diamonds/Diamonds, diamonds, diamonds/That's all that I want, man." We'll give her the benefit of the doubt, though, and assume that's Rey, not Grant, speaking. Matt Wood
Lord Huron With Leon Bridges, 8 p.m. Sunday, May 10, at South Side Music Hall, 1135 S. Lamar St., 214-421-2021 or gilleysdallas.com, Sold out Lord Huron will be taking over the South Side Music Hall on May 10 in all of their rustic, bearded glory. After the wildly successful reception of their debut album Lonesome Dreams in 2012, Michigan-bred, Los Angeles-based, Lord Huron are at it again with their newest release, Strange Trails. Released last month, the 14-track production is an intimate journey into hauntingly seductive folk-rock. The band's lyrics evoke images of pioneers crossing treacherous terrains in search of their lost loves. Or maybe Vikings. It may just me, but I get a pretty definite Nordic warrior vibe when listening to this band. Also, I hear these guys bust out an electronic theremin for some of their newer tracks, and who doesn't like some theremin action? Providing opening support for Lord Huron is Fort Worth's own R&B It-boy, Leon Bridges. Since scoring a record deal with Columbia Records last Christmas, Bridges has been taking audiences by storm with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show and South By Southwest. Critics have hailed Bridges as the answer to the industry's need for something new and sincere with hints of nostalgia - and Bridges has all of it, wrapped in a youthful, dapper, 25 year-old package. With influences from Gospel to R&B and soul, Bridges is and artist worth showing up early for. He may even steal the show. Molly Mollotova
Sufjan Stevens 8 p.m., Sunday, May 10, at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St., $40-$45 Sufjan Stevens is a marquee name in the lo-fi indie folk genre. Hailing from the great withering American city of Detroit and a quaint city in the northern part of the state, Stevens first came into prominence nearly a decade and a half ago with the debut album, A Sun Came. Throughout the years, his greatest contribution to the world of music is probably having St. Vincent in his touring band, but his latest album, Carrie and Lowell, named after his parents, is being revered as his best yet. HDB
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