Mike Graff

Hal Samples Benefit

Friday, August 10, at Dada

The Kessler's Melissa Hennings Tends Bar and Shoots Your Favorite Bands

See also: Kessler front-of-house man Paul Quigg finds a niche in Oak Cliff Melissa Davis Hennings stumbled into photography, really: Her first shot was The Black Keys. But taking photos of local bands isn't how she makes ends meet. She's the bar manager at The Kessler, an ideal gig for someone with ... More >>

Dada Turns One, Willie Nelson at Billy Bob's Texas and This Weekend's Shows

​It feels kind of weird writing the words "Dada turns one," seeing as the place has been a Dallas rock and roll institution since I spent my Friday nights watching TGIF. Granted, that was only up until a few years ago, but the place has been around forever. In 2010, however, it closed and with a n ... More >>

B.B. King at Billy Bob's Texas, The Boom Boom Box at La Grange, and More Show Announcements

​It's a far cry from B.B. King's legendary 1968 performance at Fillmore West in San Fransisco, where the story has it that he was booed by black audience members. But, as he's done many times since, King is returning to perform at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth on Saturday, February 25.Tickets fo ... More >>

Here Holy Spain remembers the Galaxy Club, among other first shows

​ With plans for a follow-up to this year's acclaimed Division, 2012 looks good for pop-punk trio Here Holy Spain. To tide you over, they have a song on this year's Idol Christmas compilation called "God-Damn This Christmas." As the band wraps up the year, all three recently shared with us t ... More >>

Casey Hess of Descender and Doosu Names His All-Time Top Five Deep Ellum Bands

Casey Hess​Casey Hess of the Dallas Observer Music Awards-nominated Descender (Best Hard Rock Act) is -- perhaps too quietly these days -- one of Dallas' great rock heroes. Since his stints in a few influential and popular area bands going back to the 1990s glory days of Elm, Main and Commerce, fe ... More >>

Good Friday: The O's, The Hope Trust, Reverend Horton Heat, The Sword, Jonathan Richman, Lynch Mob, The Boom Boom Box, Dax Riggs, Max Bemis, Plain White T's & More!

Allison V. SmithThe O's​It's hard to put your finger on an actual date when The O's will officially celebrate the release of their new album, Between The Two. The hilarious duo, who we caught up with in this week's print edition, have already played a handful of release shows this week, but Club D ... More >>

Good Friday: Moondoggies, Ume, The O's, Sarah Jaffe, The Cool Kids, New Science Projects, Chris Johnson, The Virgin Wolves, Menkena, Bob Schneider, 30 Seconds To Mars & More!

Moondoggies​Despite having a terrible name, Moondoggies' brand of Americana and alt-country is surprisingly good -- so good that, last month, the Seattle quartet's song "What Took So Long" was featured as NPR's song of the day. While drawing some comparisons to Fleet Foxes, their four-part har ... More >>

Show Announcements: Prince, Menkena, Sarah Jaffe, Toro Y Moi, Victor Wooten, Mike Watt & The Missingmen, Hayes Carll, Underoath, New Science Projects & More!

​As Robert already mentioned a few days ago, Prince will be here soon, reliving his much blogged-about 1984 concert at Reunion Arena on Friday, February 4. One minor snag, though: Reunion Arena was demolished a few years back. No matter -- the show must go on. Prince will set up a huge tent on the ... More >>

Good Friday: Ben Kweller, Rhett Miller, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Os Mutantes, Deerhunter, Best Coast, Monotonix, Delorean, Magic Kids, Alejandro Escovedo, Bill Frisell, Suicidal Tendencies, DJ Shadow, Merle Haggard, Tumbledown & More!

Ben Kweller punching the bottom of Rhett Miller's head--for Cystic Fibrosis​This weekend's concert calender is abnormally full to the brim, but the show we're maybe most excited about is Ben Kweller and Rhett Miller's Cystic Fibrosis benefit concert at Granada Theater. Two of the biggest local ind ... More >>

Show Announcements: We Shot JR Is Dead, Justin Townes Earle, Bosque Brown, Brave Combo, Telegraph Canyon, Three Days Grace, Overscene, Jason Isbell, Nelo, K-Ci & JoJo, Course Of Empire, Black Tide & more

Steve SatterwhiteWe Shot JR's Stoned Ranger is about to close the book after a five year run.​We talked a little about the demise of Denton's blog We Shot JR last month when they announced that the end is near. Well, on the blog's last day, Saturday, October 30, hipster and all-around nice guy Fre ... More >>

Good Friday: KBFB-97.9 FM The Beat's Custom Car Show, Analog Rebellion, Dead Twins, Goo Goo Dolls, Switchfoot, Green River Ordinance, The Budos Band, Tanya Morgan, Brave Combo, More!

​This weekend marks 97.9 The Beat's sixth annual custom car show, which will take place on Sunday, August 22, at the Dallas Convention Center. This year, the event's headliners are Gucci Mane, Ice Cube, Waka Flocka Flame, Plies, Bun B, Trina, Slim Thug and a man who will definitely show off his ic ... More >>

Giveaway: Two Pairs of Tickets For Pleasant Grove, Mike Graff And Derek Rogers At The Kessler Saturday

​Pleasant Grove will be at The Kessler in Oak Cliff Saturday for a very special performance. Not only is it a rare (reunion?) show for the band that for years has been either broken up or on the verge of breakup, depending on who you ask, but they'll be performing their album Auscultation of the H ... More >>

Giveaway: Three Pairs of Tickets to Tomorrow Night's Slobberbone Show at the Granada

Saturday night's kind of crazy-filled with shows from locals-done-good: There's the Toadies (with support from The House Harkonnen and The Burning Hotels) celebrating Feeler at the Palladium; there's Pleasant Grove (with support from Mike Graff and Derek Rogers) at the Kessler; and then there's a li ... More >>

Giveaway: One Pair of Tickets To See James Hall, Bobgoblin, The Boom Boom Box and New Fumes Tonight At The Kessler

​If you've spent a few minutes talking about music with Jeff Liles, chances are at some point he brought up one of his favorite performers, James Hall, formerly of Pleasure Club and Mary My Hope, with descriptions of an intense live show that borders on religious revival. So it's little surprise t ... More >>

Good Friday: Brent Best, Telegraph Canyon, Greg Schroeder, Bob Log III, Brave Combo, The Hold Steady, The Whigs, True Widow, Dove Hunter, The O's, Rodeo Ruby Love, Mini Kiss, Second Saturdays and Others!

Larry Brown​American writer Larry Brown was born and grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. His works caught the eye of Alejandro Escovedo, who often played back-up for Brown during his public readings. Brown passed away in 2004, but Brent Best, Chris Welch, and Isaac Hoskins will celebrate his birthday ... More >>

Good Friday: The Orbans, The Slow Burners, Doug Burr, Johnny Winter, Shallow Reign, Florene, Darktown Strutters, The King Bucks, Lovedrug, The Prids, Concrete Blonde and More.

The Orbans​The Orbans might be the best band to come out of Fort Worth in a short while. After years of sharpening his songwriting in various bands (Thief, The Lifters), singer, Peter Black has finally finished his best album yet: When We Were Wild. Tonight, the album (which features this song) wi ... More >>

Show Announcements: Summer Series, Wildflower Festival

Patrick MichelsThe King Bucks at last year's Barefoot At The Belmont Series​We are standing on the brink of the summer season, and with the unbearable heat comes the obligatory summer outdoor live music series. The heat is inevitable, but the Belmont Hotel and the AT&T Performing Arts Center a ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: Carter Albrecht Was Ready For His Close Up

Hal Samples Carter Albrecht I was not ready to do this. For a couple of weeks, I've tried to mentally prepare myself to write a proper story about Carter Albrecht's Jesus is Alive... and Living in London, the recently-released solo album that he was in the process of finishing at the time ... More >>

Echoes and Reverberations: When 'The Summer of Love' Meant Sex In a Club

"Are you one of the beautiful people? Is my name on the list? I want to be with the beautiful people... I wanna feel like I'm missed..." Eels - "Guest List" I went to high school with a kid named Greg Holman. His father was a painter named George, who lived in the old Expo Park space that l ... More >>

Another Near-Reunion: Course of Empire

Well, OK, so it's not completely a reunion...or much of one at all, really. But, still, a real treat coming up tomorrow night at Club Dada, as part of Sunward's month-long artist-in-residency: After opening sets from Young and Brave and Sunward, three members of Sunward (frontman Doug Kershaw, bass ... More >>

A Reel Good Time Promised Tomorrow Night at Kettle Art

It's gonna be Saturday, oh, tomorrow, and you ain't got squat to do? Um, you will, actually, because it's time for Kettle Art to work the reels once again. That's right, you're spending Saturday on Elm Street.The Deep Ellum Enrichment Project returns with "Hopelessly Devoted to You II," the second a ... More >>

Good Friday: The Halloween Weekend Edition

Jingle Bell Jock

The Ticket rocks and other notable news

The Fraternal Order

Laughs, rock and a 7-foot ninja: The Golden Falcons

The Piano

This Week's Day-By-Day Picks

Talented Success

The Mermaid Purse is a supergroup, sort of?

Scene, Heard

We've been trying to tell people for months

Scene, Heard

Where there's glass, there's theft

Across the Bar

Post from Vermont is returned to sender; Who is A Quick One; The Cavern experiments; The Volares get good print

Liberation front

Two local Web sites hope to bring Dallas music to the world

Nothing but static

Broadcast Data Systems listens to the radio so you don't have to

Run its Course

A decade later, Course of Empire utters its last words

Punk angst debunked

Darlington does the twist

1995 Dallas Observer Music Awards (Part II)