Erykah Badu has been lighting up the internet this week. First there were tweets between the Dallas songstress and Nikki Minaj that set off a frenzy of speculation of a collaboration between the two. Then there were selfies of her with Andre 3000 backstage at ONE Musicfest in Atlanta, which…
Byron Neal paced the floor of the Nasher Sculpture Center Monday night like a man possessed, dripping sweat and spitting rap lyrics into a microphone. Neal, known as Lord Byron, slithered and darted through the crowd and accidentally wrapped the microphone cord around people’s feet, but he didn’t seem to…
Vanilla Ice Eith Tone-Loc, 2 Live Crew, Young MC, Christy Ray and Tyler Sloan The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 Throwback concerts are a mixed business. More often than not, they can be gimmicky affairs, sad cash grabs propped up by audience participation and samplings of others artists’…
Brightly painted surrealist faces grin, jeer and snarl at passers-by under the neon sign that heralds the entrance to Club Dada – a club that sits on Elm Street just shy of where it intersects with N. Crowdus Street. The masks, fabricated by local artists, have been there for 30…
It’s been a tumultuous summer for the arts community. Artists and gallerists have been embroiled in a battle with the fire marshal’s office, which has shut down many art events this summer over ambiguous certificate of occupancy issues. Now many of the same outspoken arts advocates are protesting the potential…
Concert promoters. You may not know who they are, but if you attend shows in Dallas you certainly know their work. They’re the behind-the-scenes people who make live music happen, curating lineups, negotiating terms with band or agents and marketing the shows. They know the scene as well as anyone…
A rainbow-colored assortment of macarons displayed in tidy rows and columns are presented in a long glass display case at Joy Macarons on Greenville Avenue. This particular macaron shop, Joy’s second location, opened two months ago and specializes in making macarons in the French style, which doesn’t require cooking the…
What looked like giant shards of glass were suspended from the ceiling at odd angles and pulsating with hyperactive designs. Entering the room was like stepping inside a broken mirror that reflected psychedelic electronic images, immersing the viewer in a frenetic visual pingpong. Eric Trich was the man behind the disorienting…
A centrifuge, lasers and roto-vaporizors are typical instruments found in a chemistry lab, not in a cocktail bar — unless the bar is Hide, set to open on Elm Street in Deep Ellum by the end of 2016. Hide’s website promises to serve “cocktails clarified,” and it’s not just a…
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…
The bar and music venue formerly known as The Underpass, tucked under I-30 in Expo Park, is getting a remake. Now under new ownership, it’s set to reopen this fall as The Dirty 30, for the namesake highway above it. It’s the brain-child of long-time bassist for the rock band…
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…
Frustrations with the recent closings of art spaces by the fire marshal reached a boiling point on Tuesday as nearly 100 artists, gallerists and others close to the matter assembled in the auditorium at the Central Public Library. The discussion got heated as some artists lashed out at city officials…
Many of Dallas’ most popular bars are known for being grimy and grungy. Stained carpets, peeling paint and cracked upholstery on banquets that are falling apart; all are hallmarks of true watering holes. But there may be no more harrowing experience than when it comes time to brave the bathroom…
Nearly 100 miles north of Dallas are two casinos that host some of the biggest touring acts to come through the North Texas area. Dolly Parton, Amy Schumer and Willie Nelson will all play one of these casinos in 2016 and never get closer than that to Dallas. Others, like…
There’s a shop full of motorcycles in various states of disassembly at the intersection of Highways 183 and 35E. The inside looks like a motorcycle graveyard but it’s really a place for resurrection, where bikes are taken apart, repaired, painted and put together under a completely new skin. Two guys…
There’s an old rust-colored bus that’s seen better days parked on the property of Strokers Dallas. Strokers is a combination custom motorcycle fabrication studio, showroom, auto repair shop, bar, restaurant and tattoo parlor on Harry Hines Blvd near Love Field. The bus, dubbed Sugar Magnolia, is purported to be the…
If you didn’t know to look for it, you’d never know RBC was there. The club is tucked away at the end of a long walkway behind Twisted Root Burger Co. on Commerce Street, in Deep Ellum. But the unobtrusive location belies this venue’s backstory, one full of ambition, failure,…
I Love the ’90s Tour With Salt-N-Pepa, Coolio, Rob Base and more Verizon Theatre, Grand Prairie Saturday, June 11, 2016 The Verizon Theatre drew a throng of 30 and 40-somethings on Saturday night as the I Love the ‘90s Tour descended on North Texas for a one-night show. The show…
It’s Saturday night and there are six women sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the stage of Louie Louie’s Piano Bar in Deep Ellum. Beside the women, who are celebrating a birthday, there are two pianists playing “Dick in a Box.” A guy who looks very much like Jason Schwartzman circa 2007 gyrates…
