Weezer With Fitz and the Tantrums The Reunion Friday, October 9, 2015 In the midst of the Austin City Limits festival and Texas/OU weekend, Weezer provided a formidable concert on a breezy Friday night at The Reunion, proving they still have the magic after all of these years for power-chord…
When is a dance party not a dance party? When it’s a dark music party. Or more precisely, when it’s a dark music party hosted by goth/punk DJ Oliver Sheppard. Enter Wardance, a post-punk series and the only party of its kind in Dallas. It’s fine to dance at Wardance,…
A project to bring some color to the streets of Deep Ellum has created murals of a dozen elephants, jacks and rubber balls, iconic scenes that are representative of contemporary Dallas, a mural based on a 1938 picture of downtown Dallas, what looks like the child of Andy Warhol and…
Mötley Crüe With Alice Cooper and the Cringe American Airlines Center Wednesday, October 7, 2015 For all the promotion that this is Mötley Crüe’s final tour, their nearly-two hour set Wednesday night didn’t quite come across as a farewell. Rather, it was a band that essentially played their Decade of…
As Joel Cross walks into East Side bar in Denton, one bar patron announces, “Joel Cross, ladies and gentleman.” A few others around him erupt in applause. Cross grins and visits with them. This is old hat for the local guitarist, a well-known figure in the city’s music and bar…
Yvette Gbalazeh performs street rap on a street corner in Deep Ellum. Two body piercers provide the beat, while a panhandler watches her performance, a protest in support of legalization of medicinal marijuana in Texas. The 33-year-old marijuana activist usually holds a cardboard sign that reads “Will Rap 4 Weed.”…
Good Records has hosted many great in-store signings and shows, but Tuesday night, they made rock ‘n’ roll history when all of the surviving members of the Alice Cooper Group played an 8-song set. On Monday, rumors floated around that the former Vince Furnier would join guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist…
The landscape could be more inspiring in the southeast part of Denton where AV the Great grew up and still lives. There is a huge cemetery, a juvenile detention center, the county courthouse and jail, and the alternative school. These are the day-to-day surroundings of families, what they are accustomed…
Bryan Gonzalez DJs under the moniker B3. B3 is part of a small number of musicians in the area who play in bands in addition to DJing. He plays in the Dallas-based and Dallas Observer Music Awards-nominated band Mayta. Gonzalez’s DJ game is a whole other ball of wax. His…
On Monday morning, superstar Kendrick Lamar teasingly posted a photo on Instagram of a flier for the 1st Annual Kunta’s Groove Sessions tour. It was accompanied with a caption that read, “8 cities. 8 nights. 8 intimate shows.” Speculation swirled as to which eight lucky cities would be treated to…
alt-J With San Fermin South Side Ballroom, Dallas Monday, October 5, 2015 The appeal of alt-J’s music has always seemed a little mystifying. They may have one the Mercury Prize with their very first album, but their take on vocal harmonies and metering is a little odd, and their lack…
Last Tuesday, 15 year-old Chance Peña walked out onto NBC’s The Voice stage for a blind audition in front of four celebrity coaches. To say the lanky Tyler, Texas native was nervous would be an understatement. But midway through his cover of “I See Fire” by Ed Sheerhan, celebrity coach Adam…
A few years ago, Sean Kirkpatrick wasn’t sure he would make another record. He openly talked about it when Fake Infinity, his second record with Nervous Curtains, was released in 2012. The keyboardist/vocalist wasn’t making bold declarations; he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another grand presentation of recording…
With the 27th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards just around the corner — in fact, voting is open right now at 2015musicawardspoll.dallasobserver.com — we’re looking to spend the next several weeks taking the opportunity to highlight some of the nominees for this year’s awards. And when we say that these…
Brand New With Manchester Orchestra The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, October 3, 2015 Brand New is a band that lives with many reputations. To the die hard fans, they’re known as being a frustratingly reclusive bunch who has shied away from releasing new music for nearly six years now and…
We’ve all had those nights in college that get a little out of hand, but in Denton recently, a seemingly minor drama during a show at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio got real-world serious pretty quick. Like, with lawyers and everything. A disagreement between the venue owner and Denton creative group the…
Thanks to the grace of trickle-down festival economics, this week is absolutely stacked with bands coasting off the momentum of Austin City Limits Fest and passing through Dallas. And let’s face it, unless you’re independently wealthy and capable of buying a VIP festival ticket with some sort of personal bathroom and…
The Decemberists With Olivia Chaney Majestic Theatre, Dallas Friday, October 2, 2015 There were four phases to the Decemberists’ sold-out, two-hour set at Majestic Theatre on Friday night. The first part was a Colin Meloy solo set, then a lengthy portion of straightforward full-band material, then a full-on prog rock…
Neon Indian With the Outfit, TX and Roger Sellers The Bomb Factory, Dallas Thursday, October 1, 2015 If a little time was all Alan Palomo and the newest incarnation of Neon Indian needed to execute last night’s performance at The Bomb Factory, then so be it. From the get go,…
Alan Palomo is back in Texas, and he’s in a pretty good mood about it. It’s a Tuesday night and he’s getting ready for a show in town very close to Austin called Manor. A few year ago he left Austin, having lived previously in Denton, for New York City…
Going to prison isn’t usually the best start for a bright future. Mass incarceration has resulted in hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders that crowd jails and lack access to basic services that could lead to rehabilitation. But for Brooke Humphries, prison was, in fact, a blessing in disguise…
It’s hard to say where St. Vincent is going to pop up next these days. Chances are, it’ll be somewhere that makes us jealous if it’s not Dallas. Last we heard from the artist otherwise known as Annie Clark, she jumping onstage with Taylor Swift in Los Angeles to do…
