Jay Farrar smiled. I’m not joking; he really did. In the middle of Son Volt’s remarkably engaging performance Saturday night at the Sons of Hermann Hall, the notoriously impassive Farrar grinned like a kid getting his first kiss. And why shouldn’t Farrar smile? Honky Tonk, the recent effort from Son…
Can we just take a second to acknowledge that the weather in Dallas-Fort Worth these past couple of weeks has been glorious? Optimal for outdoor shows, BYOB events and the like, the weather should remain this awesome–barring a tornado or two–for a short while longer (before the inevitable Texas summer…
Over the weekend, Rebirth Brass Band packed out Oak Cliff’s Kessler Theater in a sold out show. I arrived early, walking six blocks from Bishop Arts District to the historic venue, because it was a beautiful evening for a stroll in one of my favorite Dallas neighborhoods. On the way…
It is impossible to understand what Scott Hutchison is saying, but that’s part of the charm. On Saturday night at Trees, the Frightened Rabbit front man bantered with the audience between songs, but unless you managed to squeeze your way to the front of the sold out room, his thick…
Danny Brown’s high-pitched flow is so distinct I hear it waft across Elm street into the back patio of Black Swan Saloon, so I know to run across the street. Sprinting into Trees during the opening bars of Witit, the crowd is already jumping along, even the kids I judgmentally…
We’ve got some good ones for ya this week–a nice, healthy blend of genres and artists, ranging from gigantic pop stars to local unknowns; Young DJs to old classic rock legends. This week in April, Dallas is yours for the taking. See also: -The 100 Best Texas Songs: The Complete…
It’s nothing short of astonishing that an ambient Icelandic band who don’t sing in English or write songs in a verse-chorus structure are filling arenas across the US. Some of the next acts to play this same arena are Shinedown, The Lumineers, Styx and the Killers. Sigur Ros are a…
Five short years ago, Grizzly Bear played before a transfixed and adoring audience of perhaps 100 people on the cramped stage of Club Dada. Touring to support their break-through album Yellow House, the band brought to stage the unique and peculiar blend of soaring vocals, tight harmonies, literate lyrics and…
Dallas’ own Drowning Pool has a new album — its first with lead singer Jasen Moreno. He’s the fourth man to fill that spot and the transitions haven’t always been easy or smooth. But the band is clearly comfortable with Moreno. Comfortable enough to take a crack at an unrehearsed…
Editor: April showers, right? But a little water isn’t stopping anyone, which is good because there are excellent shows happening this week. Including the blissfully strange Danny Brown, touring with beat master and unexpected meme star Baauer. -topic and his TeamFromNoWhere are throwing a party on Saturday at Club Dada…
Consider the damn state of things when a songwriter with a decade-plus experience, in front of an adoring sellout crowd at the Granada Theater, says the following halfway through his set: “Alright, we’re gonna do a Harlem Shake video.” Bob Schnedier pulled on a Luchador mask after he said it…
Editor: Welcome to our weekly rundown of our nine favorite shows, all of which are better than this new Lil’ Wayne album. It’s terrible, guys. If you’re looking for loud, head to Dada for The Casualties and awesome friends. If you’re looking for something a little more multi-generational on this…
You, as a resident of Dallas, should know the story of the Relatives by now. For anyone that doesn’t, a quick refresher — formed in the 1970s and dissolved in 1980, the Relatives, led by the Reverend Gean West, left little evidence of a mesh of gospel and funk that…
On the main stage of Billy Bob’s Texas, past the mechanical bulls and the neon lights and the line-dance floors throbbing to the “Cha-Cha Slide,” Randy Travis, the reed-thin king of country, looked out onto the crowd of thousands he still drew in the twilight of his career. Through the…
We’re changing it up here a bit, guys. For the past several months you’ve seen two blog posts outta me each week, breaking up the area’s best concerts into two separate blog posts: Freakin’ Weekday and Freakin’ Weekend. Starting today, you’ll get just one: Freakin’ Week; which is a go-to…
Last night, Eric Clapton and Dallas-born guitarist Doyle Bramhall II set fire to their Stratocasters’ fretboards. Their fingers slid across the neck, bending strings until they bled the blues. Feeding off a musical energy straight from the Crossroads, the talented guitarists empowered some of Clapton’s greatest hits with a musical…
You did St. Patrick’s day. Now you feel rough. If only, you think to yourself, there was some sort of beach where I could relax with a cheap cocktail on the sand and maybe listen to some music. But you’re in Dallas, and you’re at least five hours drive from…
This was my first time braving Greenville for St. Patrick’s. I was expecting it to be bad. What I was not expecting was the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah. As I, the only sober person on the entirety of Greenville, struggled through a crowd roughly comparable to the population…
Snoop Dogg delivered an hour-plus of his finest yesterday on Greenville Avenue for the Observer St. Patrick’s Day Concert. We had a fine contingent of writers there, but I, your highly addled editor, was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-35 on the Megabus headed back from Austin. Throughout the afternoon,…
A spitting, snarling, unbridled Nick Cave stalked McFarlin Auditorium last night, displaying the same unmatched punk fury he’s been doling out since The Birthday Party. Audience members got abused. Cave thrust his crotch everywhere. He sung particularly intense lyrics directly into the faces of people in the front row, leaning…
Tanqueray-and-chronic time is fast approaching, but you’ll need to arm yourself with all the important details before setting off for our sold-out St. Patrick’s Day Concert on Saturday, headlined by a little rapper named Snoop Dogg. Here are the answers to your many questions. Got more? Ask them in the…
The tech crew is rushing around to get things started. Some of them are on the floor, frantically trying to get the fog machines going, and others are hanging from the ceiling checking the ginormous speakers from above. The fog begins to fill the stadium and the lights begin to…
