10 Best Concerts of the Week: Pixies, Fall Out Boy, Emperor and More

Like this week's forecast, the coming concert week is an absolute scorcher. Thursday comes in hot with rapper Ab-Soul bringing some of LA's finest rhymes to one side of Deep Ellum while The Goddamn Gallows invites the other side to a hellbilly hootenanny. That same night, Gorrilla Biscuits takes Fort Worth to hardcore's old school. The next night in Fort Worth, Los Lonely Boys brings some Latin heat to Billy Bob's Texas. Over the weekend, So What?!? Music Festival invites you to sweat it out Warped Tour-style in Fair Park. Dirty Heads chill down your Saturday evening in Irving as the Pixies burn it up. Take your time to hydrate Sunday and Monday because on Tuesday, Wavves takes Fort Worth to the beach. Wednesday sees the hottest concert of the week with Fall Out Boy at Dos Equis Pavilion and the most cold-blooded with Emperor at South Side Ballroom.
Ab-Soul
7 p.m. Thursday, June 22, The Studio at The Factory, 2727 Canton St. $27.50 at axs.com

Before Kendrick Lamar was the rapper we know him as today, he was part of a Southern California hip-hop collective known as Black Hippy, which technically never disbanded. The collective never put out an album either. It’s likely that you have noticed many of Lamar's songs feature the names Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q and Ab-Soul. Though he was often seen as the least visible member of Black Hippy, Ab-Soul had actually released his breakout album Control System to much acclaim five months before Lamar released his breakthrough album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, in 2012. At that time, Lamar would describe Ab-Soul as a genius, while Schoolboy Q heralded him as a human dictionary. Though Ab-Soul remains the least visible member of Black Hippy, he also remains its most intellectual. The rapper brings his The Intelligent Movement Tour to Deep Ellum with Houston rapper Fre$H warming up the crowd.
The Goddamn Gallows
7 p.m. Thursday, June 22, Three Links, 2704 Elm St. $30 at seetickets.us

For nearly 20 years now, Portland band The Goddamn Gallows has stood at the crossroads of punk and bluegrass, crafting songs about death, the devil and any other demented thing the band could conceive of and brimming with the kind of dark humor you'd expect from a band named The Goddamn Gallows. Now, you may ask yourself how a show like this could get any more interesting — but wait, there's more. Opening for The Goddamn Gallows is a new alt-country band out of Tennessee called IV and the Strange Band. Why is that interesting? Because "IV" is the Roman numeral for the number 4, and in this case, the number is a reference to band leader Coleman Williams' place in line behind his great-grandfather Hank, his grandfather Hank Jr. and his father Hank III — a lineage heard loud and clear in the band's first single "Son of Sin." Nashville indie-rock duo Volk opens the show.
Gorilla Biscuits
7 p.m. Thursday, June 22, Tulips, 112 St. Louis Ave., Fort Worth. $35+ at prekindle.com

Taking its name from a street term for quaaludes, New York hardcore band Gorilla Biscuits released just one EP and one full-length album in its time gracing the city's grittiest stages. But as punk bands like Operation Ivy, Minor Threat and Sex Pistols have proven, the amount of output doesn't make a punk legend. Gorilla Biscuits formed in the image of the bands they saw at CBGB. Bands like Agnostic Front and Youth of Today inspired Gorilla Biscuits to sing out on topics that immediately affected the New York hardcore community with lyrics that were pointed and powerful. The band broke up in 1991, less than five years after its formation, but it has since taken to touring again with a group of members who actually played in the band during its classic era. Gorilla Biscuits kicks off its Texas Weekend tour in Forth Worth with Bitter End, Strange Joy and Urn.
Los Lonely Boys
7 p.m. Friday, June 23, Billy Bob's Texas, 2520 Rodeo Plaza, Fort Worth. $30+ at axs.com

There's just something about Los Lonely Boys' music that makes you happy. With a sound that seamlessly joins together rock 'n' roll, blues, soul, country and Tejano, the trio of brothers from San Angelo made their first impression on the national music scene with the inescapable single "Heaven." With blood harmony in vocals and instrumentation, Los Lonely Boys have a way of pleasing even the pickiest of audiences. The band is currently on its first headlining tour since 2019, when bass player Jojo Garza announced that he was leaving the group. Exactly one pandemic later, Garza had changed his mind, and the band opened for The Who on select dates in 2022, Dallas being one of them. The band hasn't released any music since a 2016 cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou," but they are sure to have something in the works Friday night in Fort Worth.
So What?!? Music Festival
Noon, Saturday – Sunday, June 24–25, Fair Park, 3710 Parry Ave. $78.71+ at seetickets.us

Van's Warped Tour may be long dead and gone, but the memory and spirit of the annual festival lives on in music festivals like So What?!?, which will be taking over the Warped Tour's old stomping grounds in Fair Park this weekend. The festival presents the latest and greatest artists from the worlds of hip-hop and punk and the galaxy of sub-genres each has produced over the years. Many local bands will play in the festival's early hours, including Ballista, Nygma and deepincision, which will set the stage for the festival's international and touring acts. Headlining this year's festival is iconic screamo band The Used, which is touring in support of its new album, Toxic Positivity. Welsh pop-punk band Neck Deep will be playing its only U.S. festival date. There will also be a rare live set from electronic duo Breathe Carolina, and post-hardcore band Thursday performs its major-label debut, War All the Time, in its entirety.
Dirty Heads
6 p.m. Saturday, June 24, The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving. $41+ at livenation.com

Honestly, it's surprising that the Dirty Heads have done this well. When singer Jared "Dirty J" Watson, guitarist Dustin "Duddy B" Bushnell, drummer Jon Olazabal and bassist David Foral put out the college radio-ready album A Port in Any Storm in 2008 and didn't follow it up with anything for half a decade, it seemed like the band that didn't take itself too seriously, seriously hadn't. However, in that span of time Dirty Heads toured extensively, taking notes firsthand from the folks in O.A.R., 311, Pepper, Kottonmouth Kings, Matisyahu and their heroes in Sublime With Rome. As time has passed, the band's membership has grown, and what started as a crunchy band to catch a groove has evolved into a full-on psychedelic project complete with horns and keys. Dirty Heads are currently touring with Yelawolf, G. Love & Special Sauce and Tropidelic.
Pixies
7 p.m. Saturday, June 24, South Side Ballroom, 1135 Botham Jean Blvd. $79+ at ticketmaster.com

Few bands have had an impact on popular music like Boston alternative rock band Pixies. In 1986, the band became known for its "loud-quiet-loud" song structure, mixing elements of surf and punk rock to create a sound that would come in crashing, mellow out and fall into chaos again. Between 1988 and 1991, the band released four essential albums in the alternative music catalog, inspiring hundred of bands to do their own experiments with the "loud-quiet-loud" dynamic, among them being North Texas' own Toadies. The band broke up in 1993 and stayed broken up for about a decade as its members pursued other projects. Pixies toured for another decade before coming out with a new album, Indie Cindy, in 2014, shortly after the departure of original bassist Kim Deal. The group is currently touring in support of its eighth album, Doggerel, with Franz Ferdinand and Bully.
Wavves
7 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, Tulips, 112 St. Louis Ave., Fort Worth. $25 at prekindle.com

Over a decade ago, Wavves released its iconic King of the Beach album, and to celebrate, the band is taking it back out on tour. The San Diego band had released two albums prior to King of the Beach, each one dripping in lo-fi noise-rock built for skaters like those who graced the covers of those albums. The third album was different, though. While the band maintained its deep connection to the lo-fi aesthetic, King of the Beach was anything but. Noisy, poppy and surfy, yes, but lo-fi? Absolutely not. Along with Grammy-winning producer Dennis Herring and Jay Reatard's rhythm section — Billy Hayes and Stephen Pope — behind him, singer and guitarist Nathan Williams turned King of the Beach into a blueprint for many surf-rock bands to come. Midwest emo revival band Cloud Nothings and California post-punk band Ultra Q will be opening up for Wavves.
Fall Out Boy
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $49.50+ at livenation.com

Fall Out Boy itself would tell you that its success story was highly unlikely. In its early years, Fall Out Boy could barely keep a band together, much less stick with a name. At one early show, bassist Pete Wentz introduced the band with some really long and forgotten emo name when a disgruntled fan yelled out in consternation, "Fuck that, no, you're Fall Out Boy!" The band finally settled on a lineup leading up to its first release, Take This to Your Grave, in 2003, and that is the lineup playing today. From 2005 to 2008, the band released three hit albums before becoming completely burnt out and taking a four-year hiatus. The band came back in 2013 and has been taking a much slower pace to its music production. Fall Out Boy will be supporting its eighth album, So Much (for) Stardust, which came out earlier this year. Bring Me The Horizon, Royal & the Serpent and Daisy Grenade open the show.
Emperor
7 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, South Side Ballroom, 1135 Botham Jean Blvd. $47+ at ticketmaster.com

Norwegian black metal band Emperor's story may not be as well known as that of its friends in Mayhem (depicted in the 2018 film Lords of Chaos), but it is just as full of murder and church burnings. The band's co-founder and current guitarist, Samoth, served 16 months in prison for burning down a church when it became popular in the early Norwegian black metal scene. Former drummer Faust served 14 years for stabbing a man to death in a forest. The next day, Faust burned down a church with Euronymous of Mayhem and Varg Vikernes of Burzum — of course, this was about a year before Vikernes would stab Euronymous to death. Emperor has toured on and off for over 20 years without any intention of releasing new material, stating that it would hurt the band's integrity to do so. The band plays in The Cedars Wednesday night with black metal bands Devil Master from Philadelphia and Antichrist Siege Machine from Richmond, Virginia.