10 Best Concerts of the Week: Alice Cooper, LL Cool J, Jonas Brothers and More

There's an incredible mix of music heading into North Texas this week, and it all begins with a heavy Thursday night. Your concert week kicks off early in Fair Park with the Freaks on Parade Tour. Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band play on one side of town and LL Cool J and his F.O.R.C.E. tour plays the other. Things don't slow down on Friday, either, when 50 Cent makes his Final Lap through Fair Park. That night will also see L.A. Guns showing its evolution from '80s glam metal in Deep Ellum, and across the neighborhood Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol tears up Double Wide. Saturday, rock goddess Pat Benatar plays in Grand Prairie with husband Neil Giraldo. Next week will see ska punk band Less Than Jake coming to town as well as the Jonas Brothers, but if you're looking for something a little bit weird, you're going to want to see the Rock'N'Roll Cannibals. Have no fear and get into gear, a whole new concert week is here.
Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper
6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $25+ at livenation.com

In what is now becoming an annual tradition, Rob Zombie's Freaks on Parade 2023 Tour rolls into Fair Park this Thursday, and this time Alice Cooper, Ministry and Filter are along for the ride. With Zombie releasing new music sporadically, he has mostly become a touring act as his directorial duties have taken over much of his time. His latest album, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, came out in 2021, and his reboot of The Munsters series premiered the following year on Netflix. Cooper will perform the day before the release of his 29th studio album, Road, which was recorded without overdubs to showcase the talent of his band. That same day, Filter will be releasing its first new album in seven years, The Algorithm. Ministry joins the tour ahead of the release of its 16h studio album, Hopium for the Masses, which is due next year.
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
7:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $66+ at basshall.com

Born in Houston in 1957 and a college roommate of Robert Earl Keen at Texas A&M, Lyle Lovett has been living Texas music from the very beginning. Winner of four Grammy Awards, Lovett has had a career that's never showy, but it's always been packed with talent — whether that's the talent of his songwriting or the talent of many musicians that make up his Large Band. Lovett's songwriting has always been incredibly deep for being so plain-spoken. It's as if his words are prairie proverbs to be meditated on. Perhaps this is why Lovett was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Houston. Last year, Lovett and his Large Band released their first album in 10 years, 12th of June. This will be his last date with his Large Band this year before he plays a couple of acoustic shows in the Southwest and closes out the year doing duo tours with John Hiatt and Leo Kottke.
LL Cool J
8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, Dickies Arena, 1911 Montgomery St., Fort Worth. $27+ at ticketmaster.com

Earlier this year, LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James) set out on his first headline arena tour in 30 years. The F.O.R.C.E.  (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy) live tour puts LL Cool J together with a mix of hip-hop artists from across the decades and subgenres of hip-hop history. The tour is not a celebration of any album new or old, but rather, a celebration of how far hip-hop has come. Joining LL Cool J will be woman rap pioneer MC Lyte, the live instrumentation of The Roots, influential lyricist Rakim, hip-hop collectives Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Goodie Mob, Southern rappers Big Boi from Atlanta and Juvenile from New Orleans as well as DJs Jazzy Jeff and Z-Trip. Instead of a traditional concert format, the show will go on as a nonstop musical mash-up with artists performing one continuous musical set backed by The Roots.
50 Cent
6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 25, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $39.50+ at livenation.com

On May 4, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson announced that he would launch a global tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. The Final Lap Tour will see the rap icon performing dozens of fan favorites and chart-topping hits. Special guest and longtime friend Busta Rhymes will be supporting 50 Cent, as will R&B singer Jeremih. 50 Cent has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, leveraging his star power to break into other career paths as an entrepreneur, actor, director and executive producer. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ became one of the fastest-selling albums in history thanks to singles "In Da Club" and "P.I.M.P.," either of which you're probably rapping in your head as you read this. This won't be 50 Cent's farewell, but he has said that this is likely to be the last tour of this magnitude.
L.A. Guns
7:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 25, Trees, 2709 Elm St. $26 at axs.com

While everyone remembers LA metal bands like Guns 'N' Roses and Mötley Crüe, many forget about L.A. Guns. The band was never as successful as the others, but they packed all the same power that made those bands great. L.A. Guns  broke the Billboard Hot 100 only twice, once in 1989 with its best-known song "The Ballad of Jayne" and again in 1991 with "It's Over Now." The band also saw minor success with songs "Kiss My Love Goodbye," "Some Lie 4 Love" and "Rip and Tear," but has minor success ever stopped the band? No. In April, L.A. Guns released its 14th album, Black Diamonds, which is a far cry from the glam metal sounds of the '80s. In fact, it takes more inspiration from the hard rock of the '70s. L.A. Guns will perform Friday night after sets from Dallas groove metal band Bezel and Dallas alt-metal band Empiires.
Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol
9 p.m., Friday, Aug. 25, Double Wide, 3510 Commerce St. $12 at prekindle.com

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol may have a silly name, but the hard rock band from Austin is responsible for some pretty serious music. According to the band's bio, it "taps into a 'genus' of rock styles," which feels like an accurate description when listening to the band's latest album, DOOM-WOP. A portmanteau of doo-wop and doom metal, two genres on opposite ends of rock 'n' roll's emotional spectrum, the music on the album is neither. Instead it manages to be a bit of all that's in between. Heavy, trippy, bluesy and steamy, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol captures a little bit of everything that brings people to the table of rock and serves it up just right. Perhaps a band name reminiscent of a favorite food truck isn't the silliest after all. In celebrating all things rock, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol will have local support from heavy psych band Sunbuzzed and indie-rock band Dome Dwellers.
Pat Benatar
8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 26, Texas Trust CU Theatre, 1001 Texas Trust Way, Grand Prairie. $39+ at axs.com

A 2022 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Pat Benatar made her first mark on rock music in 1979 when In the Heat of the Night hit the stands. That first two singles from that album barely got off the ground, but when the single for "Heartbreaker" came out that October, everything changed. Benatar became the female face of rock music in the early '80s, especially after her second album, Crimes of Passion, was released. The single "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" sent the album to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200, making it a 4-time platinum album. Benatar's last big single came in 1983 with "Love Is a Battlefield," which showed that she could do atmospheric pop as well as she could rock. Somewhere along the way, Benatar married her guitarist, Neil Giraldo, and the two have continued to write, record and tour together to this day.
Less Than Jake
6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 29, Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave. $21+ at prekindle.com

For over three decades now, Less Than Jake, the American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida, has brought fun, excitement and energy everywhere it goes. Last year, the band went on a co-headlining tour with our very own Bowling for Soup supporting its latest album, Silver Linings, which came out during the pandemic year. This year, the band's Welcome to Rockview Tour 2023 looks back at the its breakthrough 1998 release, Hello Rockview, which helped build up the pop-punk genre on the foundation laid down by Green Day, The Offspring and Blink-182. Though Less Than Jake is rarely put into the same category as these three, however, after listening to "All My Friends Are Metalheads," you may change your mind. Less Than Jake will be playing the penultimate show of its tour in Dallas with opening support from NYC ska legends The Toasters and all-female punk band The Venomous Pinks.
Rock'N'Roll Cannibals
7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, Andy's Bar, 122 N. Locust St., Denton. $10 at prekindle.com

Eat. Laugh. Pray. Beg. None of these things will save you from Denton's saviors of psychobilly, Tristan Thorndyke's Rock'N'Roll Cannibals, who are coming to eat you and everyone you love. For those unfamiliar with the “psychobilly” genre, just imagine a T-Bone Walker with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins aesthetic. While the genre may seem morose with its energetic songs about death and serial killers, those in attendance at Andy's Bar Wednesday night will see that it is all pretty tongue-in-cheek. Once a Denton band, and coming back from Las Vegas and Death Valley, the Vincent Price of rock 'n' roll and his fiendish minions will be debuting never-before-heard songs from their upcoming album Carne Pleasures. The band's friends, Hen and the Cocks, will be delivering mind-blowing, girl-fronted punk rock after The Denton Tarantinos open the night with riveting surf music.
Jonas Brothers
7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 30, Globe Life Field, 734 Stadium Dr., Arlington. $39.95+ at ticketmaster.com

OK, so maybe only Nick was born in Dallas, but North Texas will always claim the Jonas Brothers as its own. Starting their careers with appearances on the Disney Channel in 2005, the Jonas Brothers quickly captured the full attention of the pop music world, touring with the likes of Kelly Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys even before they released their first album. That album, It's About Time, and the band's next three came out annually from 2006 to 2009, but then deep rifts and creative differences plagued the young band, causing them to split up in 2013. After six years of darkness, the Jonas Brothers announced a new, grown-up album and 92-date tour in 2019, which seemed to have healed whatever fractures may have existed. This week, the Jonas Brothers make their way back on the "Five Albums. One Night." tour, which will see the brothers and their backing band tackle songs from their albums and their members' solo efforts.