10 Best Concerts of the Week in North Texas: Culture Club, Smashing Pumpkins, The Offspring and More

The stars will align this entire concert week at Dos Equis Pavilion. With five of the week's 10 best concerts happening there, music lovers may want to consider an extended stay somewhere near Fair Park. It's an impressive lineup of artists, such that we haven't seen in a single week at a single venue in years. It all begins with '80s pop and a concert from Culture Club and Berlin on Thursday, moves into '70s arena rock with Foreigner and Loverboy on Friday, then it's nu metal from the '00s with Mudvayne and Coal Chamber on Saturday, '90s pop punk with The Offspring on Sunday and finishes up with alternative rock from The Smashing Pumpkins and Interpol on Tuesday. Dallas will also see a concert from Los Lobos on Friday, and on Saturday you can catch Sparta in The Cedars, Underøath in Deep Ellum or James McMurtry in Denton. Finally, it's a night of legends in Irving when Trombone Shorty, Ziggy Marley, Mavis Staples and Robert Randolph play Sunday night.
Los Lobos
7:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 11, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $45+ at dallassymphony.org

Los Angeles-based Chicano rock band Los Lobos had its biggest hit in 1987 when the band's cover of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" became an international hit. Popular as the song was, the cover doesn't do a lot to introduce uninformed listeners to Los Lobos' signature sound. Beginning all the way back in 1973, Los Lobos became dissatisfied playing cover songs from Top 40 radio and began playing the Spanish-language songs with which its members grew up. Over time, the band combined the sounds of South America and North America into something that was truly unique in the late '70s, and found a home in LA's early punk scene where all bands that didn't fit the mold went to grow. In 2021, Los Lobos took home the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for the band's 17th album, Native Sons. The South Austin Moonlighters has been announced for the band's show.
Boy George & Culture Club
7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 10, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $20+ at livenation.com

Along with Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and The Smiths, Culture Club emerged out of the U.K.'s New Romantic movement in the early 1980s. What set the band apart from others in the movement was its charismatic and androgynous frontman, Boy George. George's sexual ambiguity and fluid sexuality shocked the mainstream press at the time, making him and the band lightning rods for the tabloid press. The band also stood out from the pack musically by incorporating elements from reggae and calypso music, giving its sound a lighter and smoother vibe than the dark, brooding atmosphere created by its counterparts. The band released four albums in the '80s, but it has toured and released new material sporadically since 1986. The band's last album, Life, was released in 2018, which was the last time they toured North Texas. Culture Club's The Letting It Go Show tour will have opening support from Howard Jones and Berlin.
Foreigner
7 p.m., Friday, Aug. 11, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $29.50+ at livenation.com

Led by guitarist Mick Jones since 1976, Foreigner was crucial in the development of the arena rock sound that came to define the late 1970s and '80s. Its songs were massive both in sound and sales. Fronted by singer Lou Gramm, the band scored massive hits with "Jukebox Hero," "Cold As Ice" and "Hot Blooded" among others, but it's perhaps best known for the power ballad, "I Want to Know What Love Is." The band continued to release material into the '90s, but it came to a halt in 1997 when Gramm underwent surgery to have a brain tumor removed, and anyone who has seen Foreigner's Behind the Music episode on VH1 will remember how close the singer came to dying. Gramm left the band in 2003 after attempting to tour while his medications weakened his singing voice. Since 2005, singer Kelly Hansen of Hurricane has provided vocals for the band. Loverboy opens Foreigner's Historic Farewell Tour.
Underøath
5 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 12, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $39+ at axs.com

Last year, Florida metalcore band Underøath released Voyeurist, the band's ninth album in 25 years of existence. The album was the first the band has released after four years of studio silence — the longest gap the band has had without a record without breaking up. The group must have used the time wisely because Voyeurist was met with nearly universal acclaim. For this technologically advanced and visceral record, the band took the reins on producing the album itself, and it is a gamble that paid off. A study on the nature of life and death, Voyeurist has been called Underøath's most cohesive and coherent record by Kerrang magazine, and it will likely resurface at the end of the year when critics pick their best-ofs. Underøath is currently on a co-headlining tour with LA metalcore band The Ghost Inside and will have opening support from We Came As Romans and Better Lovers.
Mudvayne
5:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 12, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $35+ at livenation.com

Like a nu metal dream, The Psychotherapy Sessions Tour passes through Dallas Saturday night. The concert will be headlined by Mudvayne, who were known for bending the musical standards of the genre, particularly the complex bass lines by Ryan Martinie. Mudvayne was one of the most popular metal acts of the 2000s, but went on hiatus in 2010 as singer Chad Grey and guitarist Greg Tribbett turned their focus to heavy metal supergroup Hellyeah, which was founded in Dallas in 2006 by late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul. Mudvayne returned from hiatus in 2021 with its classic lineup still intact to co-headline the Freaks on Parade tour with Rob Zombie. For its first headlining tour in 15 years, Mudvayne gathered an incredible list of bands to set the mood for the night: Coal Chamber on its second reunion tour, theatrical shock-rockers GWAR, underrated metal band Nonpoint and metalcore band Butcher Babies.
Sparta
6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 12, South Side Music Hall, 1135 Botham Jean Blvd. $25 at seetickets.com

Founded by Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar of At the Drive-In, Sparta came to life in 2001 after the dissolution of their former band. Sparta released three albums in the early 2000s before going on a 14-year break from recording. During those years, Sparta released two singles and went on a couple of tours, but otherwise there was very little to be said about the band. While Ward remains as the only former At the Drive-In member left, the current lineup includes longtime bass player Matt Miller and returning guitarist Gabriel Gonzalez. New to the group is drummer Cully Symington, who played with the rest of the band on its 2020 release Trust the River. Though the record was a long time coming, Trust the River picked up right where the band left off so many years ago with Sparta's signature post-hardcore sound. Sparta will have opening support from Geoff Rickly, Zeta and Odd Folks.
James McMurtry
8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 12, Dan's Silverleaf, 103 N. Industrial St., Denton. $20 at prekindle.com

James McMurtry has been a welcome sardonic voice in country music for over 30 years now with songs such as "Levelland" and "We Can't Make It Here" standing as time-tested anthems of dissatisfaction with country life — told with wit, wisdom and wry humor. In August 2021, McMurtry released his 10th studio album, The Horses and the Hounds, which was met with universal acclaim and heralded for its three-dimensional characters and thoroughly engaging storytelling. McMurtry writes lyrics that reward those who listen closely for the punchline, which shouldn't be difficult with the singer's crisp (albeit misanthropic) delivery. That's not to say that McMurtry is a misanthrope, but it's transparently clear that some people really draw the singer's ire. We're still waiting for his next set of songs, but before then you can see him in Denton with Austin singer-songwriter BettySoo opening the show.
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
6:30 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 13, The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory. 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving. $35+ at livenation.com

On Sunday night, the sound of New Orleans is coming to the Toyota Music Factory with a headlining performance from Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Mentored by jazz greats such as Wynton Marsalis, New Orleans native Troy Andrews has been leading bands since he was teenager, releasing his first independent album Trombone Shorty's Swingin' Gate in 2002 at the age of 16. Andrews has also played in the horn sections of many famous acts such as Lenny Kravitz, U2 and Green Day. Trombone Shorty released his 12th album as a band leader this past April, which is his second on the famed jazz label Blue Note Records. The opening track to Lifted, "Come Back," has been receiving heavy radio play at KXT since its release, and with a sound so engaging, who can blame the station? Trombone Shorty will be playing after sets from legendary performers Ziggy Marley, Mavis Staples and Robert Randolph.
The Offspring
7 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 13, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $29.50+ at livenation.com

Regardless of how "punk rock" you think The Offspring may or may not be, the undeniable truth is that if the band hadn't released Smash in 1994, there probably wouldn't be an Epitaph Records as we know it. That album, along with Green Day's Dookie, brought punk into the mainstream, and it was the first album from an artist on Epitaph's roster to go platinum. It remains the best-selling album for the label. It's easy to write off The Offspring as the band that plays "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" and "Why Don't You Get A Job?" but let's not forget that this is also the band that plays "All I Want," "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" and "Gone Away." (If you haven't heard the piano version of "Gone Away" from 2021, you're seriously missing out.) Fans in attendance will get to see Dallas' own Brandon Pertzborn in his hometown debut with the band when the Let the Bad Times Roll Tour with Sum 41 and Simple Plan comes through.
The Smashing Pumpkins
6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 15, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $32+ at livenation.com

There was a time in the mid-'90s when The Smashing Pumpkins was the most important band on the radio. The band's epic 28-song double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a defining album for Generation X with its highly conceptual song list chronicling the cycle of life and death. The album birthed four of the band's biggest hits, "1979," "Zero," "Tonight, Tonight" and the album's lead single, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." The opening lyrics of that lead single are where the band got the title for its current The World Is a Vampire Tour, but that's just a clever name. Rather than another album anniversary show, fans can expect to hear songs from across the Pumpkins' catalog including its most recent album Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, which is a sequel to Mellon Collie and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God. Interpol and Rival Sons open the show.