10 Best Concerts of the Week: Queen + Adam Lambert, Skinny Puppy, Mudhoney and More

Concert experiences come in many shapes and sizes, and this concert week has a size and shape for all. The week kicks off with an opportunity to give back for all those who are riding high on the Texas Rangers postseason. For those looking to go back in time, there is a lot of nostalgia coming through this week with two shows from Queen + Adam Lambert at the American Airlines Center, Skinny Puppy's final tour coming through the House of Blues, The Fixx at the Granada, Mudhoney at Sundown at Granada and the Legends of Hip Hop in Grand Prairie. If you're interested in getting the most back from your concert experience, St. Paul & The Broken Bones will be shaking down downtown Dallas, Lil Uzi Vert shakes up The Cedars and LiL Lotus shakes Deep Ellum to its core. And that's not even all in store for you this week.
Derek Holland 60 Feet 6 Foundation Event
5:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, Lava Cantina, 5805 Grandscape Blvd., The Colony. $25+ at eventbrite.com

If the Texas Rangers postseason has you in the spirit of giving, consider spending Thursday night with former Rangers pitcher Derek Holland at a charity event for his 60 Feet 6 Foundation. Named for the distance between the pitcher’s mound and home plate, the foundation offers direct financial support to charities. This event, to benefit the Children’s Cancer Fund and One Tribe Foundation, will offer performances by red dirt country artist Stoney LaRue with singer-songwriter Bryce Hensely, a former minor-league baseball pitcher. The music starts at 7 p.m., but be sure to get there early for some dinner and drinks inside Lava Cantina before the show. The event will also have outdoor vendors, a silent auction and raffle tables.
Noname
7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $39.50+ at livenation.com

Slam poet Noname had been making a name for herself in the performance spaces of Chicago for years when she met an up-and-coming rapper going by the moniker Chance the Rapper at the YOUmedia project at the Harold Washington Library. Chance put her on the track "Lost," on his breakthrough album, Acid Rap. Since then, Noname has taken a page from Chance's playbook by self-releasing her first mixtape as well as her debut album and sophomore effort, Sundial, which came out this past summer. Noname's work straddles the line between jazz rap and neo-soul, fusing the street smarts and political consciousness of hip-hop with the transcendent and healing power of soul. Noname's Sundial Tour will also see a performance from STOUT, a soul artist from New Haven, Connecticut, who has impressed fans and critics alike with her voice and incredible range.
Queen + Adam Lambert
8 p.m., Thursday and Friday, Nov. 2–3, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $79.50+ at ticketmaster.com

Nobody will ever replace Freddie Mercury, which is why, beginning in 2004, the surviving members of Queen didn't even try to pass the touring band off as anything other than Queen + Paul Rodgers. That's right, before turning to American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, Queen's members toured with the singer of Bad Company. Adam Lambert came into the picture when Queen's members performed "We Are the Champions" on the Season 8 finale with Lambert and Kris Allen, who won that season. The champion for Queen, it seems, was Lambert, who has been touring as the group's singer for over 12 years now. Queen's original guitarist, Brian May, is still leading the music with original drummer Roger Taylor providing the backbeat. So, no, nobody will ever replace Freddie Mercury, but Queen's music lives on with rhapsody.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. $35+ at axs.com

An eight-piece soul band from Birmingham, Alabama, St. Paul & The Broken Bones had been playing around the state for only a couple of years when they caught the attention of Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes. Tanner had been starting to flex his production muscles on what would become the Shakes' final release, Sound & Color, but as that album developed, he took on the project of reining in the sound of eight musicians, producing the band's first full-length album, Half the City. Over the course of the last decade, St. Paul & The Broken Bones has expanded its sound with every subsequent release. Last spring, the band released its fifth full-length album, Angels in Science Fiction, which adds a bit of psychedelia to the its special blend of rock 'n' soul — a blend that should sound incredible with the Majestic Theatre's acoustics. Maryland soul and country singer Maggie Rose will be there to open up the show.
LiL Lotus
6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 3, Three Links, 2704 Elm St. $20+ at seetickets.us

Born in Dallas and raised in Pleasant Grove, rapper and singer John Elias Villagran III went by Tremor as an acoustic performer before adopting the name LiL Lotus and focusing on emo rap influenced by the sound of GothBoiClique. Since 2016, Lotus has become one of the leading voices in the emo rap movement, though he considers the genre to be an updated version of the emo genre itself. The artist has also dabbled in metalcore, forming the band If I Die First in 2020. Lotus' music shares the intensity of metalcore and the fatalism of screamo, making for a dark and depressing blend of music that is perfect for releasing pent-up negativity. LiL Lotus returns to his hometown for a show in Deep Ellum with LA rock band In Her Own Words, emo rapper sace6 and OKC alt-indie artist London Mars.
Legends of Hip Hop
8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 3, Texas Trust CU Theatre, 1001 Texas Trust Way, Grand Prairie. $59+ at axs.com

You've really got to appreciate this new trend in the growing genre of classic hip-hop where a bunch of your favorite rappers from back in the day just take over a theater for a night trading off songs cipher-style and just keeping it going for a few hours. This Friday brings yet another opportunity for such an event with the Legends of Hip Hop, this time with DJ Quik, who helped popularize the G-funk sound of West Coast hip-hop in the mid-'90s, on the 1s and 2s. Joining them will be a handful of artist representing southern hip-hop: Juvenile from New Orleans, 8Ball & MJG from Memphis, Goodie Mob from Atlanta and Scarface and Bun B from Houston.
Mudhoney
9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 4, Sundown at Granada, 3520 Greenville Ave. $27.50 at prekindle.com

There's a scene in the 1996 comedy classic Black Sheep in which Mike Donnelly (played by comedic genius Chris Farley) crashes a Rock the Vote event for the Washington gubernatorial race in which his brother is running. He is dragged on stage by Seattle band Mudhoney when they mistake Donnelly for his brother. Before the hilarity ensues, the audience hears just a bit of what was then an unreleased track, "Poisoned Water." The song would be released on 1998's Tomorrow Hit Today. It was probably the moment the spotlight shined brightest on Mudhoney in its 35 years. The band was instrumental in the formation and formulation of grunge music in Seattle at the same time Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam were all coming up in the world. Mudhoney stayed behind, keeping its mission pure and its lyrics honest. The band's 11th album, Plastic Eternity, came out this past April.
The Fixx
7 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 5, Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave. $35+ at prekindle.com

We tend to think of English bands of the 1980s as hugely successful across the pond but one-hit wonders in the States. Bands like Madness, Modern English and Soft Cell come to mind. Such is not the case with London-born rock band The Fixx. Though the band has performed and recorded consistently since 1979, The Fixx is probably best known for its output on MCA Records between 1982 and 1986. In that four-year span of time, the band released four chart-topping albums on the strength of eight top-20 U.S. singles; meanwhile, the same albums and same singles barely registered on the U.K. charts. What is perhaps even more striking about The Fixx is that while many bands from that era still tour under their famous name with only one or two of the core members, The Fixx remains the same band it has been since 1983. Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton opens the show.
Skinny Puppy
7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $49.50+ at livenation.com

Eight years since its last tour, celebrating its 40th anniversary and kicking off the second leg of its final tour, Canadian electro-industrial rock pioneers Skinny Puppy will play Dallas one last time Wednesday night in Victory Park. Founded in 1982, Skinny Puppy started as a side project for Images in Vogue percussionist Kevin Crompton (aka cEvin Key), but it became a full-time project when vocalist Kevin Ogilvie (aka Nivek Ogre) joined on. The group took on several other members before breaking up in 1996, but since it got back together, multi-instrumentalist Mark Walk has been backing Crompton and Ogilvie on whatever they need him to play. As a band, Skinny Puppy has influenced literally everything you've heard that is scary, mean and electronic. From Nine Inch Nails all the way to Death Grips, Skinny Puppy's influence can be heard as much as it can be felt. Opening for Skinny Puppy is Lead Into Gold, the side project of former Ministry bassist Paul Barker.
Lil Uzi Vert
8 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, South Side Ballroom, 1135 Botham Jean Blvd. $115+ at ticketmaster.com

Philadelphia artist Lil Uzi Vert began rapping at the age of 15 in 2010 while still in high school. At that time, the rapper (who uses they/them pronouns) went by the name "Sealab Vertical," but changed their name to "Lil Uzi Vert" after hearing someone describe their delivery as "fat, like a machine gun." At the age of 19, Lil Uzi Vert broke through to the mainstream along with a wide array of other rap artists derisively called "SoundCloud rappers" or worse, "mumble rappers" due to their tendency to use unclear vocals. What mumble rap's critics saw as a degradation of rap's emphasis on lyrics overlooked what rappers like Lil Uzi Vert were doing with the stylistic choice. Traditional rap's emphasis on lyrics bolstered the bravado of the genre, but so-called mumble rappers used this vocal uncertainty as a means of reflecting the internal struggles its performers encountered in their lyrics. The microgenre still has its detractors, but Lil Uzi Vert still attracts audience through their unending innovation.