10 Best Concerts of the Week: Peter Gabriel, Ben Folds, Nick Cave and More

Let's not waste any time with introductions, because this week is absolutely stacked. Your concert week kicks off with the return of art rock legend Peter Gabriel on Thursday night at Victory Park. Friday brings with it a few decisions to make. That night Baroness will be playing the Design District, the No Coast festival will be kicking off in Denton, Los Lonely Boys come to the Longhorn, Ben Folds plays the first of two shows in the Arts District and Nickel Creek brings bluegrass to the Majestic. On Saturday, Folds and No Coast go for round two, and the ArtsGoggle festival takes over Magnolia Avenue in Fort Worth. Sunday comes with the somber tone of Nick Cave, who closes out the weekend downtown. The new work week starts with an emo show in Denton, and on Wednesday, The Dandy Warhols close out the concert week with some satire. OK. That's a lot of information all at once. Let us explain below.
Peter Gabriel
8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 19, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $66.50+ at ticketmaster.com

In 2002, art rock legend Peter Gabriel released his seventh studio album, Up. The album was well received, but it just didn't quite capture the spirit or the legacy of Gabriel's prior work. Gabriel was the lead singer of Genesis when it was a progressive rock band — before drummer Phil Collins took it over and turned it into a pop band. Gabriel was an audio-visual pioneer in the '80s and '90s, and immediately following the release of Up, he set to work creating its follow-up, i/o. In the interim, Gabriel released an album of covers and an album of orchestral versions of his previous work. Now, 21 years in the making, i/o is scheduled to be released this December, though 10 of its 12 songs have already been released as singles. Listening through the singles, it is clear that this is Gabriel at his peak creativity — the Gabriel of early Genesis, the Gabriel of So. Playing in an arena, the show is certain to be a spectacular audio-visual experience.
Baroness
6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20, The Echo Lounge & Music Hall, 1323 N. Stemmons Fwy. $32.50+ at livenation.com

Grammy-nominated exploratory rock band Baroness will play a smaller, more intimate show Friday night in the Design District. The band's Sweet Oblivion Tour 2023 has opening support from Portrayal of Guilt and Escuela Grind. For over a decade, every Baroness release was named after a color — Yellow & Green, Purple and 2019's Gold & Grey. After the release of Gold & Grey, Baroness announced that it would no longer be naming albums after colors, and it delivered on that promise with the release of this years' Stone, which came out in September. Less expansive than past releases, Stone shows that Baroness can keep things concise as well. While some critics have derided the band for simplifying things, the new release proves that Baroness is never one to maintain the status quo to appease the taste of any particular audience.
No Coast
6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20 & 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 21, Rubber Gloves, 411 E. Sycamore St., Denton. $24+ at nocoastfest.com

Denton's annual No Coast festival will go on this weekend in spite of all the trouble the event has seen. At the end of September, the organizers of the noise-rock festival posted on social media that the event was in danger of not happening at all. Due to sparse ticket sales, some support and headlining acts had to be released from their contracts, and the festival itself was shortened from three days to two. On Friday, attendees will hear from touring bands Big'n, Moon Pussy, Djunah and Cronies as well as local bands Stress Palace and Hoaries. On Saturday, look for local bands Smothered and Partaker; Austin bands Suckling and Pinko; touring bands Kowloon Walled City,  Multicult, Nerver, Cougars, Lovely Little Girls and Mirakler; and making the fest international, Pili Coït from Lyon, France. This is a big festival for the Little D, and it would be a shame to see it go away.
Los Lonely Boys
6:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20, Longhorn Ballroom, 216 Corinth St. $28+ at prekindle.com

There's just something about Los Lonely Boys' music that makes you happy. With a sound that seamlessly joins 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 among them. Just this year, the band broke seven years of studio silence, releasing a new song, "Send More Love," in the summer, followed by a second single, "Dance With Me," in September.
Ben Folds
7:30 p.m., Friday – Saturday, Oct. 20–21, Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $53+ at dallassymphony.org

Back in May, power pop artist Ben Folds gave a special performance at the Kessler Theater ahead of the release of his first new album in eight years, What Matters Most. That concert was totally and completely sold out — no verified resale, no StubHub, sold out. On his return, however, Folds will be playing two nights at the Meyerson Symphony Center, and there are plenty of tickets still available for a venue that is certainly larger than the Kessler, but somehow feels just as intimate. During the past eight years, Folds has spent time writing his New York Times best-selling memoir, A Dream About Lightning Bugs, and launching the Lightning Bugs podcast, an interview series on creativity and the creative process. No opening act has been announced for the two nights, so fans can expect to enjoy a full evening of Folds' music.
Nickel Creek
8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20, Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. $42.95+ at ticketmaster.com

Progressive bluegrass band Nickel Creek released its fifth major-label album last spring, almost a decade after its last album. Even in 2014, A Dotted Line was the first album the band had done since going on hiatus in 2007, and it did little more than bring the band together for a moment before the trio all went off to other projects. Mandolin player Chris Thile became the host of Live From Here on NPR until the show ended in 2020, all while playing with Punch Brothers. Guitarist Sean Watkins both released a solo album and recorded with sister and Nickel Creek fiddle player Sara Watkins as Watkins Family Hour. Sara, meanwhile, also performed with I'm With Her alongside Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan. She also did some studio work playing fiddle for Phoebe Bridgers and The Killers. No telling if the new album, Celebrants, will be another one-off or a whole new start, but it will be beautiful to hear at the Majestic.
ArtsGoggle
Noon, Saturday, Oct. 21, Magnolia Avenue, Fort Worth. Free

Every year, the ArtsGoggle festival brings together musicians and visual artists for a full day of sound and vision on Fort Worth's Magnolia Avenue with 50 or so musical acts from the city's bustling music scene. Attendees can look forward to sets from Cut Throat Finches, Mean Motor Scooter, Matt Tedder, Cool Jacket and many more. Additionally, the festival will see headlining sets from Sir Woman, Ben Kweller and Holy Moly, who will all be playing at 9 p.m. on the three main stages. The main stages will host musicians all day in addition to Magnolia Avenue bars and businesses Boulevard of Greens, Lockwood Distilling Company, The Chat Room Pub, Maggie's R&R, The Magnolia Wine Bar, Boiled Owl Tavern, Grandma's and Twilite Lounge. If that wasn't enough, all of this excitement will cost you nothing but time and gas money, and what a good time it will be.
Nick Cave
8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 22, Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. $79.50+ at axs.com

Returning to Dallas this weekend is avant-pop artist Nick Cave. Cave's long music career began in the mid-'70s as part of the Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party. From the outset, Cave's lyrics always had an undertone of perversion and violence, and when the group disbanded in 1983, Cave formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The sound changed a bit at that point, with Cave embracing more elements from folk and blues — but the searing portraits of unsavory characters never ceased. Aside from the Bad Seeds, Cave put together a few other projects, like his heavy blues band Grinderman and his pandemic project with longtime collaborator Warren Ellis. For this tour, however, Nick Cave is just going to be Nick Cave, solo behind the piano, which is sure to be both haunting and beautiful in a venue as elegant as the Majestic.
awakebutstillinbed
7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 23, Andy's Bar, 122 N. Locust St., Denton. $12 at prekindle.com

Emo band awakebutstillinbed may be based in San Jose, but singer Shannon Taylor hails from right here in Mesquite. The band doesn't come back to Taylor's hometown often, so every appearance in North Texas feels special. The band's last show in North Texas was a last-minute gig at Ruins in 2019. One of the opening bands that night, Denton emo band Record Setter, will be supporting the band this time around as well. Local bands Upsetting and Immigration will also be on hand to help open the show. Since its last North Texas show, awakebutstillinbed released two EPs, in 2020 and 2022, and the Monday night show will see the band supporting its second full-length album, chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger, to be released on Friday, Oct. 20. This will certainly be a night for purging negative feelings and finding something real to smile about.
The Dandy Warhols
7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 25, Ferris Wheelers Backyard & BBQ, 1950 Market Center Blvd. $39.50+ at prekindle.com

The Dandy Warhols have always had a wry sense of humor. Even the band's name adds a comically joyful spin on the name of the characteristically mysterious artist Andy Warhol. The Dandy Warhols' breakthrough song "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" came with a chorus, repeating "I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passé" — one of the many, many takedowns of mid-'90s-era fashionistas on the band's 1997 album, The Dandy Warhols Come Down. It's 25 years later, and The Dandy Warhols are still up to the same tricks. The band's most recent single, "The Summer of Hate" — a song ostensibly about the political strife this country has seen since November 2016 — seems to deliberately go out of its way to avoid speaking on the subject in any depth at all. The Black Angels and Queen Kwong open the show.