It's an exciting week for music in North Texas with local favorite Ottoman Turks attempting to set a world record by running through four Deep Ellum dates this weekend. But even if you're not up to speed on what's good locally, there's still plenty to be excited about. For one thing, The Weeknd is bringing his high-concept stadium tour through town Sunday night. North Texas will also get to relive some '00s teenage angst on Friday night, see a half dozen '90s bands rock the house in Grand Prairie, enjoy a night of iconic '80s acts in Irving and a country legend in Fort Worth and experience the magic of Los Lobos on Greenville Avenue. Things mellow out as the concert week ends with Father John Misty in Deep Ellum, Local Natives in Victory Park and Incubus in Fair Park. This is the kind of concert week that doesn't have much of a unifying theme, but then again, that's why we put our playlists on shuffle, isn't it?
Ottoman Turks
7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, Three Links, 2704 Elm St. $15 at seetickets.us
7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, AllGood Café, 2934 Main St. $10 at prekindle.com
9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, Double Wide, 3510 Commerce St. $10 at prekindle.com
7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, Twilite Lounge, 2640 Elm St. TBA
As a nod to the Old 97's tour of Deep Ellum in 2001, the high-energy, alt-country band Ottoman Turks will be playing four shows in four nights at four venues across the Dallas entertainment district. The band will kick things off Thursday night with a raucous show at punk club Three Links with opening support from '70s-rock throwback King Clam and alt-rock band CLIFFFS. Friday, the band will slow things down a bit with a more intimate show at AllGood Café with some special guests. At Double Wide on Saturday, the band will be kicking out the jams again with a little help from Hooks & the Huckleberries and Charlie Blake & the Good Medicine. Finally, on Sunday, the Turks will once again play a stripped-down set with special guests in the small performance space of Twilite Lounge. The band has stated on social media that they will be announcing special guests for the Friday and Sunday shows soon.
Dog Days of Summer Tour
6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, Texas Trust CU Theatre, 1001 Performance Place $25+ at axs.com
If you long for the days of alternative radio from the '90s, Grand Prairie is your end-of-week destination with six nostalgic names taking the stage with classic sing-alongs from simpler times for the Dog Days of Summer Tour. The lineup consists of Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum, Sister Hazel, Deep Blue Something, The Nixons and Sponge, playing back-to-back sets for the jam-packed night. To review, Spin Doctors scored two big hits in the '90s with "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong," Soul Asylum's runaway hit was "Runaway Train," Sister Hazel had its moment with the folk-rock hit "All for You," Deep Blue Something sang "Breakfast at Tiffany's," OKC alt-rockers The Nixons brought the melodrama with "Sister" and Sponge's 1994 classic Rotting Piñata produced the hits "Plowed" and "Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)." Now that's what I call '90s alternative.
Three Days Grace
6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd. $30+ at livenation.com
Love them or hate them, Canadian hard rock band Three Days Grace has had some real staying power over the last 20 years. Coming out strong in 2003 with the anthemic "I Hate Everything About You," Three Days Grace's debut, self-titled album went double-platinum in the U.S. as did the the single itself. After extensive touring, Three Days Grace came back even harder and stronger on its next album with "Animal I Have Become" and "Never Too Late" earning the band two more double-platinum hits. The platinum and gold hits kept coming until 2013 when lead singer Adam Gontier abruptly left the band to pursue other interests. With My Darkest Days lead singer Matt Walst standing in Gontier's place, the band has released three albums — the most recent being the band's May release Explosions. Metalcore band Wage War and rapper Zero 9:36 open the show.
Rick Springfield
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd. $30+ at livenation.com
Rick Springfield had spent nearly a decade as a solo artist before scoring his first big hit. As a guitarist, Springfield got his first gig playing with the Australian pop rock band Zoot before striking out on his own with his aptly named debut Beginnings in 1971. His debut and next three albums would circulate through the rock shelves of the English-speaking world with a song or two making it on the air, but all that changed in 1981 when Springfield released Working Class Dog and its lead single "Jessie's Girl" became an international sensation and earned the singer his first Grammy Award. While music history may look down on Springfield as a one-hit wonder, that has never stopped the artist from writing and recording music. Last year, Springfield released an album with his power-pop band The Red Locusts, and this year you can see him live with opening acts Men at Work and John Waite.
Los Lobos
7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis St. $38+ at prekindle.com
Los Angeles-based Chicano rock band Los Lobos had its biggest hit in 1987 when the band's cover of Richie 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 and North America into something that was truly unique in the late '70s, and found a home in L.A.'s early punk scene where all bands that didn't fit the mold went to grow. Earlier this year, Los Lobos took home the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for the band's 17th album, Native Sons. Americana band The South Austin Moonlighters opens the show.
Vince Gill
10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, Billy Bob's Texas, 2520 Rodeo Plz. $40+ at axs.com
Vince Gill's virtuosity as a guitar player has been his calling card since long before the singer took to the stage as a solo artist. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, a young Gill got his big break when he took over vocal duties for Southern rock band Pure Prairie League in 1979. Before then, Gill had done his time playing in small bands such as Kentucky's Bluegrass Alliance and in backing bands for bluegrass giants Rickey Skaggs and Byron Berline. Though Gill's time with Pure Prairie League would only last a couple of years, he managed to sing lead on one of the band's better-known tracks, "Let Me Love You Tonight," in 1980. Gill moved from Pure Prairie to once again back singers such as Rodney Crowell and David Grisman before finally striking out on his own as a solo artist in 1984 with his debut album Turn Me Loose. Releasing his 15th album, Okie, in 2019, Gill still knows how to write a good ol' fashioned country tune.
The Weeknd
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, AT&T Stadium, 1 AT&T Way. $110+ at seatgeek.com
The Weeknd's most ambitious production since spending $7 million of his own money on his Super Bowl LV halftime show appearance, the After Hours til Dawn Tour passes through Arlington with the singer supporting both his 2020 album After Hours and his 2022 album Dawn FM. The two albums form the first two parts of a trilogy, and the singer's performance will piece together the story the audience has seen in fragments in TV performances, music videos and short films. The Weeknd's set will consist of songs from the singer's entire catalog, including the early mixtapes with which the artist established his indie street cred. The tour was originally scheduled with Doja Cat in the opening slot, but the rapper/singer withdrew due to a recent tonsil surgery. In her place, The Weeknd brings Swedish singer Snoh Aalegra and hip-hop record producer Mike Dean along to open the show.
Father John Misty
7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $44+ at axs.com
Father John Misty (aka Joshua Tillman) has come a long way since he stepped out from behind the Fleet Foxes' drum kit in 2012 to make it on his own as a solo artist with the intention to pick up the pace a bit from the slow, sad songs of his previous band. Though his first tracks weren't all that much happier than the Foxes' material, Tillman began working behind the scenes with artists such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi and Post Malone, expanding both his musical endeavors and his audience. Earlier this year, Tillman released his fifth album as Father John Misty, Chloë and the Next 20th Century, inspired by the sounds of big band, jazz standards and traditional pop. The album was praised by critics who likened the album to Randy Newman's Sail Away for its cinematic quality and time-transcending songwriting. English singer and actress Suki Waterhouse will be Tillman's supporting act.
Local Natives
6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $33.50+ at livenation.com
Indie rock band Local Natives came together in Orange County when, in 2005, three high school friends — Kelcey Ayer, Ryan Hahn and Taylor Rice — teamed up to start a band. The trio played together throughout their college years but didn't start taking their music seriously until they graduated from college, picked up a bass player and a drummer and moved to a house in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. After moving, the band went straight to work on its first release, titled Gorilla Manor after the nickname of the band's house where all the music was written. Released in 2010, Gorilla Manor was an immediate success in transatlantic indie music circles, earning a "Best New Music" rating from Pitchfork and a slew of positive reviews from U.K.-based magazines. Since then, Local Natives has released three more albums and an EP, never venturing too far from where it started but somehow never seeming to sit still either.
Incubus
6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, Dos Equis Pavilion, 1818 First Ave. $25+ at livenation.com
Before breaking through to the mainstream, California alt-rock band Incubus had served their time as the mid-level band opening for bands like 311 and Sugar Ray and playing early sets at Ozzfest. While the group's first two albums, Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.C.E., remain fan-favorites to this day, it was around the turn of the century when Incubus made their first big impression on the American music scene. The intergalactic love song "Stellar," the ode to spontaneous combustion "Pardon Me" and the song that caught everybody's ear, "Drive," all made the 1999 album Make Yourself a must-have in CD visors across the country. The band's follow-up album, Morning View, made a similar impression with songs like "Wish You Were Here" and "Nice to Know You." Since the beginning, Incubus has always been known to put on a great live show, and Wednesday night's show with Sublime with Rome and The Aquadolls is sure to not disappoint.