10 Best Concerts of the Week: New Order, SZA, Queensrÿche and More

Get ready to make some decisions, North Texas, because eight concerts from this week's list are taking place on Friday and Saturday night. The concert week kicks off, however, as the rain clears Thursday night when post-punk pioneers New Order play Deep Ellum. Live music fans have two very different shows to choose from in Victory Park on Friday as Static-X headlines a night of metal at House of Blues and SZA sings her heart out at AAC. In Fort Worth that night, psychobilly band The Meteors tears up The Rail Club while Hayes Carll serenades Tannahill's. Playing both Dallas on Friday and Fort Worth on Saturday is new wave icon A Flock of Seagulls. Things get harder on Saturday, with concerts from Queensryche in Dallas, The Beths in Fort Worth and Reverend Horton Heat in Deep Ellum. The concert week wraps up with Future's One Big Party Tour on Sunday night.
New Order
6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $84+ at stubhub.com

There are few bands touring that have had as great an impact on the music world as the band from Salford, England, know as New Order. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Joy Division, the legendary progenitor of the post-punk, gothic rock and new wave genres, vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris formed New Order in 1980, building musical skyscrapers on the foundation Joy Division had established. New Order's first two albums, Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies, especially captured the sound that would dominate the music we often associate with the '80s with their heavy synths, electronic drums and melodic bass. Hook will not be on the current tour as he is off playing Joy Division songs somewhere on his own, but Sumner, Morris and original keyboardist Gillian Gilbert will be there to make everything sound authentic. DJ Little Martin opens the show.
Static-X
5:30 p.m. Friday, March 10, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $116.99+ at livenation.com

The last couple of times Static-X came through town the focus wasn't really on the band. In 2019, the band toured in honor of the 20th anniversary of its breakthrough album, Wisconsin Death Trip. The band had lost its original singer, Wayne Static, a few years prior and had replaced him with an enigmatic, robotic figure known only as Xer0. The next time the band came to town was in support of Rob Zombie and Mudvayne's Freaks on Parade Tour. This year, however, Static-X is coming to town as headliners on the Rise of the Machine Tour ahead of the release of Project: Regeneration Vol 2, due out later this year. Joining Static-X in Dallas Friday night are Fear Factory, Mushroomhead, Raven Black, Society 1 and Dope. Dope singer Edsel Dope will have a double shift that night as he has been revealed to be the voice behind Xer0.
SZA
6:30 p.m. Friday, March 10, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $425+ at ticketmaster.com

St. Louis R&B singer SZA comes to North Texas on her SOS Tour with up-and-coming singer-songwriter Omar Apollo. SZA began her career as a recording artist in 2011 after being discovered by Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) at an event one of its artists, Kendrick Lamar, was playing. TDE didn't sign her right away though. Rather, SZA stayed in close contact with label president Terrence "Punch" Henderson, and after releasing her first two EPs on her own, TDE asked her to join its artist roster and release her third with the label. And she did, along with her debut album Ctrl in 2017 and last December's SOS. SOS shot to the top of the Billboard 200 chart after its release, breaking the record for the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album. The album's most recent single, "Kill Bill," peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 charts. While record sales don't always equate to good music, SZA's SOS found itself in top spots on just about everyone's year-end best-of list, from Variety to Pitchfork.
A Flock of Seagulls
7 p.m. Friday, March 10, The Echo Lounge & Music Hall, 1323 N. Stemmons Fwy. $17.50+ at livenation.com
7 p.m. Saturday, March 11, Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall, 122 E. Exchange St., No. 200, Fort Worth. $17.25+ at ticketmaster.com

You may deride new wave band A Flock of Seagulls for its all-too-'80s hairstylings in the band's classic music video for the 1982 single, "I Ran (So Far Away)." You may also knock the band for scoring its only hit with the 1982 single, "I Ran (So Far Away)." Well, "I Ran (So Far Away)" is an indisputable banger that will definitely be the last song played Friday in Dallas and Saturday in Fort Worth, but like all so-called one-hit wonders, the band is so, so much more than that song you heard on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Singer and keyboardist Mike Score has kept A Flock of Seagulls alive since 1979, though the band has released music only sporadically since the '80s. In 2018, the original lineup recorded 12 songs (11 from the first three albums and one new song) with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2021, it kept the theme going, re-recording another set of songs with the Slovenian Symphonic Film Orchestra. Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience supports A Flock of Seagulls at both shows.
Hayes Carll
7 p.m. Friday, March 10, at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall, 122 E. Exchange St., No. 200, Fort Worth. $32 at ticketmaster.com

Texas country artist Hayes Carll has been stomping around these parts for nearly two decades now, making North Texas a second home for the South Texas singer. Carll has always been a small-town singer, with lyrics that are as down to earth as they are poetic. In 2016, Carll was recognized by the Recording Academy with a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Country Song" for the song "Chances Are" — a song that had been released nearly five years prior on his fourth album. Carll's most recent album, 2021's You Get It All, peaked at the No. 14 spot on the Billboard Folk chart. Bastrop, Texas, singer-songwriter Melissa Carper will warm up the crowd for Carll in Fort Worth Friday night. Carll and Carper will also be playing Saturday night at The Kessler in Oak Cliff and Sunday night at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton, but both of those have been solidly sold out for some time.
The Meteors
7:00 p.m. Friday, March 10, at The Rail Club, 3101 Joyce Dr., Fort Worth, $18 at eventbrite.com

The Cramps may have kicked off the psychobilly genre, but it was The Meteors who defined its sound in South London in 1980. Psychobilly is a mixture of punk rock and rockabilly, which both rely on fast tempos and direct lyrics. In this case, the lyrical content is often related to horror and sci-fi movies and the macabre, separating it from the politics of punk and the country twang of rockabilly. The Meteors have been prolific in output in the 40-plus years of the its existence, putting out three releases just last year following a live release when things shut down in 2020. Although P. Paul French is the band's only remaining original member, The Meteors' original sound remains intact after all of these years. The band will have opening support from an all-star lineup of local punk acts including Turd Cutter, The Chems, PsychoBully and The Wee-Beasties.
Queensryche
6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 11, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $15+ at livenation.com

Washington progressive metal band Queensryche returns to Dallas, headlining the Digital Noise Alliance Tour. For a band that has released 16 albums in the past four decades and carries with it a mountain of songwriting credibility, it is tragic that it would have had only one single, the 1991 power ballad "Silent Lucidity" — a markedly different song than anything the band had released before or since. However, unlike A Flock of Seagulls and thanks in large part to its devout fanbase, Queensryche was fortunate enough to not have one hit define its entire career. The band's latest album Digital Noise Alliance was released last October, and to the delight of its fans, the album actually pushes the band's sound forward at a point in its career when many bands become a tribute to themselves. Longtime solo artist and former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman opens for Queensryche after a set from San Francisco metal band Trauma.
The Beths
7 p.m. Saturday, March 11, Tulips, 112 St. Louis Ave., Fort Worth. $74+ at ticketmaster.com

Out of Auckland, New Zealand, comes indie pop rock band The Beths, currently touring the U.S. with Boston singer-songwriter Sidney Gish. The Beths have been coming up strong in their native country, shooting into New Zealand's top 20 with the debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. The band's 2020 follow-up, Jump Rope Gazers, peaked at No. 2 in New Zealand, but it was the band's most recent album, Expert in a Dying Field, that made the world take notice. Not only did the album shoot to the very top of the New Zealand charts, but many American music blogs and magazines found a place for the band on their year-end, best-of lists. This is a great time to see the band in a small venue. The next time North Texans will see The Beths will be in early October when the band opens for The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie's tour supporting the 20th anniversary of Give Up and Transatlanticism.
Reverend Horton Heat
7 p.m. Saturday, March 11, Trees, 2709 Elm St. $20 at ticketmaster.com

As far as North Texas music staples go, it really doesn't get much bigger than Reverend Horton Heat. Since 1986, the man, the band and the legend have represented North Texas with pride while recording for prominent indie labels such as Sub Pop and Victory Records and finding a way onto the Billboard charts with every release since 1994's Interscope Records release, Liquor in the Front, Poker in the Back. Principal members Jim Heath (guitar) and Jimbo Wallace (upright bass) have played together since 1989, keeping the Reverend Horton Heat name going with every new drummer. Last year, the band went on tour with the Toadies, who released Rubberneck on Interscope that same year. This Saturday, the band with 35 solid years of North Texas music history, takes to the stage in Deep Ellum for what promises to be a wild show, with opening support from Scott H. Biram and Speedealer.
Future
6 p.m. Sunday, March 12, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $86.50+ at ticketmaster.com

No matter how you look at it, Future changed hip-hop. Pioneering the use of melody and auto-tune in trap music, Future changed the style and flow of the sub-genre. Trap music had always been defined by its heavy drug use and portrayals of violence, but while T.I. and Gucci Mane went hard with beats and bravado, Future's take on the genre keenly illustrated the psychological impact of its content, electronically infusing strong words with repressed weakness. Though mocked as "mumble rap," Future's music speaks loudly and clearly to its moment, identifying the pain that persists after taking the pills and promethazine. Future's most recent album, I Never Liked You, came out last spring, and many critics hailed it as the artist's best album in years. Future's One Big Party Tour will also see performances from Mariah The Scientist, G Herbo, Don Toliver and Dess Dior.