Well, it's the weekend and it's been a crazy week. The National Football League has proven itself to be a true shitstorm and foreign affairs, with ISIS and all, aren't looking so hot. But at least you've got music. You've worked hard all week and now you can go out and have some fun with Kings of Leon, the Black Lips, Lydia Lovelace, or the Toadies. The choice is yours. You earned it, you crazy kids.
Kings of Leon With Young the Giant and Kongos, 7 p.m. Friday, September 12, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, 1818 1st Ave., 214-421-1111 or livenation.com. $49-$69 Eleven years ago a record was released by a bunch of relatives from Tennessee that sent the critics into a tizzy as they jumped all over themselves to write the phrase "Southern fried" and hail the record as a clear announcement that "rock was back!" That record was Holy Roller Novocaine, and if Kings of Leon had called it quits after that album we'd be seeing think pieces all over the internet by 30-something rock critics about the best band that almost was. Instead, after toying with their sound on their first two full-lengths Youth and Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak, the group cut their hair off, softened their look and their sound and became the commercial juggernaut that gave the world "Sex on Fire." Listening to "Holy Roller Novocaine" alongside "Sex on Fire," it's hard to believe it's the same band; the group that almost gave NME a collective heart attack is now the band who is a punchline for bad music for bad sex. Music is weird. Jaime-Paul Falcon
Gorilla vs. Bear IV With Panda Bear, Sophie, Ejecta, Doss, Blues Control 7 p.m. Friday, September 12, at The Granada, 3524 Greenville Ave, granadatheater.com, $30 For the fourth year in a row the Dallas-based indie music blog Gorilla vs. Bear is throwing a mini music festival at the Granada Theater. Set to headline is none other than Panda Bear, a member of Animal Collective who collaborated with Daft Punk on their Best Album Grammy-winning Random Access Memories. Completing the bill are dance-pop DJ Sophie, electronica duo Ejecta, Doss and Blues Control. Gorilla vs. Bear isn't a blog that focuses on our local music scene, but it's a national blog with a great deal of notoriety. If you're into indie music with an electronic focus, the curation powers of GVB are can't miss. H. Drew Blackburn
The Black Lips 7 p.m. Saturday, September 13, at The Granada, 3524 Greenville Ave, granadatheater.com, $22 Atlanta punk four-piece the Black Lips is coming through town and it's said they've got a post-work week, smoke soaked, salt-greasy catharsis steady in tow. Under normal circumstances, you could expect some wild antics from the Georgia bad boys. Given those particulars, who knows what will happen. (Let's just hope no one gets the golden shower.) The Black Lips have been raising their army of pee-thirsty, body-knocking fans since the release of their debut album, Black Lips!, in 2003. This year they put out their newest offering Underneath the Rainbow, which at least in Black Lips parlance, resembles some sort of growing maturity - but we'll see how that translates live. If you're lucky, you might end up as sloppy as the band. Just think about leavin' the heels at home if you don't want to be charged with involuntary manslaughter. It's bound to be a night of unabashed rock, roll, and good-bad-not-evil decisions. Dalton Kane
Aaron Behrens & The Midnight Stroll With Rach Ghost and NITE, 9 p.m., Saturday, September 13, at Club Dada 2720, Elm St. Dallas, TX, 214-742-3400, http://www.dadadallas.com $10 - $13 Aaron Behrens is more widely know for his role as the frontman in the electro duo Ghostland Observatory, who describe their music as "a robot making love to a tree." For what it's worth this is actually a pretty damn accurate description. Behrens' side project, Aaron Behrens & the Midnight Stroll, is a large departure from the highly danceable electro tunes he made a name for himself with. Hailing from Austin, this band is a roots rock act that confidently and perfectly compliments Behrens' searing vocals. Don't let the absence of the thrilling parties Ghostland Observatory throws every time they hit a stage throw you; Aaron Behrens & the Midnight Stroll are just as fun. HDB
Morgan Page With Johnny Funk, 9 p.m., Friday, September 12, at Lizard Lounge, 2424 Swiss Ave. Dallas, TX, 214-826-4768, http://www.thelizardlounge.com, $20 - $25 When you think of Vermont, I'll assume you generally don't associate the state with being home to a world-class DJ. That life seems too quaint; the landscape too fecund. Morgan Page, however, has found his way to bright lights and big cities like Tokyo, Las Vegas and, of course, Dallas. Page's brand of DJing house and electronica music is a surefire way to get an entire crowd moving in a trance-like state. Or that could also be the MDMA, the two time Grammy nominee has made remixes of Regina Spektor, Madonna, Katy Perry, Meiko, Adam Lambert, Alanis Morissette, Ashley Tisdale, Nelly Furtado, Stevie Nicks and more, is ready for you to don your best oxford shirt with a dragon on it and jeans from Buckle and fist pump like there's a prize of free vodka sodas for the best fist pumper. HDB RTB2 10 p.m., Friday, September 12, at Twilight Lounge, 2640 Elm St, Dallas, Texas 75226, 214-741-2121, http://thetwilitelounge.com, Free Ryan Thomas Becker is somewhat of a guitar virtuoso. He's a skilled and powerful man with an axe and its thunderous sounds in his hand. He's something like Paul Bunyan. Grady Don Sandlin, meanwhile, is a champion of a drummer who keeps a beat as effortlessly as the one his heart makes. Becker and Sandlin join forces and form the Denton rock duo, RTB2, who, if you aren't all that familiar are like a rag-tag version of the Black Keys. An amalgam of blues, pop, funk and '50s rock 'n' roll is bountiful here. And get this: It's free. You love free; I love free; everyone loves free. HDB
Branchez 8 p.m., Friday, September 12, at Red Light Lounge, 2911 Main St. Dallas, TX 214-826-4769, $15 Branchez is an up-and-coming producer from New York City who is responsible for a slew of great remixes and original production, like a remix of Rihanna's "Stay" and "Truth." What's special about Branchez is that he's yet another producer who is versatile and smart enough to delve into both hip-hop and electronica-based production, sometimes combining the two genres to make a grandiose and rambunctious track. You, tastemakers out there, check this guy out; he's gonna be big one day. HBD
Lydia Lovelace With Sam Anderson (of Quaker City Night Hawks) 8 p.m., Friday, September 12, at three Links, 2704 Elm St. Dallas, TX, http://www.threelinksdeepellum.com, $10, Lydia Lovelace released both her debut album, 2010's The Only Man and her sophomore effort, 2011's Indestructible Machine, to the tune of high praise. The accolades return for Somewhere Else, which was released in February of this year. What's interesting about Lovelace is that her take on country, Americana, folk or what have you is wholly organic and incisively cathartic. The blood on the tracks here aren't coated in pop sensibility, like Lovelace's' obvious contemporary and comparison point,Taylor Swift. Lovelace is raw and a true treasure in the midst of such a mundane genre. HDB
Dia De Los Toadies Festival 8 p.m., Friday, September 12 and Saturday, 13, at Panther Island Pavilion 395 Purcey St. Fort Worth, TX, 817-698-0700, http://toadies.sonarmanagement.com, $35-$130 The seventh-annual Dia De Los Toadies Festival is upon us. Starting last year, the Toadies have thrown their annual festival in their hometown of Fort Worth. However, this year's fest marks a special occasion: It's the 20th anniversary of the alt-rocker's first album, Rubberneck, which went platinum, a feat that's damn near impossible two decades later. To commemorate such a feat Vaden Todd Lewis and the boys are bringing along the likes of Old 97's, UME, Quaker City Nighthawks, Pleasant Grove, Somebody's Darling, Residual Kid, the Longshots, Blank-Men and more. HDB
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Triple Concerto 8 p.m., Friday, September 12 and Saturday, 13, at Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St. Fort Worth, TX, 817-212-4280, http://www.fwsymphony.org, $16-$65 Do not be an uncultured peasant. After all of your rappity rap, knob twiddling and satanic rock 'n' roll, go see some music. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is opening their 2014-'15 symphonic season with a new composer, Anna Clyne, who will lead the orchestra in some Beethoven, which will surely get the audience at the symphony going up on a Sunday. HDB
