The 10 Best Concerts of the Week: Willie Nelson, Powerman 5000, Santana and More

Hump day is a huge day for live music in North Texas this week with many shows to choose from. Powerman 5000, Willie Nelson, Coheed and Cambria, and Mastodon all will be coming through North Texas on Wednesday. Unfortunately, almost all of them are performing in different venues at different times, so you'll have to make the hard choice of picking one. Try coin flipping or pulling the band names from a hat. That should make it easier. But whatever you do, don't fret. There's plenty of stuff going on later in the week like Sub-Sahara at Double Wide, Santana at Dos Equis Pavilion, Adam & The Figurines at Spinster Records and more. If you can't make it to any of those, at least get your week started off right with Paul Slavens at Dan's Silverleaf.

Paul Slavens and Friends
9 p.m. Tuesday, July 2, at Dan's Silverleaf, 103 Industrial St., Denton, 940-320-2000, danssilverleaf.com. Free.

The spontaneous song generator, DJ and Ten Hands frontman Paul Slavens will be back at it again at Dan’s Silverleaf. For the last 15 years, Slavens could often be found writing and performing songs on the spot, improvising about whatever comes to mind on Monday nights. Like at all of these shows, song title suggestions will get thrown at him from the crowd and he'll just run with it. Attendees might hear songs about escaping the spiraling vortex of Ikea, robot children or whatever else they can think of. The only difference this week is that it'll be on a Tuesday. Jacob Vaughn

Powerman 5000
8 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, at Trees, 2709 Elm St., $12-$20 at ticketfly.com

In 1991, the Boston-based outfit Powerman 5000 was born. Despite sounding like an alter-ego superhero your 4-year-old made up, Powerman 5000 is one of industrial metal’s most successful bands. Led by Spider One, a punk rock Billy Idol lookalike, art school dropout and younger brother of horror metal heavyweight Rob Zombie, Powerman 5000 garnered national attention in 1996 with the remastered edition of The Blood-Splat Rating System (also titled Mega!! Kung Fu Radio), giving them a spot on stage at Ozzfest in 1997. The band’s latest album, 2017’s New Wave, became a critical success, but this year the band is touring for the 20th anniversary of its most successful record, Tonight the Stars Revolt! Diamond Rodrigue

Willie Nelson & Family Outlaw Music Festival
1 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, at Dos Equis Pavilion, 3839 S. Fitzhugh Ave., $25-$350 at livenation.com

This year marks 50 years since country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson acquired “Trigger,” his famous Martin N-20, and after a 62-year career, Nelson’s on the road again with a new record in tow. For his 69th studio album, Ride Me Back Home, which was released on June 21, producer Buddy Cannon and Nelson delivered a record that’s garnering a lot of positive buzz for its choice covers and timely new numbers. Willie Nelson & Family return to North Texas to take part of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour 2019, and Dallas is the only Texas city on either leg of the tour. Joining Willie & Co. on this tour stop are Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Casey Donahew, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Hayes Carll and Colter Wall, as well as Bluegrass songstress Alison Krauss who has won 27 Grammy Awards from 42 nominations, ranking her third for most wins of all time (only behind legendary record exec and producer-composer-arranger Quincy Jones and classical conductor Georg Solti) for most Grammy awards, which means she’s the most awarded vocalist or singer and the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. Daniel Rodrigue

Coheed and Cambria with Mastodon
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 316 W. Las Colinas Blvd, Irving, $30-$80 at livenation.com

Two heavy-hitting progressive metal bands Coheed and Cambria and Mastodon will share The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory stage Wednesday as part of The Unheavenly Skye Tour. Coheed and Cambria released its latest album Vaxis: Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures after signing on with Roadrunner Records about a year ago. Like the band’s first seven albums, Vaxis follows the story line of a science fiction comic series written by singer Claudio Sanchez, which also inspired the band’s name. Mastodon’s latest album Emperor of Sand is only three years old, and there’s talk of a new one on the way. But Mastodon is really touring off its fourth studio album, Crack the Skye, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its release. Jacob Vaughn

Sub-Sahara, Steve Gnash and Pollen
8 p.m. Friday, July 5, at Double Wide, 3510 Commerce St., $7 at prekindle.com

Sub-Sahara has been busy since it won Best Live Act at the 2019 Dallas Observer Music Awards. They released "Berry," a haunting and hypnotic love song, on Valentine's Day and have been playing about a show a week alongside bands like Sealion, LOAFERS and Rosegarden Funeral Party. North Texas rock act Steve Gnash will join Sub-Sahara at Double Wide. The two bands also just played together at Transit Bicycle Co. to celebrate the business' 10th anniversary. Additionally, after a two-year hiatus, indie-rock band Pollen will be performing for the first time with an all-new lineup. Jacob Vaughn

Vansire
6 p.m. Friday, July 5, at Club Dada, 2720 Elm St., $14-$17 at eventbrite.com

Minnesota dream-pop band Vansire’s first Texas performance will be in Dallas. They are kicking off over a month of scheduled shows with one at Club Dada this Friday. Primary members Josh Augustin and Sam Winemiller met as teenagers playing in the high school band and began experimenting with music together. After discovering they were creatively compatible, the two set out to form a band that sounded like Mac DeMarco. An online random word generator had them set on Vansire for the name of their new project, the name of an obscure mongoose. The rest, like their 2019 two-song release Metamodernity and their 2018 album Angel Youth, is history. Jacob Vaughn

Santana with The Doobie Brothers
7 p.m. Saturday, July 6, Dos Equis Pavilion, 3839 S. Fitzhugh Ave., $35 at livenation.com.

Over 50 years, 25 records, and countless reinventions and lineups later, Latin rock band Santana is still kicking. The brainchild of Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana (the band’s only consistent member), Santana’s balance of popular tastes with subtle experimentation has made them one of the most beloved acts of all time: The band has sold over 40 million records worldwide, notched over 10 top-10 albums, won eight Grammys and been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. South American rhythms threaded with Americana and alternative rock, jazz fusion and world music, as it turns out, make for a timeless recipe for success. Jonathan Patrick


Yeasayer
8 p.m. Saturday, July 6, at Trees, 2709 Elm St., $25-$27 at ticketfly.com

On June 7, Brooklyn-based Yeasayer returned with their fifth album Erotic Reruns on their own eponymously named label (following releases on Mute and Secretly Canadian). After 14 years as a band, Erotic Reruns finds the trio shedding some of the more experimental, cinematic tracks with strange and tribal sounds familiar to longtime fans for a more streamlined and danceable pop approach. And while Erotic Reruns stands as Yeasayer’s most sonically accessible record, lyricists Chris Keating and Anand Wilder didn’t pull any punches with the socially conscious, pointedly political and darkly dystopian lyrics. The album was reportedly inspired by the buildup to and fallout from the 2016 presidential election and features songs that name-check James Comey, Stephen Miller and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The upbeat track “Crack a Smile" ends with the repeated line of “You're a liar,” as the trio takes on the “crooked” grin of a powerful “liar” and “fool” with “evil in (his) eyes” who’s the “psycho captain of this fading realm.” Los Angeles’ indie-pop act Steady Holiday opens. Daniel Rodrigue

Adam & The Figurines with VOLK, The Prof.Fuzz 63
8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 6, at Spinster Records Dallas, 829 W. Davis St., $5 donation

Adam Amparan has had quite the career since he had a cup of coffee with El Paso turbulent art-punk band At the Drive-In. Amparan played on the band’s 1997 debut album Acrobatic Tenement but left before its release. The band that bears his name now is a far cry from the chaos of his earlier punk days, however, opting instead for the poppy bliss of psychedelic garage rock. Adam & The Figurines’ eponymous 2017 album is downright beach-worthy with all of the appeal of wearing a blossom hat on a sunny day. Joining The Figurines on the Spinster Records main stage are the raucous Nashville duo, VOLK. Composed of Eleot Reich on drums and Chris Lowe on guitar, the pair’s track “Honey Bee” off their 2018 EP Average American Band comes off like a more modern White Stripes with a bit more yeehaw and screaming. The Prof.Fuzz 63 will start the fun at 8:30 p.m. and will be assisted in doling out the smooth live lo-fi with former Delzells vocalist Justin Casey. Nick Bostick

Wooden Earth with The Boleys, Modular Sun and Omicron J Trauma
8 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at Three Links, 2704 Elm St., $7 at seetickets.us

The members of local metal band Wooden Earth call themselves "heavy riff merchants hailing from Dallas, Texas." The trio, fronted by drummer and singer Griffin Thomas, earned this self-proclaimed title with the release of Waves of Smoke, the band's 2018 EP. Wooden Earth will be headlining at Three Links as part of local bands The Boleys and Modular Sun's Texas Invasion Tour presented by Dreamy Life Records and Music. If the psychedelic vibrations of The Boleys and Modular Sun don't melt your brain, Wooden Earth will. Jacob Vaughn