The 10 Best Concerts in Dallas This Week: 98 Degrees, Weezer & More

Music has a way of bringing people together. After the tragedy that rocked Dallas in recent days, the people of our city need that healing energy as much as ever. It's a great chance to celebrate diversity, too, with a music calendar that's all over the map. From early-'00s boy bands with 98 Degrees to the comedy-music legend "Weird Al" to the pioneers of the riot grrrl movement, L7, go ahead and reminisce over your '90s CD collection or check out someone new. This week, there's a show for everyone. 

98 Degrees
With O-Town, Dream and Ryan Cabrera, 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 11, at South Side Ballroom, 1135 S. Lamar St., 800-745-3000 or southballroomdallas.com, $35.50 to $99.50.
If 2016 already seems like the summer of nostalgia tours, then the My2k Tour is here to drive the point home. This month My2k rolls out a bevy of boy bands from the late '90s and early '00s: There's the “Liquid Dreams” boy band O-Town, girl power group Dream (who might debut some new music), and the phenomenal singer-songwriter Ryan Cabrera. Those all pale in comparison to the notorious boy band headliners, 98 Degrees. Along with N'Sync and Backstreet Boys, this quartet defined an era of frosted-tip pop and R&B at the turn of the millenium. My2k marks 98 Degrees' first tour since they reunited in 2013. Perhaps it was just time for another paycheck, but that shouldn't stop you from singing along loudly to these guilty-pleasure hits you no doubt still know all the words to. Aria Bell


Warren G
8 p.m. Thursday, July 14, at Gas Monkey Live!, 10110 Technology Blvd. E, 214-350-1904 or gasmonkeybarngrill.com, $25 to $45.
Just a few years ago, a booking like this would be seen as nostalgic or passé. It’s nothing against Warren G; he’s an icon of West Coast hip-hop who should always be celebrated. But since he hasn’t released a solo album since 2009, seeing him booked at a big room like Gas Monkey Live! could feel out of touch or a little forced. Thanks to the rise of the classic hip-hop radio format and particularly the early success of Dallas’ Boom 94.5, artists like Warren G as well as his '80s and '90s contemporaries have joined the ranks of rock bands touring under the “classic” banner. Now, Warren G’s upcoming show feels renewed and relevant with fans eager to hear the classic hit “Regulate” performed live, after hearing it in rotation on the station. He may even have new fans awaiting him at the show thanks to the new exposure. Mikel Galicia


L7
With Sealion, 8 p.m. Thursday, July 14, at Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave., 214-824-9933 or granadatheater.com, $29.50 to $39.50
During their active phase, circa 1985 to 2001, L7's all-female quartet — Donita Sparks, guitarist-singer Suzi Gardner, bassist Jennifer Finch and drummer Dee Plakas — were a massive influence on many of the riot grrrl and punkier alt-rock bands of the day, both for their confrontational grunge and metal innovations and for their formation of Rock for Choice, a series of women’s rights concerts supported by the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine. They play Granada this week on a rescheduled date that was originally supposed to take place in March.  John Payne


Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
7 p.m. Friday, July 15, at The Rail Club, 3101 Joyce Dr., 817-560-7245, or therailclub.com, $35
One of hip hop's most prolific acts, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is the only group to have ever worked with all four artists 2-Pac, Notorious B.I.G., Eazy-E and Big Pun. You could say they're a gangster rap version of Boyz II Men with less angry lyrics than Three 6 Mafia. (The members even pulled a Ramones and changed their last names to Bones). The group has undergone a series of line-up changes over the past couple decades, but even after their mainstream decline in the late '90s, Bone Thugs has continued to release material that goes above and beyond industry norms. Following in Wu-Tang Clan's footsteps, Bone Thugs made one copy of their final album, E. 1999 Legend, in 2015 and received a $1 million bid. They've since announced their retirement from making music but will still be touring. Diamond Victoria 


Weezer
With Panic! at the Disco and Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness, 7 p.m. Friday, July 15, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, 1818 1st Ave., 214-421-1111 or dallaspavilion.org, $25 to $75.
Weezer’s latest album, The White Album, seems like a conscious effort toward bringing those fans who checked out somewhere between Pinkerton and The Green Album back into the fold. The same seems to go for the setlists from their latest tour, too. Those who look back on “Buddy Holly”-era MTV with blue-colored glasses can now expect to hear many '90s Weezer warhorses in concert alongside the new White Album tunes written in that same spirit. For many, it may seem too good to be true — especially considering that Weezer’s opening act is Panic! at the Disco, a band which not only draws fans a generation younger, but which also recently coated their already sugary sound with another layer of radio pop sheen. But by all accounts, it’s really happening. With Weezer returning to their roots and Panic! at the Disco garnishing their sound with dancier elements, their appearance together should make for two very different concerts rolled into one. Elliot Wright


Art of Rap Festival
With Ice-T, Public Enemy, Naughty By Nature, Mobb Deep, EPMD, the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow, 5 p.m. Saturday, July, 16, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, 1818 1st Ave., 214-421-1111 or dallaspavilion.org, $25 to $99.95.
Tracy “Ice-T” Marrow might be best known by the kids as Detective Odafin Tutuola on Law and Order: SVU, but he started his career as a hardcore rapper — the kind you’d be nervous about bringing home to mother. He’s inspired some of the rappers he’ll be sharing the stage with during the Art of Rap Tour, acts like Mobb Deep, Naughty by Nature and Public Enemy, all of whom you would've been better off not introducing to your mother back in the day. Not because your mother isn’t cool, but mostly because your mother just couldn’t handle the syncopated rhymes of Ice-T, the raw energy of Mobb Deep or the political passion of Public Enemy. Nowadays, none of these guys hold any animosity toward your mother. Sure, there once was a day when Ice-T would’ve terrified your mom with his lyrics about killing cops and leaving crime scenes, but now he’s on the other side of the (television) law. Times change, though, and with old-school hip-hop – even the fiery, political kind – passing into canonized “classic” status, you could even bring your mom to this one. Nick Bostick


“Weird Al” Yankovic 
8 p.m. Saturday, July 16, at Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St., 214-880-0202 or attpac.org, $49.50 to $69.50.
If you’re a musician trying to gain a foothold in the annals of popular culture and “Weird Al” Yankovic asks if he can turn your chart-topping hit into a parody song, you'd better say yes. Don’t go through your agent or your publicist. Don’t wait to hear from your people. You just shake hands with the man and let him take it from there. The comedy musician has been twisting pop songs into funny ditties for more than 30 years and it’s almost become a rite of passage for the weird one to rework the lyrics of a musician’s big hit into a completely different song. He turned Michael Jackson’s classic “Beat It” into “Eat It” or Madonna’s hyper sexual “Like a Virgin” into the medical pop ballad “Like a Surgeon.” His most recent album, Mandatory Fun, became Yankovic’s first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart and the first comedy album to earn the spot since 1963, when Allan Sherman’s My Son the Nut debuted on the chart and stayed there for eight weeks. Mandatory Fun further cemented his status as the Alfred E. Neuman of pop music and earned him and his band a second Mandatory World Tour. Danny Gallagher 


Ted Nugent
10:30 p.m. Saturday, July 16, at Billy Bob's Texas, 2500 Rodeo Plaza, Fort Worth, billybobstexas.com, 817-624-7117, $20 to $45.
Music has long been a unifying thread of society, but it's hard to imagine that there's too much aisle-crossing at a Ted Nugent show these days. The maniacally conservative, bow-hunting madman who once regularly dressed in loin cloths is a regular fount of fire-breathing division these days. Not unlike his fellow Obama-hater Hank Williams Jr., The Nuge seemingly grabs every chance he can to spew condescension and craziness into the ether. But let's be honest about the other side of the ballot, shall we? It's not like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young or Pearl Jam are champions of bipartisan bellowing, and as long as Nugent focuses more on "Stranglehold" than he does his Damn Yankees output and keeps his guns stowed away, a night of classic American shredding shouldn't be so bad. Put your voter registration cards aside for one night and simply celebrate the freedom-loving art that is "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang." Kelly Dearmore


Kitten
With Sizzy Rocket and Clean Spill, 8 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at Three Links, 2704 Elm St., threelinksdeepellum.com, 214-653-8228, $13 to $15.
Throwback new-wavers Kitten have essentially become front gal Chloe Chaidez and a revolving door of band mates. Which is logical enough, considering it's Chaidez's breathy, melodramatic yelp that largely sets her band apart from any number of retro hipsters plundering Walkman-era staples from Berlin and Missing Persons. What's most remarkable about Kitten is that, with most of its influences predating the still-teenage Chaidez entirely, she and mentor/manager/producer Chad Anderson have so deftly re-created the neon-flecked, futuristic aura of so many glossily produced '80s synth-guitar collisions. Whether Kitten is a band or a solo project, it offers tuneful escape for the kids and comforting familiarity for mom and pop. Paul Rogers


Deep Blue Something
8:30 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at The Levitt Pavilion, Founders Plaza, Arlington, TX  76010, 817-543-4301, or levittpavilionarlington.org, Free.
Deep Blue Something is connected to North Texas in a couple of ways. Not only did they form in Denton back in '92, but drummer John Kirtland founded the independent record label, Kirtland Records, and established headquarters in Dallas. The band is obviously best known for their '95 hit "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a standard in '90s pop-rock. These days are significantly different than their '90s run, but they still get a couple spins a week on local radio stations. DV