It's always sad seeing a good bar or venue close its doors. This week we're losing Zubar, a Greenville Avenue bar that has hosted a lot of great DJ residencies and some pretty phenomenal reggae, house and hip-hop sets in its nearly 17-year span.
On the bright side, they're throwing a massive party, so break out your dancin' shoes.
See also: - "Canned Festival, Paramore, Built to Spill and More of This Week's Best Show Announcements"
Shake Down & Love Rich Present Zubar Closing Party Friday, July 26, at Zubar, Free Upstairs at Zubar on Friday you will see Alberto Z. Martinez, Greg Watton, Joe Castillo, Michael Todd, Edwin Watson, Life Coach, Preach, JV and Redeye. In the back room they're hosting James Kelley, DragonLazer, Scott Phrenetik, James Warren, Derrick Chavez, J Who, Jenn Johnson and Chaser. The party kicks off at 7 p.m. for those who want to say a final goodbye and throw one last hurrah at the club. -- Rachel Watts
The Sword Thursday, July 25, at Granada Theater, $15 You know what's the best? Music that can largely be translated into the sound of a huge boulder rolling down a hill. Nothing makes me happier. You can keep your speedy loud music and your quiet pretty music, because I'm going to choose an offensively loud, slow-moving noise every time. Some people call this "stoner rock," with the assumption that the only people who can cope with such glacial music must be high, as people who are high appreciate things moving slowly. Not so, I say. You can also be drunk. Texas' finest proponents of stoner rock, Austin's mighty The Sword, have got all your bases covered. Not only are they going to be bringing low-BPM metal that's easy to swing one's head about to, and a singer who sounds almost exactly like 1970s Ozzy, they've got their own beer too, which I am told will be on sale at the Granada for this gig. If you like good things, then you need to come to this show. Any doubts you have should be dispelled by a single play-through of The Sword's "How Heavy This Axe." -- Gavin Cleaver
Wiz Khalifa, A$AP Rocky Sunday, July 28, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, $38-$350 Summer will be over in just a matter of weeks. Tan lines, exhausted AC units and swimming pool outings will soon be over, as well as Dallasites' summer concert memories. And any summer would be incomplete without attending at least one show featuring kinetic hip-hop rhythms bombarding a crowd on a hot July night. Hip-hop parties and summer go hand in hand, and Wiz Khalifa and company will deliver. There's no introduction necessary for Wiz ever since the 2010 chart-topping single "Black and Yellow" established his place among rap music royalty. Creator of critically acclaimed albums, collaborator with the likes of 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg, a husband and a father, Wiz is a busy man. And his stop at the Gexa Energy Pavilion, along with the contrasting intensity that is A$AP Rocky's brand of unapologetically untamed music, should be enough to draw you out of your cozy lawn chair for an evening of sweaty dancing and general hedonism under the summer sun. Or moon. -- Aaron Ortega
Future Birds, Diarrhea Planet, The Birds of Night Wednesday, July 31, at Dada, $10-$13 Athens, Georgia was a place of magic for music fans and local bohemians in the early- to mid-'90s, or so I'm told by the people who saw it firsthand. The way my fortysomething friends describe that era is a lot like what you might find in a college town on the West coast in the '70s. The Athens-bred six-piece turned five-piece band Futurebirds are not only revitalizing the city's spirit in a new age -- especially with the April release of their LP Baba Yaga -- but they're taking their malleable country-psych rock all over the map. For the Dada affair that they headline this week, they're teaming up with Diarrhea Planet, a band that started out as a simple duo making noise rock and eventually developed into an unyielding six-piece force with four merciless guitars. Local group The Birds of Night's '60s-inspired, stripped-down psych-rock will do well to open the show with these two. -- Rachel Watts
Matchbox Twenty, The Goo Goo Dolls Wednesday, July 31, at Gexa Energy Pavilion, $34-$810 Recently #WriterTwitter has launched a debate into which song from the '90s is the most '90s song of all time. Several ideas have been tossed around, the debate has gotten a little heated, and Wednesday, fans of the ordeal are in for a treat, as two of the acts at the forefront of it all co-headline Gexa Energy Pavilion. The Goo Goo Dolls started out as a much heavier act in the mid-'80s and early '90s, finding middling commercial success until they dialed back their energy and started writing songs for Nicholas Cage movies. Matchbox Twenty literally won a recording contract, and their first album sold 12 million records. It's been downhill from there, but they remain one of the biggest acts from the '90s still making music and touring today. So Wednesday it's up to you when you see both bands live. Which act most sums up the '90s? Are you on the side for "Iris," or are you team "3 a.m."? -- Jaime-Paul Falcon
Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys Wednesday, July 31, at Double-Wide, $10 Let's not pretend this isn't a big deal. For just 10 measly bucks you get to see rapper Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys, best known for the their track "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta," which was popularized by the movie Office Space. The Double-Wide event promises that Bushwick Bill will play both Geto Boys songs as well as his own material, and will be supported by local acts Yung Nuzzle, The Big Bender and The Lash Outs. Damn...it really must feel good to be a gangsta. -- Rachel Watts
