Carley Elsey
Audio By Carbonatix
What really stands out about the bands comprising this week’s list is their dedication to doing things their own way. Let’s start with Sunn O))), who kick off the concert week with a drone metal show at one of Dallas’s most infamous venues. We Are Scientists, who are indie-rock when they want to be and synth-pop when they want to be, plays the same night. Then there’s Andrea Bocelli, who managed to somehow become the only opera singer many people can name. Next, it’s The Meteors, who have dedicated the entirety of their musical career to the niche genre of psychobilly. Then comes Lily Taylor, the local chanteuse whose creativity is turned up to 11. DIY legend Jeff Rosenstock also makes a stop in Dallas this week for a backyard barbecue. The only band keeping Western swing alive, Asleep At The Wheel, will be in Arlington, alt-rock superstar Liz Phair plays downtown and the concert week closes out on Greenville Avenue with an anniversary show from Silverstein on Tuesday and an unplugged show from Arlo Parks on Wednesday.
Sunn O)))
7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30, Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. $22.50+ at prekindle.com
Taking its name from the Sunn amplifiers that include a circle next to the “Sunn” banner with waves heading off to the right, drone metal band Sunn O))) is returning to live performances after four years of relative silence. While the band has toured and recorded with several other members since its start in 1998, founders and guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson will perform as a duo for the band’s Thursday night show in Oak Cliff. With its slow tempo, long notes and heaviness rivaled only by doom metal, drone metal may be one of the most difficult forms of metal to get into. But it is those same features that make experience of drone one of the most cathartic forms of metal. Just imagine those heavy tones gathering up all the negativity inside you and the long notes drawing it out of you. The band will have opening support from Jesse Sykes with Phil Wandscher.
We Are Scientists
7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30, Club Dada, 2720 Elm St. $20 at prekindle.com
Berkeley indie-rock band We Are Scientists has long been the project of guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain, who work with different musicians for albums and tours. In 2021, the band released its seventh album, Huffy, which had a notable rock influence. This year, the band went back through the recordings for that album and drew out the tracks that had more of a synth influence and created a new album, Lobes. The decision to create an album with more songs to dance to was praised by critics, who noted the band’s homage to the synthpop of the 1980s. The music is a perfect complement to the lyrics, which can range from darkly humorous to utterly cynical. Opening is NEWSKI, fronted by musical nomad Brett Newski, who hosts a podcast focused on the stories of touring bands, Dirt from the Road.
Andrea Bocelli
8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $87.50+ at ticketmaster.com
There aren’t many acts from the world of opera that have much crossover appeal to a mainstream audience, but Andrea Bocelli has joined the ranks of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti as an opera singer who has made that leap. Blind since the age of 12, Bocelli started making a name for himself in pop circles around the turn of the century when his collaboration with Celine Dion, “The Prayer,” was nominated for “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals” and for “Best Male Pop Vocal Performance” at the 42nd Grammy Awards. He and Dion performed the song together at the ceremony, and since then, Bocelli has been the name to call when an operatic tenor is needed for a song by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande, among many others. It’s hard to say what exactly to expect from Bocelli’s performance, but it is worth noting that his last release was A Family Christmas.
The Meteors
8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30, Sundown at Granada, 3520 Greenville Ave. $20 at prekindle.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 their 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 these years. Opening will be local horror punk band The P-Town Skanks.
Lily Taylor
7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 1, The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis St. $22 at prekindle.com
Dallas-based singer and experimental pop artist Lily Taylor will showcase her new album, Amphora, with an album release celebration in Oak Cliff Friday night. Local keyboard legend Poppy Xander and cellist Buffi Jacobs will be on hand to warm up the crowd. Taylor’s latest album is intended to be a musical journey that leads listeners through a mix of avant-pop, ambient pop and experimental sounds. The new album was recorded in Dallas at the Elmwood Recording studio in Oak Cliff and produced by a team of local producers, including dark ambient artist Black Taffy, Meow Wolf composer Alex Bhore and Taylor herself. Amphora is set to be released on Taylor’s own label, Lily Taylor Music. This is sure to be an unforgettable experience of music.
Jeff Rosenstock
7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2, Ferris Wheelers Backyard & BBQ, 1950 Market Center Blvd. $25 at prekindle.com
From 1995 until about 2012, singer Jeff Rosenstock played in several punk, ska and hardcore bands without much success. After the collapse of New York’s Bomb the Music Industry! punk collective, Rosenstock started up his Quote Unquote Records label and set off on a solo career that has put the singer’s songwriting prowess front and center. Comical, confessional and always creative, Rosenstock writes poetic and prophetic songs that are punk rock in spirit and power pop in their delivery. There is an urgency to Rosenstock’s music that comes with the songwriter’s revealing takes on politics and culture that are at once personal and universal. After working with the Bruce Lee Band last year, Rosenstock came back this year with a solo album, HELLMODE, which was released at the end of the summer. Opening will be Oakland alt-rock band Small Crush and Australian alt-pop artist Georgia Maq.
Asleep at the Wheel
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, Arlington Music Hall, 224 N. Center St., Arlington. $20+ at eventbrite.com
For over 50 years, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson has been pretty much the sole ambassador of Western swing music, keeping the sound alive for generations after Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys introduced and popularized the sound back in the 1940s. Since 1970, some 70 musicians have passed through its ranks, including Fort Worth’s own Ginny Mac, who joined the band on its last tour. The band’s only consistent member throughout its long history is frontman Benson, who formed Asleep at the Wheel in 1969 with friends Lucky Oceans and Leroy Preston in Paw Paw, West Virginia. In 1970, the band moved to Oakland, then relocated to Austin after signing with United Artists at Willie Nelson’s invitation, and that is where they have resided ever since. In 2021, the band acknowledged its long-running history with its 26th album, Half a Hundred Years, which included contributions from Nelson and co-founders Oceans and Preston.
Liz Phair
7 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 3, Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. $59.50+ at ticketmaster.com
Over 30 years ago, rock singer-songwriter Liz Phair released her tour de force album, Exile in Guyville. It was the first full-length album released under the singer’s own name. Until then, Phair went by the stage name Girly-Sound and self-released three albums on cassette tape. Many of the songs from those recordings were reworked into the songs on Exile in Guyville and were released as part of the Girly-Sound to Guyville box set in 2018. Phair has released six albums since her breakthrough release, but none of them have had the same impact or staying power as her debut. Phair has played a handful of U.S. dates since 2019. She was scheduled to open for Alanis Morrisette and Garbage last year, but canceled for undisclosed reasons. Phair’s Guyville Tour has the singer performing Exile in Guyville in its entirety followed by an encore of fan favorites. LA indie-rock musician Blondshell opens.
Silverstein
6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 5, Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave. $32.50 at prekindle.com
Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein, formed in Ontario at the turn of the century, achieved its breakthrough success in 2005 with its sophomore album, Discovering the Waterfront. Propelled by singles “Smile in Your Sleep” and “My Heroine,” the album peaked at 34 on the Billboard 200. The band released a few more acceptable albums with moderate success, but in 2013, things changed. The band parted ways with its original lead guitarist, Neil Boshart, and brought in one-time collaborator Paul Marc Rousseau to take over lead guitar duties. With a new guitarist, in 2013 the band released This Is How the Wind Shifts, which was immediately praised as the its best work since Discovering the Waterfront. The band has released four albums since, but it will return to This Is How the Wind Shifts on this 10-year anniversary tour with Stray From the Path and Avoid.
Arlo Parks
7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 6, Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave. $35 at prekindle.com
Presented by the beloved independent radio station KXT and hosted by the Granada Theater, English singer-songwriter Arlo Parks will present an intimate, unplugged performance and poetry reading Wednesday night on Greenville Avenue. Taylor Swift famously has congratulated Parks on winning the Mercury Prize (an annual music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the United Kingdom or Ireland) in 2021, saying that Parks’ debut album, Collapsed In Sunbeams, was “stunning.” The thing that Swift and, really, all music critics at the time saw in the albums was a meticulous dedication to the craft of a musical piece of work. Parks doesn’t just write songs, she crafts musical dreamscapes that dig deep into the personal and reflect out into the universal.
