Rachel Parker
Audio By Carbonatix
2021’s last concert week in North Texas is a big one highlighted with some of the best and brightest local acts from the last year as well as the year’s most anticipated annual festival, Lights All Night, going on Thursday and Friday night. Aside from Bob Schneider’s Thursday night show on Greenville Avenue and Noogy’s Saturday night show in Deep Ellum, this list covers the very best New Year’s Eve shows across North Texas. Uncle Toasty and White Denim rip up Fort Worth along with some serious opening support from around the city. Dallas welcomes home local hero Marc Rebillet for a Deep Ellum dance party while New Zealand garage rockers Labretta Suede & the Motel 6 get wild in Oak Cliff. At the Granada, The Vandoliers sign off on the year with a little Southern hospitality while punk club Three Links puts on a show of local favorites. Meanwhile, Pearl Earl celebrates in Denton, where it all started. Let’s get out there and enjoy it while we still can.
Lights All Night
6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 30 & 31, at Dallas Market Hall, 2200 N. Stemmons Freeway, $189+ at lightsallnight.com
Texas’ longest-running annual EDM festival makes its complete return this week with two days’ worth of incredible music to dance in the new year. With almost 50 artists sharing four stages playing eight hours of music for two days, Lights All Night aims to create an experience built on diverse sounds to fit many tastes. Complete with mesmerizing light displays and other out-of-this-world performers, the festival has built its reputation on paying attention to every detail to assure that an incredible time is had by all. This year’s headlining acts include Black Tiger Sex Machine and DJ Snake. Canadian trio Black Tiger Sex Machine is known for playing dark, aggressive electronic music wearing illuminated tiger helmets, and you may remember French producer DJ Snake from his 2013 collaboration with Lil Jon, “Turn Down For What.” Though the festival is sold out, tickets can still be requested through the event’s official ticket exchange.
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Bob Schneider
8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 30, at Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave., $21 at prekindle.com
Winner of 55 Austin Music Awards from 1992 to 2017, Bob Schneider has woven himself into the fabric of Texas music with his blend of pop, country, folk and rock. Schneider has played in an array of projects ranging from funk band Joe Rockhead to rock band Ugly Americans, the latter of which opened for Dave Matthews Band on its 1997 tour. A prolific songwriter, Schneider has released either an album or an EP every year since 1998. Schneider received his first radio play in 2001 with “Big Blue Sea” and again in 2004 with “Come With Me Tonight.” It was in 2009, however, that Schneider made it to No. 14 on Billboard‘s AAA Radio Chart with his sweet, talk-singing single “40 Dogs (Like Romeo & Juliet).” Dallas singer-songwriter and The Voice season 19 contestant Ryan Berg opens for Schneider at the Granada Theater in Lower Greenville Thursday night.
Uncle Toasty
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Main at South Side, 1002 S. Main St., $7 at prekindle.comFort Worth’s heavy garage-rock band Uncle Toasty closes out its first year in the public eye Friday night at Main at South Side in its hometown. The enigmatic new band has released only one song to date, the Earth-shaking ode to a killer crocodile “The Butcher of Burundi.” Inspired by the guitar work of Helios Creed and the chaotic wall of sound that is the Butthole Surfers’ early work, Uncle Toasty blasts out episodic songs on subjects aside from crocodiles such as the destruction of civilization, holes in lungs and infamy – really anything that captures the attention of singer and guitarist Jeffrey Chase Friedman. To make the evening heavier and more electric, five other bands are set to ring in the new year with Uncle Toasty. Up-and-comers No Place Like Home, Drifter’s Atlas and Heavy Daze are set to play alongside local rock ‘n’ roll stalwarts The Infamists and Bruce Magnus.
White Denim
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Tulips, 112 St. Louis Ave., $30+ at prekindle.com
Labretta Suede & the Motel 6
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd., $22+ at prekindle.com
Moving to Dallas from New Zealand earlier this year, Labretta Suede & the Motel 6 closes out its first year in North Texas with a New Year’s Eve show at the Texas Theatre. Garage punk at its most carnivalesque, Labretta Suede commands the stage with her racy performance and unique vibrato singing while the Motel 6 play with reckless abandon. With over 15 years worth of shows under its belt, the band knows how to get the crowd moving and keep the energy levels at their highest. Dream pop singer Lorelei K was scheduled to open the show Friday night. The singer who recently released “Swimming Pool Eternity,” her third single this year, will not be able to play because one of the band members tested positive for COVID-19. DJ Dollar Ben will still get things rolling on the 1s and 2s with visuals provided by Dallas artist C I N E M A. Dallas drag icon May May Graves serves as MC between sets and leads the toast at midnight.
Pearl Earl
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Rubber Gloves, 411 E. Sycamore St., $20 at prekindle.comComing back home to Denton, Pearl Earl closes out its year playing at Rubber Gloves with Austin’s Calliope Musicals, Denton noise rock band Venus Twins and Plano psych band Blue Feel. The show finds the band coming together after a year of side projects that kept the band occupied – guitarist Ariel Hartley released her first EP Dream Crusher with solo project Earl Hartley and Thrift Star, drummer Bailey K. Chapman toured with L.A. punk band Egg Drop Soup and Stefani Lazcano and Chelsey Danielle put together their side project No Good Babies. Equal parts prog rock, glam rock and psych rock, Pearl Earl has been captivating audiences with its mesmerizing stage show since 2015. With heavy distortion and spellbinding vocals, Pearl Earl invites its audience on a journey with every show. With an incredible live act like Calliope Musicals added to the mix, this show is sure to be a spectacular year-end event.
Marc Rebillet
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St., $50+ at axs.com
Making his name in Dallas before leaving us for New York City, Marc Rebillet is a one-man, electronic music experience. Known for making up loops on the fly with improvisational lyrics, Rebillet never performs the same show twice. Last year, Rebillet made headlines with his national drive-in tour in the midst of the pandemic, which was one of the first of its kind in the summer of 2020. Aside from his frequent live streams, Rebillet stayed relatively low on the release radar this year, putting out just two singles – “Vaccinated Attitude” in the spring and his collaboration with Moods and The Kount, “The Way You Make Me Feel,” in the fall. Rebillet did go on a 30-date tour this fall in which his hometown was conspicuously absent. Rebillet sets this wrong right with a New Year’s Eve show at The Factory in Deep Ellum. Dallas pop sensation Dezi 5 opens for Rebillet along with Kah-Lo and DÄM-FunK.
Rosegarden Funeral Party
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Three Links, 2704 Elm St., $20 at seetickets.us
Vandoliers
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave., $12+ at prekindle.com
Alternative country in the purest sense of the term, Vandoliers was founded in 2015 after vocalist Joshua Fleming’s fellow members in punk band The Phuss went their separate ways. Since then, Vandoliers have brought that punk rock ethos to the sounds of outlaw country from the ’60s and ’70s. Out of commission for most of 2020, no thanks to the pandemic, Vandoliers came roaring back in February with the release of their latest singles “Every Saturday Night” and “Waiting on a Train.” Throughout the year, The Vandoliers have been getting their touring muscles back in shape, playing little shows at home and around the country. The band is now preparing to set out on the road with Celtic punk band Flogging Molly next spring. The band closes out its year this Friday at the Granada Theater with a little help from Rod Gator and Simon Flory.
Noogy
8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, at Three Links, 2704 Elm St., $15 at seetickets.us
Dallas punk band Noogy made waves this year in the local punk scene and beyond. The band lost its drummer “DK” Nick Helm last year after the drummer took his own life. In Helm’s memory, the band released a split EP with Texas punk legends M.D.C. (Millions of Dead Cops), Bye Bye Donny, in the late spring of 2021. The band also released the Teen Idol / 2020 digital 7-inch in January. While “Teen Idol,” with its breakneck pace and anti-establishment themes, is more in line with what you might expect from a band like Noogy, you’ll want to stay tuned for the song’s B-Side, the punk-rap fusion “2020.” Noogy and M.D.C. were supposed to play together this weekend, but M.D.C. had to drop off the bill because of health issues. Noogy will still play Saturday night at Three Links in Deep Ellum with added support from Revolucion Oi and Casual Relapse.
