Tattooing has come a long way since the early days of a needle, thread and a vial of Indian ink. Back then, the only Americans showcasing body art were outlaw bikers, inmates and sailors. They were the days when getting a tattoo was a right of passage, and you were…
Last Thursday, the blues world lost its greatest living ambassador and one of its most legendary artists when B.B. King passed away. The 89-year-old guitarist suffered a series of mini-strokes from his type-two diabetes and died at his home in Las Vegas, leading to an outpouring of tributes from fans…
Some of the killers wore masks, while others simply wore concert T-shirts with a hockey mask imprinted on their baseball caps. Some carried long machetes, and others simply dragged a long, bloody hatchet behind. But they came by the dozens. Zombies and demons, familiar monsters from old horror movies, all…
Cindy Scull always knew that she wanted to be a radio star. She’d learned the basics of tape, editing and audio production on her father’s home studio when she was a child. Her father, who worked in the recording industry, would take her and her brother to his studio in…
Walking into a Bone Doggie show is like stepping into another time, another place, even another world. He calls himself a gypsy punk rocker, and he looks the part, with black fingerless gloves, a black tie, vest and fedora, and red long-sleeved shirt. His band, the Hickory Hellraisers, are the…
It’s an unspoken tradition among metal bands to pay homage to Dimebag Darrell any time they pass through North Texas. The legendary Pantera guitarist’s grave is located at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington. Some bands etch their names into the gold-plated memorial honoring Dime’s life. Black markers are also sometimes…
Early in 2014, Denton rapper Bryan “Infidelix” Rodecker decided to do something crazy: He quit his job waiting tables, cashed in his life savings and headed overseas with the wild idea of traveling the world to teach kids how to rap. But when he arrived in Spain, he quickly found…
It’s been more than two decades since Warlock, the godfathers of Texas metal, dominated stages at places like Rascals, The Ritz and Tombstone Factory. But this year marked their return with a reunion show at Diamond Jim’s Saloon in August. Now, with a new CD in the works, the band…
Moshing is an art form. Like the heavy metal music it was intended to accompany, it’s a brutal, punishing art form, one built on the deliberate collision of bodies and the sweat, blood and bruises of concertgoers. And it’s an art form that gets celebrated each year here in North…
Some say he was larger than life, a legend who always stood up for the underdog. He was the type of legend who’d walk into a club in some random city, join a local band on stage and play for 15 minutes as if he were just another member. With…
It was three days before Christmas when guitarist Mike Scaccia took the stage for his final performance. He’d reunited with the original members of local metal legends Rigor Mortis earlier that year to record their first album in more than two decades, and tonight they were performing in celebration of…
Lance Lopez knows the blues. The Dallas native has been sharpening his blues’ slinging chops since he was a child. He can feel it in his bones, through his fingertips as they slide across the fretboard. Lopez’s guitar skills sometimes seem otherworldly as he bends his strings to create something…
Texas music bleeds the blues, but finding a place to enjoy them in the Dallas-Fort Worth area seems nearly impossible these days. A younger generation of rising stars like Jason Elmore and Larry Lampkin make their guitars moan the blues like masters Lance Lopez and Stevie Ray Vaughan once did…
In North Texas, Ride for Dime is the best of the best for metal gigs. It’s an event that not only showcases a lineup of killer metal bands at two of the top venues — Trees and The Rail Club — for metal in the DFW area but also pays…
This year’s Ride for Dime marks the 10-year anniversary of the benefit show and the untimely passing of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, Nathan Bray, Jeff Thompson and Erin Halk. Inevitably, it’s a bittersweet occasion, given the tragic events that spurred the event’s founding. And yet a decade in, Ride for Dime…
Rockstar Mayhem Festival Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Saturday, August 9, 2014 This year’s Mayhem Festival was more than just a collection of metal bands like Trivium, Asking Alexandria, Korn and Avenged Sevenfold dominating the stage with mind-blowing music that warped the lines of metal genres. It was a festival to…
For more than 50 years, Johnny Winter made his guitar sing the blues. A lightning fast player mixed with a growling voice, Winter was part of a long lineage of Texas blues guitarists like Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker and Stevie Ray Vaughan who simply didn’t just play the blues but…
Mötley Crüe With Alice Cooper Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Wednesday, July 16, 2014 Dallas loves Mötley Crüe. A nearly sold out show, thousands of people showed up at Gexa Energy Pavilion on Wednesday night to say farewell to a legendary band. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the heat, they sang every song…
KISS With Def Leppard Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas Sunday, July 13, 2014 Paul Stanley can fly. He soared over the audience, a star shooting across a starlit sky Sunday night at the Gexas Energy Pavilion. He landed on a spinning platform, while a demon, a cat and his Space Ace…
It’s hard to imagine a time when KISS didn’t exist. A friend wearing a Gene Simmons mask introduced me to their music when I was five years old, living in Germany. The Berlin Wall hadn’t fallen yet. He revealed the KISS Double Platinum as if he were holding the holy…
Dan Colcer doesn’t just paint the canvas. The 38-year-old surrealist tattoos it like a skin artist from Elm Street Tattoo. Each image seems to grow out of the paint, an extension of another image that only appears the longer you meditate on the painting. He doesn’t plan the images. He…
Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic Forth Worth Stockyards Friday, July 4, 2014 “Hey man, this is the wrong place to be wearing that,” slurred an older concert attendee, pointing at my black Pantera T-shirt as I made my way through the crowd. “This is a Willie Nelson concert.” It…
