In some ways, getting backstage at Gexa Energy Pavilion is a letdown. Semi-trucks that carry the bands’ stage lighting and equipment hummed a familiar chorus, and several tour buses formed a barricade that left an opened area in the center where a small group of people conversed and smoked cigarettes…
Steely Dan and Backstreet Boys are both in town this week, two bands your friends can’t tell if you like sincerely or ironically. Looks like they’re about to find out. If you answered neither, fret not! You’ve got plenty of options. Looking for something a little hard, fast, and intimate?…
This Friday, Dallas-based music blog Gorilla Vs. Bear hosted their third annual festival at Granada Theater. Local music fans flocked to the historic venue to watch Booty Fade, Empress Of, HAERTS, Blue Hawaii, and Danny Brown share the stage. We talked to the crowd to see how the night’s festivities…
Legendary Americana songwriter Patty Griffin is going on tour this fall, and the October 26 date at the Kessler Theater is already almost sold out, less than a day after it went on sale. As of right now, only suites and standing room spots remain. So get going now…
This is your official warning Dallas, It’s going to be a rough Monday. This weekend is packed to the brim with great live music and there’s nothing you can do about it. Honestly, you’ll be lucky if you make it to brunch at all (gasp). Friday night will be especially…
Every week more and more shows are added to the Dallas Observer live music calendar — here’s how to make sure your show is included. Below are the this month’s best new additions, to date. The most recent announcements are in bold…
There are no shoes allowed in Wondaland. There is grass, however, and candlelight and there were free drinks and candy in Wondaland’s lobby, so no one seems to mind. Plus, Janelle Monae is here, standing barefoot in the grass. Wondaland, for now, is inside Luminous Sound in Richardson, where everyone…
Kurt Vile | Sonny & the Sunsets Trees August 19, 2013 Sound issues can ruin a good show. The band keeps stopping to fix things, the crowd grumbles because of all the stops, and no one has a good time. So it’s to Kurt Vile, and his copious crowd of…
My Bloody Valentine | New Fumes Saturday, August 17, 2013 Verizon Theatre There is a universal truth about My Bloody Valentine, agreed upon by nearly everything ever written about them. They play ridiculously loud. It was at about two thirds of their way into “A New You,” a soft poppy…
Kidd Kraddick Memorial August 15, 2013 AT&T Plaza in Victory Plaza Last night’s open-to-the-public memorial for Kidd Kraddick was a very moving and surprisingly upbeat affair. Feeling like a live episode of Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, there wasn’t any sugarcoating about Kidd’s death, but there were plenty of laughs…
Growing up in the late ’70s and early ’80s, bands like Heart were the bane of my existence. As a teenager, I cringed when hits like “Magic Man” or “Barracuda” were constantly coming from the radio in my dad’s car. Sure, both Ann and Nancy Wilson were easy on the…
This week brings us another installment of Red Bull Sound Select, one of Texas’ best country bands, a local radio milestone, and some of the most influential artists of their respective genres. Lil Wayne has had some health issues on the road this year, so here’s hoping that his time…
Together, Dean Allen Spunt and Randy Randall make up the experimental post-punk duo No Age. Since 2005, they’ve proven to be one of the most durable and exciting bands in punk. At the end of this month, they’ll hit Oak Cliff’s Texas Theatre for an intimate performance that promoter Spune…
Bruno Mars American Airlines Center August 12, 2013 Bruno Mars stands on the very end of the stage, adorned in a brown Panama hat, bathed in red-hued stage lights and wearing a smirk on his face. For the last hour and a half, Mars has driven the capacity crowd into…
The Polyphonic Spree’s album release show at The Granada starts in seven minutes, and there is no water in the refrigerator backstage. A couple members of the choir ask band manager Chris Penn where the water bottles are. Penn asks Granada Backstage Manager Wes McIntyre. McIntyre says he just filled…
The Melvins | Honky Trees Saturday, August 10, 2013 Sometimes you’ve just got to stand right at the front, in the middle. Especially when there’s two drum kits, both slightly angled in, so if you stand in the right place they’re like terrifying speakers positioned exactly for your benefit. Only…
Whether you’re in the mood to bounce around with the shiny, happy people of The Polyphonic Spree, or get your eardrums blasted by The Melvins’ dual drummers this week has a little bit of everything for Dallas music fans. Saturday is especially packed with options for your ear holes: Denton…
Just as the doors opened at Dada last night, True Widow bass player Nicole Estill pulled up in a pick-up truck with the band’s drum kit in the back. This was a night for Texas music. The band, Dallas’ latest band to hit it big after serious publicity from NPR…
This week in show announcements has excited music fans of all kinds. The second half of 2013 is shaping up to be jam-packed with quality live music in Dallas. When it’s time to hop up off that pool float, and the margarita machine has run dry, grab a Red Bull…
The clumsily titled Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival swept into the Gexa for the last date on its cross-country metal bandwagon, and once more metal was ordained by the corporate gods on a day that didn’t so much swelter as annihilate. The sun beat down like a double-pedal to the head…
There were a lot of music festivals in Dallas this weekend. Most of them could have happened anywhere — did happen in many other places, in fact. But not Cooler-N-Hell Fest. Set at The Ewing Family Ranch and named after a Ray Wylie Hubbard song, Cooler-N-Hell Fest was a distinctly…
Update, 8/2, 11:45: The general on-sale begins in 15 minutes, at noon. You will have minutes or possibly seconds, not hours, so get that browser ready and pointed at either the NMH web site or Spune’s. Update, 8/1: The presale is live now through Crowdsurge. There are no codes or…
