See The Light.
Thanks to former SportsCenter anchor James Swanwick, there's another of those everybody stay sober pledges gaining steam. This one, the 30 Day No Alcohol Challenge, promises to help you lose weight, save money and have more energy.
Simple enough. New Year, new you.
To be sure, Swanwick promises several times on his site that not drinking doesn't mean not going out and/or not having fun. If other people find it awkward, hey, that's on them, or so he says. Sober or stinking drunk, there's plenty of stuff worth doing tonight. — Cory Graves
Surfer Blood at Dada
Surfer Blood is an indie/surf rock band from Palm Beach, Florida. The band's on tour after its latest album, 1000 Palms, came out last May. There's been quite the shake-up in the Surfer Blood ranks the past year as lead guitarist Thomas Fekete has been sidelined while dealing with cancer and longtime bassist Kevin Williams left for a new job in Austin, so it will be interesting to see if the remaining members have managed to maintain their original sound with two new members. Sealion opens. — Paul Wedding
Todd Rundgren at Granada Theater (Sold Out)
Musician Todd Rundgren is 67 years old and has been steadily putting out music for nearly 50 of those years — including two albums released last year. He is known for creating a wide range of music from piano rock to more experimental electronic-based stuff, as well as producing music for several other famous musicians such as Hall and Oates and Meatloaf. At the very least, you know him for the song “Bang the Drum All Day,” from years of Carnival Cruise commercials. — PW
Matthew Logan Vasquez at Lola's
His band Delta Spirit may be on break, but frontman Matthew Logan Vasquez can't stop won't stop. In the fall he released a dirty, rock 'n' roll EP that he mostly recorded all the parts himself. It set the tone for the unbridled LP he's got slated for release next month. See another side of the folky tonight out Fort Worth way, where local heavyweights Telegraph Canyon and Houston's Kelly Doyle opens. — CG
Mike Stud at Trees
Mike Stud is a former college basketball player-turned-rapper in the same vein of Asher Roth and Hoodie Allen, that is to say it's shitty, generic rap that creates unrealistic expectations of college life and that's generally listened to exclusively by frat boys and high schoolers. — PW
Death Proof at Alamo Drafthouse
Alamo Drafthouse will be showing Quentin Tarantino's '70s exploitation tribute flick, Death Proof. The film is Tarantino at his most masturbatory, with long, dragging scenes of uninteresting dialogue and long shots of feet galore, albeit a few pretty great car chases. — PW
Reel Big Fish at House of Blues
Do you sometimes feel like the only person anxiously awaiting the arrival of a fourth wave ska revival? Maybe you are. But we're guessing you won't be the only person skanking around to third wave super stars Reel Big Fish at the ol' HOB tonight. Even fewer people will likely care that frontman Aaron Barrett is the last remaining of the band's original members. — CG
Colin Hay at Kessler Theater
Thanks in no small part his No. 1 fan Zach Braff and a few memorable guest spots on Scrubs, Men at Work vocalist Colin Hay has experienced a resurgence in popularity in the decades since educating the Western world about Vegemite sandwiches — so much so he's playing back-to-back nights at this venue. — CG