Cory Graves
Dance and Drink All Night with Against Me!
There's a reason why Dallasites make so many jokes about not crossing I-635. It's because that thing absolutely sucks to drive on — and, yes, that's even when it's not completely plagued by normal construction or rush-hour traffic.
Yesterday, though, drivers on the LBJ experienced a whole new level of suck. Things got so bad at one point that drivers began resorting to driving all sorts of wrong directions following a wreck on the freeway that caused the closure of all lanes.
So maybe you better start making tonight's plans now. Y'know, so you've got extra time to plan an alternate, I-635-avoiding route.
Scott Stapp at House of Blues
For better or worse, there was a time when Creed was the biggest band going and its frontman Scott Stapp was the biggest goddamn rock star on the planet. It's hard to remember that time in a completely unbiased manner, though. And, for his part, Stapp's own behavior throughout the past decade hasn't kept the band's image from becoming almost completely marginalized. For what it's worth, however, his latest solo album, November's Proof of Life, stands as the singer's most brutally honest work to date. For more information on this show, check out our interview with Stapp here. — Cory Graves
Against Me! at Gas Monkey Bar and Grill
Almost exactly a year ago, Against Me! cancelled a scheduled performance in Dallas. The reason? After nearly completing the tracking for the album that'd eventually become the January-released Transgender Dysphoria Blues, drummer Jay Weinberg quit the band. An attempt to have a fill-in drummer re-do the drum parts exactly as they were proved to be a failure and, as a result, the band decided to scrap the entirety of its recordings, cancel its tour and start re-recording the thing entirely from scratch. It helps, too, that Laura Jane Grace's recent gender transition not only gave the frontwoman a new lease on life, but also seemed to rejuvenate the band's particular brand of punk in the process. — CG
✠✠✠at Trees
Side projects are often tricky things to judge. Depending on the success of the main groups of the members involved, they can either come off as a slacker fuck-off band, a way to kill time while waiting for an old bandmate to finish rehab, or, in the worst cases, a cash grab. In the case of the cinematic, electro-rock/dream-pop hybrid that features Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and Chuck Doom, the motivations seem to be more pure; these guys genuinely seem to have just wanted to make some music that was somewhat different to their main projects. And, for their part, the band doesn't rely too heavily on the past achievements of its members as a selling point for their new outfit, either. Honestly — and maybe we're just out of touch — we had no idea who was involved with the project during the first couple of spins we gave their debut LP earlier this year. We should also point out the band will be signing copies of said album at Good Records starting at 5 p.m. — CG
Humpday Food Truck Festivus at Good Records
While its grandiose name may imply something greater, this is a somewhat simple affair — several food trucks in the Good Records parking lot and live music from Taylor Young of The O's from the AstroTurf stage inside. Dough Boys Pizza Truck, The Great Australian Meat Pie Company, Say Kimchi, The Butchers Son and What's Da Scoop will supply attendees with food and drink. Oh, and there will be some free beer from Four Corners Brewing, too. — Scott Mitchell
Ishi, Black Taxi at Three Links
The Franz Ferdinand-channeling brand of dance-punk offered up by Brooklyn's Black Taxi, who are playing main support tonight, might be the real reason to check this show out. The fact that headliners, Ishi, often play venues several times larger than Three Links, though, might make getting in to see them a dicey proposition should you show up too late. We'rewolves and Okapi Sun also perform. — CG
Dallas Comedy Festival at Dallas Comedy House
Night Two of this year's festival features a pair of stand-up shows that'll feature a dozen performers that hail from either Dallas or New York City. See the full schedule here. — CG
To find out what else is going on today, this week and beyond, check out our events page.
