Bedford Labor Day Blues & BBQ Festival
3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
1613 Hospital Parkway, Bedford
$5-$10; VIP cabanas $250-$275
Don't let summer slip away completely before enjoying some (hopefully) cooler weather and great tunes. The annual Bedford Labor Day Blues & BBQ Festival returns with a jam-packed lineup. Although the national talent taking the stage -- Robert Cray and Taj Mahal headline Saturday and Sunday nights, respectively -- is nothing to sneeze at, the area musicians tapped to appear are equally exciting. Josh Weathers, Nicholas Altobelli, Hats & Statues and Dirty Pool are just a few of the North Texas artists whose tunes will be on display. It's a can't-miss opportunity to see some of the best musicians in the Metroplex do what they do best.
Win tickets to see John Mayer on Saturday
Seems like just yesterday John Mayer rolled through town (actually it was March), but for fans, there is no such thing as too much Mayer. The notorious oversharer returns Saturday, performing at the Superpages.com Center in Dallas, and we have five pairs of tickets to give out.
To enter, e-mail tickets@dfw.com. In the subject, include the words “John Mayer.” In the body of the e-mail, name two of Mayer’s current or former girlfriends. Winners will be drawn randomly from all correct entries and notified by e-mail. Deadline to enter is 9 a.m. Friday.
You must live in the DFW area to win. You must be able to pick up your tickets from our downtown Fort Worth offices by 5 p.m. Friday afternoon. Employees of McClatchy Co. and their families are not eligible. And if things go your way, and you and Mayer end up having a torrid love affair, don’t blame us when he goes blabbing the details on his Twitter feed.
Five can't-miss club shows
And just like that, summer begins to draw to a close.
Seems like just yesterday, everyone was gearing up for the onset of broiling heat, good times and a surfeit of live music making its way through the Metroplex.
Although balmier temperatures are becoming the norm, the concert calendar isn't cooling off at all. In fact, the latter half of 2010 has just as much firepower as the first half. There are some big names blowing through town over the coming months, many more than we can cover here.
Suffice to say, if your wallet hasn't yet taken enough of a pounding from all the great tours stopping at venues throughout North Texas, it will be begging for mercy by the time December rolls around.
Here's a look at 10 must-see large-venue shows and five can't-miss club dates that will conclude one of the strongest years (despite several high-profile cancellations and sluggish ticket sales) for national tours in recent memory.
1 Pixies at Verizon Theatre (Sept. 19)
Bands that enjoyed prominence in the '80s and '90s are reuniting as fast as they can book a tour these days, so it's not surprising that those standard-bearers of alt-rock cool, the Pixies, would follow suit. Frank Black and his bandmates have put aside their near-legendary acrimony in order to indulge in another hot trend: playing classic albums in concert. The Pixies are plowing through 1989's Doolittle in its entirety at this stop. It goes without saying that fans shouldn't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. $42.50-$55;
2 Slayer at Superpages.com Center (Sept. 24)
Hard to believe California thrash kings Slayer have been active for nearly three decades, but Kerry King and his headbanging bandmates are still at it. Touring in support of last year's World Painted Blood, Slayer is part of what might be this year's loudest touring package: Anthrax and Megadeth make up the rest of the bill, which all but guarantees that those without earplugs on hand will suffer cataclysmic hearing damage (and maybe whiplash, too). With Anthrax and Megadeth. $10-$69.50; www.ticketmaster.com
3 Shakira at American Airlines Center
(Oct. 1)
The Colombian pop star returns to North Texas after a stint as the halftime entertainment for the NBA All-Star Game this year at Cowboys Stadium. Her Sale El Sol tour finds Shakira supporting last year's She Wolf, as well as a forthcoming bilingual album titled Sale El Sol, due out Nov. 2. She has kept busy in the interim between February's performance and this stop in the Metroplex; Shakira recorded the popular Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) in conjunction with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June. $9.50-$149.50; www.ticketmaster.com
4 Sugarland at Superpages.com Center (Oct. 8)
Although Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush come off a lot more pop-rock than they do country -- Nettles' honeyed twang notwithstanding -- there's no denying the pair's potency. With four studio albums to their credit, the latest being 2010's steampunk-inspired The Incredible Machine (due out Oct. 19), Sugarland is one of Nashville's highest-profile exports, with plenty of accolades, healthy sales figures and a sizable, passionate fan base. With Little Big Town and Randy
Montana. $29.75-$55.75; www.ticketmaster.com
5 Ravi Shankar
at Meyerson Symphony Center
(Oct. 17)
The legends of '60s music are getting more gray by the day, so any opportunity to see them perform live shouldn't be missed. At 90 years young, Shankar -- best known in America for his influence on Beatle George Harrison in the late '60s and also for being the father of Dallas-raised jazz-pop star Norah Jones -- remains active, recording and touring. His fleet-fingered ragas sound as elemental now as they did in flower power's heyday; Shankar remains one of the world's foremost sitar players and is a tireless ambassador for India and its culture.
$35-$80; 214-692-0203
6 Gorillaz at Verizon Theatre (Oct. 20)
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's conceptual band rarely ventures beyond the recording studio, so a stop in North Texas is cause for celebration. That Gorillaz, an "animated" band reliant upon flesh-and-blood musicians, is touring behind one of the year's best albums, Plastic Beach, is icing on the cake. The record's high-profile guest stars (Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed and others) likely won't be along, but Plastic Beach's expansive, dense tunes are guaranteed to be there. $49.50-$90;
7 Maroon 5 at Superpages.com Center (Oct. 21)
Armed with a killer hit single -- the infectious Misery -- ahead of a hotly anticipated album ( Hands All Over, recorded with studio whiz Mutt Lange), pop-rock dynamos Maroon 5 will return to North Texas to deliver all the hits and a taste of the fresh tunes as well. Often maligned as lightweights, the band renders emotional distress in melodic fashion, racking up plenty of airplay and album sales. Hey, it's a lot harder than it looks.
With OneRepublic and
Ry Cuming. $25-$95; www.ticketmaster.com
8 Jonsi at Verizon Theatre (Oct. 25)
Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi Birgisson ventures out on his own with Go, his debut solo album, which comes as the popular Icelandic alt-rock outfit takes a brief hiatus. As ethereal and gorgeous as Sigur Ros' acclaimed output, Go suggests Birgisson can rest easy if his day job goes away entirely. Folks still wax ecstatic about Sigur Ros' sold-out 2006 performance at Bass Hall. If Birgisson manages even a tenth of the magic mustered that night, we'll be talking about this show well into next year.
$32-$37.50;
9 Dwight Yoakam at Billy Bob's Texas (Oct. 30)
He of the impossibly tight Wranglers and occasional acting job (dude was memorably creepy in David Fincher's Panic Room), country legend Dwight Yoakam has kept up a steady stream of Bakersfield-influenced music for more than 25 years. The singer-songwriter hasn't released an album of original material since 2005's Blame the Vain, but he has kept busy with other acclaimed projects, such as 2007's Dwight Sings Buck, an album of Buck Owens covers. $20-$40;
10 Roger Waters at American Airlines Center (Nov. 21)
Pink Floyd's The Wall is one of rock's unassailable masterpieces. Musically complex, thematically rich and memorably adapted, by director Alan Parker, into a troubling, long-form music video, it's a sprawling work that only grows more impressive with age. Roger Waters, one of The Wall's primary architects, is reviving the near-mythic stage show for his tour (reportedly his last). It will feature Waters, armed with modern technology, performing The Wall in its entirety.
$58-$202;
Preston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713
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