When Dethklok, “the biggest act in the world,” came to House of Blues in Dallas for the second time in the band’s existence, I had my hopes set high.
Adult Swim and Cartoon Network were putting Brendon Small’s traveling death metal circus on a fuller tour bill with bands High On Fire, Converged and Mastodon with Dethklok headlining.

Last night’s show at House of Blues kept the same pattern of the July 2008 Dethklok set with gory visuals, loud guitar and throaty vocals, but something seemed missing in the second show – that something was novelty. For the most part, it was the same show, with a slightly altered set list.

In similar fashion to the 2008 concert, Small and his team of real-life musicians took the stage fronting as animated band Dethklok.

The set opened with the 45-second long “Deththeme” and then immediately jumped into the single off of the new Dethalbum 2, “Bloodlines.”

This move was identical to 2008 when Small and company went on stage and then rushed into “Bloodrocuted,” the band’s first big single. Maybe, it’s his concert pattern, I’m not one to tell.

Dethklok continued the hard pit movement with “Burn the Earth,” “Hatredcopter” and “Deth Support” while throwing in periodic video screen animated sequences by some of the band’s cartoon characters from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, between songs.

The band switched from its silly, blast-beat driven gore titles to round out its set with more of a Scandinavian/Amon Amarth sound.

Fans had their allegiance to the band tested when the dedication anthem, “The Gears,” played to a stunning video backdrop. This was followed by a trio of songs from the band’s debut record, Dethalbum, which was finished with the apocalyptic track, “Go Into the Water.”

Just like in the band’s first performance, Small, took to the microphone after “Go Into the Water” and began to milk the audience for an encore, using voices from the Metalocalpyse characters.

After a few gulps of water and a dabbing of the sweat rag, the band brought the circle pit back into full swing with a brain-rattling mash-up “Fansong” and “The Gears” to close out the evening.

Setlist:

Deththeme
Bloodlines
Burn the Earth
VIDEO BREAK
Hatredcopter
Black Fire Upon Us
Birthday Dethday
VIDEO BREAK
Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle
VIDEO BREAK
Deth Support
Awaken
VIDEO BREAK
The Gears
Murmaider
Thunderhorse
VIDEO BREAK
Go Into the Water
BRENDON ON MIC
Fansong + The Gears Encore

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Name checked by boys who want to play the guitar for the girl they are longing for and on the lips of lonely girls who spend nights in their bedroom crying over broken hearts, Dashboard Confessional have connected with emotionally hurt teens for almost 10 years.

What started as front man Chris Carrabba playing a guitar and wearing his heart on his sleeve with his sing-a-long songs and lyrics — even if they are depressing songs — has blossomed to a full-band sound, complimented with pianos and synthesized leads.

Moving from the acoustic to the electric guitar, Carrabba and company have shown significant progress over the past five albums. From slower, acoustic songs to louder distortion, the four-piece band is a reincarnation of its former self.

Altar the Ending explodes with electric riffs, running bass lines and crashing drums highlighted by Dallas’ own John Lefler’s soaring lead guitar and melodic harmony.

While “Even Now” keeps the trademark Dashboard sound (read: acoustic guitar) and “Belle of the Boulevard” introduces a piano lead, it’s songs such as “Everybody Learns from Disaster” and “I Know About You” that showcase the dominated electric guitar.

Even if there may be no true radio hit, “The Motions” carries the most memorable beat and encompasses a catchy chorus you’ll find stuck in your head for days.

If Carrabba wants to stray from the acoustic and play with electric leads and a thicker sound, no one will complain. It’s albums like Alter the Ending that will help Carrabba distance himself from the word emo.

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Pete Yorn knows how to write music and craft a song. He’s been doing it for some time.He wrote every song and played every instrument on his debut album, musicforthemorningafter. The follow-up, Day I Forgot, kept on the same pace, except this time Yorn added a couple more musicians.

His first two outings were strong, critically and commercially. Coupled with radio hits and fan favorites, the clanging acoustics and the running riffs of the electric guitars let the New Jersey native show his chops track after track.

It was 2006’s Nightcrawler and his release earlier this year, Back & Fourth, where Yorn changed things up. Adding a darker vibe and simple guitar work, the releases showed Yorn didn’t need radio hits to win over crowds.

So after darker times, Yorn returns, this time with famous face attached.

Actress and sometime-singer Scarlett Johansson joins Yorn on Break Up, a nine-track album with running guitars and dancehall-esque beats.

With a name like Break Up, one would expect a downtrodden album with woe-is-me lyrics. But then again, when has Yorn ever played by the book?

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About half a dozen years ago, Long Island, N.Y., began popping out bands like it was no one’s business.With a little screamo music here and some industrial rock there, before you knew it, it seemed like every band that could strap on a guitar and play three chords came from some part of the New York City area.

The shining star of all the early millennium bands was Brand New, a quartet of twenty-something guys who broke onto the scene with Your Favourite Weapon.

Weapon, a 12-track album that sounds echoes what you’d expect as a debut release, cranked out dirty, distorted guitars and near-screaming vocals coupled with thoughtful harmonies about music, parties and girls.

It was the combination of Weapon and Deju Entendu, the band’s critically acclaimed sophomore release, that helped the New York rockers cement its spot on the iTunes list of its fans.

While the band has never truly had radio play or videos in heavy rotation, songs such as “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad,” “The Quiet Things No One Ever Knows” and “Seventy Times 7” has resonated as fan favorites since the first listen and are staples of live shows.

After taking some time off, the band returned with 2006’s God and The Devil Are Raging Inside Me, an album that contained slower songs (“Jesus Christ”), songs that built over the course of the track (“You Won’t Know”) and heavier, faster songs (“The Archers Bows Are Broken”).

With its recent release, Daisy, the band continues to push the envelope of experimental rock and proves you can produce an album without a dominate single and rely on support from your fans no matter what you crank out.

The band is dedicated to the music as well. I saw Brand New the summer of 2006 in Chicago. On the hottest day of the year, the band packed the House of Blues and the energy level was so high, the walls were perspiring.

Midway through the set, singer/guitarist Jessie Lacey told the crowd he’d been running a high fever and almost cancelled the show that night.

He said he was about the cancel the show when someone told him to look outside. It was there he saw a line of die-hard fans from the door down to the street and around the corner. Fans who got there more than six hours before the doors opened.

After seeing the line, Lacey said he couldn’t cancel the show. And he and the band put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

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Opening with “White Lair,” a mix of slide guitars, clanging acoustics and anthematic vocals, Miranda Lambert sets the stage for what’s to follow. 

The Lindale, Texas, native keeps the majority of her songs short — most, which she penned herself, clock in at a little over three minutes — but still uses the time to pack a punch over  15 tracks.

The standout track, “Me and Your Cigarettes,” has Lambert relating herself to an addictive habit, one drag at a time.

Country stars have a tough time sticking around after hitting the scene.

Lambert is four albums in and we’ll see more of her if she keeps producing stellar sounds like Revolution. (more)

Armed with a keytar, some synthesizers and a soaring voice, LIGHTS - born Valerie Poxleitner - is a Juno-award winning Canadian sweetheart with an attitude to match.

The Listening, her first full album after  releasing two EPs, combines layered piano sounds over drum beats juxtaposed with lyrics about love, loss and longing.

I met LIGHTS at the Dallas stop of the Vans Warped Tour. At first, I was a little thrown; females are pretty uncommon on the male-dominated tour.

But the 22-year-old, all inked up and spewing about her rise from MySpace followers to main-stage fans, grabbed my attention.

She won over the crowd that hot, sticky day with her 30-minute set and previewed several songs that ended up on The Listening.

Take a listen and memorize “Saviour” and “February Air” while you can. Before you know it, her songs will be dominating the airwaves.

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It sat there, beckoning.

Some called it “The Claw.” To others, it was “The Spaceship.”

“Come and play with me,” the stage said to the Irish quartet. “I’ll show you what I can do. You’ll be amazed.”

“No, thanks,” U2 answered back. “We can take care of this show ourselves.”

Indeed they did.

Over the course of 135 minutes, U2 played 22 songs and kept eyes and ears at attention as the night wore on.

While what Bono called “our space junk” was the luring point of the U2360 Tour, it was the musicians themselves that brought the show home, one snare snap hit at a time.

Opening the set with three songs from its most recent album No Line on the Horizon, the band took charge early, getting feet moving and showing what its stage setup could do.

And boy, it could do many, many things.

At first sight, it’s the four legs of the mammoth contraption that grabs the audience’s attention. But it isn’t until the lights go down that the “space junk” comes alive.

With lights coming from every angle, a 360-degree expandable video screen and two moving walkway bridges, the Claw/Spaceship tried its best to upstage the Irishmen, but the foursome won out every time.

While Bono is the voice and face of U2, the front man took a backseat to the night’s true standout stars: The Edge and Adam Clayton.

With the ability to walk around the stage and play to every member of the Cowboys Stadium audience, The Edge (guitar) and Clayton (bass) had no problem doing multiple laps around the center stage.

Meeting at certain points along the way, the duo showcased their clanging guitar riffs and rumbling bass lines all while playing to the crowd, inches away.

While standout radio hits – including “Beautiful Day,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Elevation,” Vertigo” and “With or Without You” – got fans moving and singing, it was powerhouse songs such as “Mysterious Ways,” “Until the End of the World” and “No Line on the Horizon” that allowed the band to showcase its tight, precise musical prowess.

The diversity of the songs was another highlight of the evening. Whether it was an acoustic version of “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” or a club remix of “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” or snippets of classic ballads tagged on to the ends of songs, U2 showed you can do more than what everyone expects to hear.

No U2 show would be complete without a sprinkling of political and social-economical remarks: Bono talked about the One Campaign and threw stats about HIV/AIDS and poverty out toward the end of the show. It was to be expected, as it tied into the final series of songs including “Walk On,” One” and “Moment of Surrender.”

At the end of the main set and the night overall, U2 didn’t leave the stage with a big bang or a combination of distortion and cymbal crashes. Instead, the band left on slower songs, walking off the stage after thanking everyone for coming. 

Muse, a rock trio from just south of London, opened the show with a 45-minute set encompassing songs from its recent three albums, Absolution, Black Holes and Revelations, and The Resistance.

With a strong mixture of vibrating bass, guitar riffs and soaring falsetto vocals reminiscent of Queen, the band got the audience moving and prepped them for what was to come.

 

Setlist:

Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet),
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
No Line On The Horizon
Elevation
Until The End Of The World
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
MLK
Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
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One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet),
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender (more)

Last night's biggest surprise at the King of Leon show at American Airlines Center wasn't a rare song or someone jumping on stage. The biggest surprise was the energy - from the band and the audience.

After getting horrible reviews at last week's Austin City Limits where the band headlined the opening night, the Tennessee-based foursome kept the fans and the night moving, intermixing distortion-heavy song, dirty guitar riffs and crowd-pleasing sing-alongs.

Knocking out 20 songs in 95 minutes, the Kings covered all their bases and something from every album, including all but one song - "17" - from 2008's Only By the Night.

The standout moment of the show wasn't a radio single fans were waiting for. Instead, it was the powerhouse trifecta of "Charmer," "Four Kicks" and "The Bucket" back to back to back. After two early, slow jams, the three songs got AAC moving again. 

If the band let any Dallas ACL folks down last week, they made up for it last night.

Setlist:
Closer
Crawl
Be Somebody
Taper Jean Girl
Molly's Chamber
Fans
Revelry
I Want You
Charmer
Four Kicks
The Bucket
Sex on Fire
Notion
Manhattan
On Call
Cold Desert
Slow Night, So Long
------
Knocked Up
Use Somebody
Black Thumbnail

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Air – Love 2
Everclear – In a Different Light
Toby Keith – American Ride
Kiss – Sonic Boom
Lights – The Listening
The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane

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When U2 rolls into Arlington on Oct. 12 with its mammoth stage setup and arena-rock songs, things are, for a lack of a better term, going to get crazy.

Since a strong return with 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, the band redefined how to put on a show and is easily the best live band in the world (period).

Take its previous tour in support of 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The Irish foursome opened each show with “The City of Blinding Lights” and covered the audience with glitter.

Most bands save the theatrics and “big surprises” of the evening for the end of the set or the encore songs. U2 decided to get it out of the way early.

And that’s what you can expect at the Cowboys Stadium show — Bono singing his heart out and engaging the audience to do the same as The Edge just plain out floors you with his trademark and impossible-to-recreate guitar sounds.

And let’s not forget the real reason people are getting excited for the show: the stage itself.

Dubbed “The Claw,” the structure is so big it can only fit in stadiums and takes multiple days to set up. Because of time restraints while touring, there are three stages traveling with the tour and the stage offers an unblocked view of the band no matter where you sit.

Sidenote: The Claw is so tall that the video screen hanging 90 feet above the field will need to be raised. Kick all the footballs you want at the screen — only U2 can get Jerry Jones to move it up a couple more feet.

Whether you’ve seen U2 before or not, this is going to be the show of the year. All the traffic before and after the show will be worth it. Trust me.

If You Go

What: U2 with Muse
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 21
Where: 1 Legends Way, Arlington
Tickets: $30 - $250, ticketmaster.com

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