10 Best Concerts of the Week: Larkin Poe, August Burns Red, John Mellencamp and More

North Texas prides itself on hosting concerts in a wide variety of genres, and this week is no exception. There’s roots rock, R&B, indie pop, country comedy, metalcore and more. The concert week kicks off on something of a bittersweet note as the beloved Dallas indie label Barf Wave Records hosts its final event in Deep Ellum before officially retiring. Things pick up the next night, however, as Erykah Badu returns to the stage with her annual birthday bash concert. On Saturday, one of the more recent country bands to reach legendary status, Turnpike Troubadours, returns to North Texas for a huge show at the American Airlines Center. Those seeking something smaller but just as legendary can look forward to the Unsane show in Dallas the same night or the Sunny Day Real Estate show the following night. The concert week wraps up and the new month kicks off with some heartland rock from John Mellencamp in Grand Prairie. And you haven’t even heard the second half yet.
Barf Wave’s Last Show
6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, Club Dada, 2720 Elm St. $10 at prekindle.com

Starting as a joke between friends in Waco in 2014, Barf Wave became one of the labels responsible for defining the indie-rock sound of North Texas throughout the late Twenty-Teens. On Thursday night, Barf Wave will host its final event before officially retiring the tape and CD label, and the event booking team has put together more than eight years of music. Over the years, Barf Wave grew to host multiple sold-out showcases across Texas spotlighting some of the area’s most beloved acts: Sealion, Sub-Sahara, Thyroids and Teenage Sexx (who later became Upsetting). In 2018, the label began hosting a monthly DJ night that invited local musicians to take turns spinning their favorite songs and it won “Best DJ Night” at the Dallas Observer Music Awards the following year. The night’s event at Club Dada on Thursday will also host art vendors and offer heavily discounted Barf Wave merch, with music from Thyroids, Pollen, Smothered, Jockey and Teal Stripe.
Riders in the Sky
6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, Arlington Music Hall, 224 N Center St. $17+ at eventbrite.com

Since 1977, the Western comedy troupe known as Riders in the Sky has brought family-friendly laughter and music to audiences across the country. Known for their retro costumes and slapstick humor, Riders in the Sky stand as a living monument to an era of programs like Hee Haw and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. In their 45-year history, Riders in the Sky have certainly accumulated honors. Even if you haven’t heard of them, you’ve heard of them. In the ’90s, the band starred in a self-titled television series on CBS that lasted two seasons. The band also wrote and starred in an NPR syndicated radio drama Riders Radio Theater. Though the band has been honored with only two Grammy Awards, it has legions of young fans after recording full-length companion albums for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. After a brief hiatus due to the pandemic, the band is touring once again.
Larkin Poe
7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, The Echo Lounge & Music Hall, 1323 N. Stemmons Freeway. $30+ at livenation.com

Georgia-born and Nashville-bred roots rock band Larkin Poe is led by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, named after their great-great-great-grandfather and distant cousin of writer Edgar Allan. The sisters started their career with their other sister, Jessica, in Lovell Sisters, a bluegrass band that made appearances on A Prairie Home Companion and the Grand Ole Opry. When the group disbanded, Rebecca and Megan Lovell decided to take their music in a new direction. Once described as the little sisters of the Allman Brothers, the frontwomen of Larkin Poe boast incredible prowess on the guitar, bewitching blood harmony and songs that you just can’t help but sing along to. In 2020, Larkin Poe’s Venom & Faith received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The band released its sixth studio album, Blood Harmony, last November. Austin indie-rocker Zach Person opens the show.
Erykah Badu
6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $65+ at axs.com

It’s that time of year again! Every February, North Texans are treated to Erykah Badu‘s birthday bash. This tradition has included a long lineup of party guests, including her famous family and friends — from celebrities like Dave Chappelle to local acts Cure For Paranoia and Trapboy Freddy. This year Badu has invited her sometimes-collaborator and one of Dallas’s most recent musicians done well, Marc Rebillet, alongside up-and-coming Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug. The two will be joined by the legendary rapper Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan in addition to a performance by Badu herself. The doors are set to open at 6:30 p.m. Friday night with the show kicking off two hours later. Badu is historically fashionably late for her performances, so if you’re going, be sure to be ready to stay out all night. This event has become an annual event for a reason, and you’re sure to have a good time.
August Burns Red
7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, South Side Ballroom, 1135 Botham Jean Blvd. $29.50+ at ticketmaster.com

Returning to Dallas is August Burns Red, one of the first metalcore bands to find mainstream success by placing heavier emphasis on melodic instrumentation. Often cast as a Christian metal band in its early years, August Burns Red’s members have often stated that, despite their personal beliefs, the band’s music stands on its own. The band has, however, always maintained that its music is ultimately positive in its message, and it’s a formula that has served the group well leading up to its 20 Year Anniversary Tour. Last November, August Burns Red surprised fans with the announcement of a 10th studio album, Death Below, which is due out at the end of March. The first two singles from the new album, “Backfire” and “Ancestry,” are now streaming. Warming up the crowd Friday night is metalcore heavyweight The Devil Wears Prada and Scottish heavy metal band Bleed From Within.
Turnpike Troubadours
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $50+ at ticketmaster.com

It wasn’t long after the Turnpike Troubadours played its last show in 2019 that the band announced an indefinite hiatus. For many years, many thought that would be the last show the band would ever play as singer Evan Felker struggled with his addictions and fiddler Kyle Nix began a solo career. All that changed two and a half years later when the band announced a pair of reunion shows in its home state of Oklahoma, followed by three dates at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth that would ultimately become one of the fastest sell-outs in the venue’s history. The band would continue to tour mid-sized venues throughout 2022 and kept any new material close to its vest, performing just one new song, “Cat in the Rain” twice on the entire tour. The Troubadours kicked off an arena tour this year in San Antonio on Wednesday and will have two sets of brothers opening for them in Saturday night in Dallas: The Avett Brothers and The Wood Brothers.
Unsane
7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, Amplified Live, 10261 Technology Blvd. E. $15+ at seetickets.us

New York noise-rock band Unsane will be taking a look back this weekend, coming to Dallas on its “Early Cuts Tour” to celebrate 35 years of existence. Throughout that time, the band has had three lineups, with singer and guitarist Chris Spencer being the only consistent member. The band’s current lineup has been together since 2021 and consists of drummer Jon Syverson of Rhode Island no wave band Daughters, and the bassist known simply as Cooper from New York metal bands Paradise Players Club and Made Out of Babies. For the tour, the band will be playing material exclusively from its ’90s albums and singles collections including the song “Scrape.” The video for “Scrape,” which pictured a compilation of skate board accident videos, was made for just $169, and it was played heavily on MTV. Unsane will receive local support from Fort Worth punk band The Dangits.
Maggie Rogers
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $49.50+ at axs.com

In September 2021, Maggie Rogers tweeted that she was “studying the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture” before promising fans that she was also working on new music. This Sunday, the indie pop artist and Harvard Divinity School graduate with a Master of Religion and Public Life degree will be delivering on her promise and putting her studies to work with support from Brooklyn singer-songwriter Del Water Gap. It was around the same time Rogers graduated that the singer and multi-instrumentalist released her much-anticipated sophomore album Surrender. For Rogers, music and education have always gone together. The singer had recorded music all throughout college, but in 2016, in a master class taught by Pharrell, Rogers  got her big break when she visibly moved the producer with a song she had written in just 15 minutes, “Alaska.”
Sunny Day Real Estate
7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, The Studio at the Factory, 2727 Canton St. $36.50 at axs.com

On its fourth reunion tour in Deep Ellum this week come pioneers of emo’s second wave, Sunny Day Real Estate. While late ’80s emo carried with it many of the trappings of hardcore punk, bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate softened its sound and vocals to serve as a stark contrast to the music’s explosive moments. A Seattle band that signed with the Sub Pop record label the year after Nirvana left it, Sunny Day Real Estate benefited from the attention its hometown received, making appearances on MTV’s late-night, alternative music program 120 Minutes in support of the band’s 1994 debut, Diary. The band would go on to release three more albums until breaking up in 2000. Though the band has come together for several tours since then, a fifth album has yet to see the light of day. Sunny Day Real Estate will have opening support from one of the first bands to form under its influence, The Appleseed Cast.
John Mellencamp
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, Texas Trust CU Theatre, 1001 Texas Trust Way, Grand Prairie. $44.50+ at axs.com

It’s been nearly 15 years since John Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s hard to imagine that 30 years prior, he was “Johnny Cougar,” whose first album, Chestnut Street Incident, was such a commercial failure, selling only 12,000 copies, and second album, The Kid Inside, was so disliked that MCA Records didn’t release it and dropped him from the label. As “John Cougar,” his third album, A Biography, wasn’t even released in the U.S. While the heartland rocker’s next two albums under that name would see some success in the states, it was 1982’s American Fool that would catch everyone’s attention. It was 1983’s Uh-huh that would finally make Mellencamp’s name, though he did not drop the “Cougar” until the ’90s. Now touring in support of his 24th album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, John Mellencamp plays Wednesday night in Grand Prairie.