17 January 30 - February 5, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Death from Above 1979 7 P.M. THURSDAY, JAN. 30, FERRIS WHEELERS, 1950 MARKET CENTER BLVD. $32.50+ AT SEETICKETS.US Canadian rock duo Death from Above 1979 broke out and then dissolved. After making a splash in the early 2000s with You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, the pair — Jesse Keeler and Se- bastien Grainger — parted ways for five years, before reconnecting in 2011, and remaining an active unit in the decade since. The group’s lat- est album, Is 4 Lovers, dropped four years ago, but its gritty dance-punk feels as vital now as it did when the fellas first turned up more than 20 years ago. Last year, Keeler and Grainger re-re- corded Machine and released the updated songs in a slow drip over the course of 2024. “Even though it’s considered a cult classic re- cord, it’s still our work and we regretted certain ways in which we had produced it back in the day,” Grainger told Artsfuse.org in September. “It’s not that we thought we could improve it be- cause it’s a classic, but we wanted to explore what it would sound like if we made it today.” Teen Mortgage will open. PRESTON JONES A-Trak 8 P.M. SATURDAY, FEB. 1, IT’LL DO CLUB, 4322 ELM ST. $17+ AT EVENTBRITE.COM Somehow, the Canadian DJ and record pro- ducer born Alain Macklovitch is bearing down on three decades in the music business. Better known as A-Trak, he first rose to prominence as Kanye West’s original tour DJ, before pivoting to a role as both performer and executive, help- ing develop the careers of now-stars such as Kid Cudi and Danny Brown. While it has been more than 15 years since his last mixtape — 2010’s Dirty South Dance 2 — A-Trak continues to tour the world, bringing his own spin on elec- tro house to the masses. Given his past in stadi- ums and arenas, seeing him in the cozy confines of the legendary It’ll Do Club is a can’t-miss treat for EDM-heads. Red Eye will kick off the evening with an opening set. PJ Punks & Pokes 8 P.M. SATURDAY, FEB. 1, LONGHORN BALLROOM, 216 CORINTH ST. $30+ AT PREKINDLE.COM Anywhere you glance inside the Longhorn Ball- room, your gaze is met with history. Ghosts fairly spill out of the venue’s walls, so as the ven- ue’s focus turns to its 75th anniversary, the re- suscitated and refurbished space will be celebrating its diamond jubilee over the next 12 months. Leading off the festivities will be the in- augural “Punks and Pokes” event, intended to be an annual community event celebrating the Longhorn Ballroom’s eclectic musical past (in- spired by the venue’s now-iconic Sex Pistols/ Merle Haggard marquee from the 1970s) and raising funds and awareness for designated charities. The 2025 edition will feature Bowling for Soup and, in a one-night-only reunion, Eleven Hundred Springs. Hall of Fame broad- caster Eric Nadel will be your emcee, and pro- ceeds will benefit Music Health Alliance, Café Momentum and the Southern Gateway Park Foundation. Yee-haw — see y’all in the pit. PJ Jambaloo SATURDAY, FEB. 1–SATURDAY, FEB. 8, MULTIPLE VENUES IN DALLAS, FORT WORTH AND DENTON. FREE AT JAMBALOO.LIVE What’s better than one free concert? How about more than two dozen, spread across four venues in three different North Texas cities over a whole week? That’s the premise of the inaugural Jam- baloo, an outsized concert series transpiring at Club Dada and Ferris Wheelers in Dallas, Tulips in Fort Worth and the soon-to-be-shuttered An- dy’s in Denton. The aim, according to a state- ment from the organizers, is “to uplift the local music scene during challenging times.” Begin- ning Feb. 1, each night will feature a showcase of predominantly local acts — artists Remy Reilly, Pretty Boy Aaron, the Texas Gentlemen and Cure for Paranoia are on tap — alongside na- tional artists such as MJ Lenderman and Chris- tian Lee Hutson. Each nightly showcase is free to attend, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged. If you’re looking to get an up-to-the-moment sonic snapshot of the area, you aren’t going to find a better opportunity to do so. PJ Gregory Alan Isakov 8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5, MAJESTIC THEATRE, 1925 ELM ST. $59+ AT AXS.COM The South African-born singer-songwriter Greg- ory Alan Isakov has been a reliable source of sturdy, folk-inflected songs for more than two decades. In that time, he’s fostered an intense, dedicated relationship with his fans, touring reg- ularly and releasing albums at regular intervals — his latest, Appaloosa Bones, dropped in 2023, and was inspired, in part, by his time spent in West Texas. For this trip through town, Isakov will be the sole focus (the concert is being billed as “an intimate evening”), and additionally, he’ll be donating a dollar from the sale of each ticket to The Hello in There Foundation, a nonprofit es- tablished by the late John Prine’s family as a way of celebrating the iconic troubadour’s memory through “a philanthropic commitment to com- munity care,” according to press materials. PJ Eleven Hundred Springs is getting back together for one night to benefit good causes. | LET’S DO THIS | t Music Shane Kislack D INTERESTED CANDIDATES PLEASE SEND YOUR COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO CHARLIE.DONDLINGER@ DALLASOBSERVER.COM www.dallasobserver.com/signup go to WEEKLY EMAIL D SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL LIST for feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more!
