17 June 5 -11, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Lil Baby 7 P.M. THURSDAY, JUNE 5, AMERICAN AIRLINES CENTER, 2500 VICTORY AVE. $53+ AT TICKETMASTER.COM Atlanta-born rapper Lil Baby (born Dominique Jones) has risen quickly in less than a decade, dropping his debut studio album Harder Than Ever in 2018. Since then, he’s racked up a Grammy, an MTV Video Music Award and a pair of BET Awards, among other accolades. He’s also kept up a steady drip of solo albums, col- laborative projects and mixtapes. In January, he released WHAM (Who Hard as Me), his fourth studio album, with another, Dominique, sched- uled for release this summer. He’s keeping an eye on quality control as his career grows: “I ac- tually went back this time and redid stuff and tightened stuff up — versus in the past, what- ever I recorded, that’s how I left it,” Lil Baby told Complex in January. “Now I’m ... putting more time into the artistry of it, rather than just rap- ping now.” BigXThaPlug, Loe Shimmy and Pluto will open. PRESTON JONES Rachel Chinouriri 8 P.M. FRIDAY, JUNE 6, CAMBRIDGE ROOM AT HOUSE OF BLUES, 2200 N. LAMAR. $101+ AT TICKETMASTER.COM The name may not be familiar, but her trajectory certainly is. This 26-year-old British-Zimba- bwean pop vocalist is the latest UK export to mount a friendly assault on our shores. Rachel Chinouriri arrives stateside for her debut head- lining tour after racking up praise for her fresh- man album, What a Devastating Turn of Events. She’s opening for pop superstar Sabrina Car- penter on the latter’s run of European dates and just dropped a new EP, Little House, in April. “It’s quite lucky when you’re able to grow slowly,” Chinouriri told the Washington Post earlier this year. “If I went from zero to 100, I could under- stand how people crash and burn mentally.” Alemeda and Bizzy will kick off the evening with opening sets. PJ Tennis 8 P.M. MONDAY, JUNE 9, THE BOMB FACTORY, 2713 CANTON ST. $45.51+ AT AXS.COM Married duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, who perform as Tennis, are calling it a career, but not before one more lap around the nation’s venues, supporting the pair’s final studio album, Face Down in the Garden, which dropped in late April. “I think running a business together is not great for a marriage, but we’re really lucky that that’s something we’ve been able to do,” Moore told Colorado Public Radio earlier this year. “There’s no turning off. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed, we’re worrying about, thinking about, making decisions for the band or the business of the band, and I think it has changed our dynamic as a married couple.” May their retirement prove restorative. With Bil- lie Marten. PJ Paul Cauthen 8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, KESSLER THEATER, 1230 W. DAVIS. $80.73+ AT PREKINDLE.COM The last six months have been downright har- rowing for Dallas-born singer-songwriter Paul Cauthen. Riding high with the release of his fourth solo album, Back on Black, in the latter half of 2024, the beginning of 2025 portended an ascent to the next level of stardom for one of the state’s hardest-working talents. Then, in February, it all came crashing to a halt. Cauthen cut short a nationwide tour and returned home. A month after that, he revealed he’d been diag- nosed with thyroid cancer and was working to- ward recovery. The next step in his healing? A monthlong residency at the intimate Kessler Theater. “I’ll be playing a broken down, acous- tic set ... to get back in the swing of things,” Cauthen wrote on social media. “No better way than in front of the folks that put me on the map!” PJ Shakira 8:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, GLOBE LIFE FIELD, 734 STADIUM DRIVE, ARLINGTON. $76+ AT TICKETMASTER.COM It’s been seven years since Colombian super- star Shakira last passed through North Texas, and the reports thus far about her “Las Mu- jeres Ya No Lloran” world tour, which has just five U.S. stops, have been a bit rocky. She’s scrapped six dates thus far, largely owing to production issues — Peru, Colombia and Chile were scratched, along with a pair of shows on the East Coast (one in Boston, one in Wash- ington, D.C.). This is on top of the measles ex- posure alert issued after her May 15 concert in New Jersey. But if anyone can overcome these hardships, it’s the indefatigable pride of Ba- ranquilla, who’s touring in support of her 12th studio album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, and so far as we’re aware, whose hips are still not lying. PJ Mike Brooks Paul Cauthen has been going through it lately. He’ll reset with a Kessler Theater residency. | LET’S DO THIS | t Music
