20 August 14 - 20, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Tanner Adell 8 P.M. FRIDAY, AUG. 15, THE CAMBRIDGE ROOM AT HOUSE OF BLUES, 2200 N. LAMAR. $59+ AT TICKETMASTER.COM Kentucky singer-songwriter Tanner Adell has moved swiftly in her four years in the music in- dustry. She dropped her debut album, Buckle Bunny, in 2023 on Columbia Records (and, barely a year later, parted ways with the major label, jumping to Love Renaissance, an imprint which counts Summer Walker and 6lack among its roster). Adell also pops up on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, singing on both “Blackbiird” and “Ameriican Requiem,” and earlier this year, dropped a new single, “Going Blonde,” ahead of her “Giddy Up Gorgeous” tour, which will bring her to cozy venues across America. “I don’t leave anything on the stage,” Adell told Cincin- nati magazine earlier this month. “I always give a million percent.” PRESTON JONES Ghost 8 P.M. FRIDAY, AUG. 15, DICKIES ARENA, 1919 MONTGOMERY ST., FORT WORTH. $52+ AT TICKETMASTER.COM Swedish rock band Ghost is a whole-ass vibe — the visual and sonic equivalent of Skeletor crushing some Ikea meatballs and getting a wild hair to launch an arena-dominating metal act. (Sorry, we were distracted trying to choose be- tween Hemnes and Lommarp cabinets.) The band, led by Tobias Forge, is comprised of ... let us check our notes ... “a Group of Nameless Ghouls,” all of whom joined forces to create its sixth studio album, the recently released Skeleta. Said LP was the Grammy Award-win- ning band’s first to top the Billboard 200 chart, so these crazy kids are clearly striking a chord. Those attending expecting to extensively docu- ment the eye-popping theatricality promised on the “Skeletour” will be disappointed — the band is going phone-free for its current tour, and fans will have to secure devices in Yonder pouches. PJ Drew and Ellie Holcomb 8 P.M. FRIDAY, AUG. 15, MAJESTIC THEATRE, 1925 ELM ST. $21+ AT PREKINDLE.COM It may come as something of a mild surprise to learn that Memory Bank is the first, official full- length studio effort credited equally to Drew and Ellie Holcomb — a surprise only in that the husband-and-wife team has made music to- gether in some form over much of the last two decades. Ellie spent eight years as a member of Drew’s band, the Neighbors, before going it alone in 2014, with her solo debut As Sure As the Sun. “One of my favorite things about us doing music both together and separately is that there’s a massive amount of respect for each other,” Ellie told thebluegrasssituation.com ear- lier this year. “The reason it took us 20 years to write and record an album together is because we’ve always honored that artistic and creative space with each other. We write really differ- ently; we create really differently. I think that mutual respect and space that we’ve given each other made space for us to make what we’ve re- leased into the world now, and I love it.” (The show is rescheduled from a March 29 postpone- ment; all existing tickets will be honored.) PJ Vandoliers 7:45 P.M. SATURDAY, AUG. 16, KESSLER THEATER, 1230 W. DAVIS. $31.79+ AT PREKINDLE.COM Few North Texas-bred acts have built a more fervent fanbase over the last decade than Van- doliers, as guaranteed a party-starting act as you can find. The freewheeling sextet smashes together a variety of genres — country, punk, rockabilly — and spices it with a few Latin flour- ishes to create something utterly arresting. The band has spent much of the summer traveling across the country in support of its excellent new album Life Behind Bars, a record which chronicles, in unflinching fashion, frontwoman Jenni Rose’s harrowing odyssey through gender dysphoria and addiction. Despite the grim, raw subject matter, Bars is a feisty good time — and this homecoming gig will undoubtedly go down as one of the most poignant, rowdy evenings in Dallas music history. With Pinata Protest and Nate Bergman. PJ Five for Fighting 8 P.M. SUNDAY, AUG. 17, THE BOMB FACTORY, 2713 CANTON ST. $52+ AT AXS.COM Call us crazy if you like, but Five for Fighting’s sophomore album, America Town (yeah, the one with the Superman song), is one of the most un- derrated pop-rock efforts of the last 25 years. The big hit overshadowed singer-songwriter John Ondrasik (who performs under the Five for Fight- ing nom de plume)’s facility with hummable songs with sophisticated subject matter — Town’s follow-up, 2004’s The Battle for Everything, also has its moments — and mistakenly pigeon-holed him as little more than a one-hit wonder. Al- though it’s been a dozen years since the last Five for Fighting studio album (2013’s Bookmarks), Ondrasik has kept busy with film and TV scoring work, with a recent detour into more politically charged singles, having dropped songs about the Ukraine invasion and the Hamas attack on Israel. Vertical Horizon will provide support. PJ Vincent Monsaint Vandoliers gleefully smashes together multiple genres, and guarantees a wheels- off good time. | LET’S DO THIS | t Music
