This Week's Best Concerts

Bob Dylan is a man of many talents, and it is his visual art that will be spotlighted in the forthcoming book Point Blank (Quick Studies). The volume will feature around 100 black and white drawings that Dylan committed to paper between 2021 and 2022, along with some prose pieces by a number of different authors.

If your only previous exposure to Dylan’s art was his painting that graced the album Self Portrait, don’t worry, this promises to be better than that. Most did not like that cover, and more still did not like the music contained therein. Critic Greil Marcus famously began his Rolling Stone review with “What is this shit?” and then proceeded to really trash the album from there. Oh, and if you need a more timely dose of Dylan, he will be performing on Sunday, July 6, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion as part of Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival.

Ticket Alert

Of the guitarists who took the torch passed by Jimi Hendrix, none was as subtle and tasteful as Robin Trower. Never a showboater, Trower is generally restrained in his playing, though he can step on the gas whenever he wants to. Tickets are on sale now for his show at the House of Blues on Thursday, October 16.

New jack swing rolls into the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday, October 25, when Keith Sweat’s tour makes a stop in Houston. Sweat (“I Want Her,” “Make It Last Forever” and (yes) “Make You Sweat”) will headline a bill that also includes XSCAPE, October London and Cupid, so get your ticket while you can.

Maroon 5 will be on the road this fall, touring in support of the forthcoming album Love is Like. The general sale for the band’s concert at Toyota Center on Wednesday, November 5, is set for Friday, with various presales beginning today and Thursday. Among these is a presale for “S.I.N. Club” members. I was intrigued and then somewhat disappointed when I found that this is actually Maroon 5’s official fan club and not something more decadent. The acronym stands for “Strength in Numbers.” Fine. Fine.

Any Evil Dead fans out there? Sam Raimi’s 1981 film casts a large shadow over the horror genre, having spawned a number of sequels, a television series, comic books, graphic novels and even a musical for God’s sake. It’s the music from the film that we’re talking about here, though, with Evil Dead in Concert coming to the Bayou Music Center on Monday, November 10. The score for the original Evil Dead film by Joe LoDuca (rock and jazz musician, composer) will be performed, and promoters promise “cinematic chaos, demonic energy and killer sounds.” This will be big, loud and creepy. Tickets are on sale now.

Concerts This Week

The Houston-based band The Midnight Papers will celebrate the release of its debut album with a performance at the White Oak Music Hall on Thursday. Tiffany Hamilton (guitar, vocals) and Tim Richey (drums, vocals) have a string of gigs booked, and the band’s song “Quelque Chose” has received airplay on 6 Towns Radio in the UK. For more on The Midnight Papers, check out David Rozycki ‘s story in the Houston Press.

The cowpunk genre was established in the early ‘80s when a number of bands began to combine influences from country, rock and punk into an intense musical blend that would have made Ernest Tubb’s hair stand on end. Leading the charge was Jason and the Scorchers, a Nashville band by way of Illinois fronted by one Jason Ringenberg, who writer Jimmy Guterman once described as “Ed Norton [the “Honeymooners” character, not the actor] on methamphetamines.” Ringenberg is still out there flying the flag, keeping country music safe from “bro country” acts and those who seek to dilute or pervert a venerable American music tradition. For more on his crusade, take a gander at Bob Ruggiero’s Houston Press interview with Ringenberg, and check out this truly unique performer on Friday at the Continental Club.

Doing a quick 180, we will now focus on the Summer of Loud Festival at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday. Brace yourself for a head-banging onslaught from a bill including (deep breath) Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Beartooth, I Prevail, The Devil Wears Prada, The Amity Affliction, Alpha Wolf and TX2. Bear in mind that the music starts at 3 p.m., so plan accordingly to catch all of your favorites.

Who doesn’t love Robert Earl Keen, the Houston-born singer-songwriter, Sharpstown High School graduate and college housemate of Lyle Lovett? Keen will perform at the White Oak Music Hall on Sunday as part of a tour that covers Texas and stretches up to Colorado and over to California. I realize that it is summer, but I still hope Keen plays “Merry Christmas from the Family.”