Category: Reviews

Billy Idol with Joan Jett opening. Dickies Arena, May 7, 2025.

If you have to go to a big arena to see a show, Dickies isn’t a bad one. It’s fairly new and the seats are big and comfortable. Plus even at the back end of the house, where we usually sit, the view of both the stage and the screens is good.

Joan Jett opened, doing a good job, though the covers and hits were clearly what the early-arriving fans wanted. She’s still engaged with the music, but the Blackhearts are a bar band, which limits what they can do for an arena show. The Dallas Observer review of her part of the show was a little unkind, but for all that she got the crowd warmed up and told some great stories, she was clearly the lesser of the two, which pains my feminist heart. I loved her songs back in the day, and she’s still putting out good music, but it’s very similar to the old stuff.

Billy is pushing 70, but he’s still stomping and snarling and waving his chains and tearing off his shirt just like he did when he was in his 20s. His voice was a little rough in places but he really held the audience with both his stories and his songs. Steve Stevens, his guitarist, did a fantastic job with the guitar on Flesh for Fantasy, which happens to be my favorite Billy Idol song. I was delighted to hear some brand new music; I haven’t followed him closely but I knew he was still releasing EPs and collaborating with other artists. His set was broad, with all the hits, and deep, with some new, some old, and some covers: he did a great Gimme Shelter with one of his singers, which is almost tailor-made for his snarl. By the end he had us really riled up for Rebel Yell, and then went into a four-song encore that included Hot in the City, Dancing With Myself, a new song, and White Wedding.

We danced out of the arena and went back to our hotel, still singing.

Kraftwerk at the Majestic Theater. April 22, 2025. Multimedia tour commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Autobahn.

Between Kraftwerk shows, it’s easy to forget how good their live extravaganza really is. For four guys standing at keyboards in front of a screen, it’s big and overwhelming. They’ve been around since 1970 so if they sound a little dated, it’s because they invented a lot of the musical tricks that have since become cliche. But if you know electronic music, you know most of what you’re going to hear at a Kraftwerk show, and more than they have time for because of the sheer depth and breadth of their back catalog.

Only one of the original members is still with the group: Ralf Hütter, after Florian Schneider died in 2020. Hütter is pushing 80 and you have to respect that he’s still out here pleasing the crowds when he could be home relaxing. The music keeps up with the times too: Radioactivity includes Fukushima on its list of disasters along with Three Mile Island (Harrisburg) and Chernobyl.

If you’ve seen Kraftwerk on recent tours, you have a good idea of what you’re getting into: the four band members at the podiums doing the music in the suits with light bands, standing still for the most part and letting the colored light do the work, with the visuals projected on a screen behind. The suits change colors to match what’s on the screen, which is hard to explain but easy to see. The graphics are for the most part computer animations, some of which clearly date back to earlier periods of Kraftwerk’s oeuvre but some of which are also clearly newer. In some cases they’ve put older and newer graphics side by side during the same song, which is interesting to watch. One song where the band used vintage film is The Model, where the fashion puts the film from the 50s or 60s, contrasting the fluid movement of the women and the clothing with the staccato sound of the synths.

The sound crept up on me in this concert. Usually I’m quick to grab my earplugs for hearing protection, but the bass was strong enough that it was rocking the seats in the Majestic before my husband asked for his. I probably lost a little hearing. It was worth it.

The Shanghai Quartet at Caruth Auditorium, Southern Methodist Univeristy. Final concert in the Dallas Chamber Music 2024-1025 season.

I’m a season ticket-holder, though I often miss for health reasons, and a dilettante in chamber music. I enjoy the more intimate and casual chamber music and early music concerts over more formal and larger orchestral concerts. My knowledge of Western classical music is limited; I’m familiar with the bigger names, particularly as you recede in music history. Modern classical, besides Glass, is out of my bailiwick.

This concert featured two Beethoven quartets and a more recent Penderecki quartet, plus an encore. Beethoven’s style is recognizable to me and the playing seemed solid and full of verve. The Penderecki was new to me; I was initially inclined to dislike the piece but it developed into something I enjoyed more. Reading up on Penderecki afterwards, I found that his later work had moved away from the avant garde style of his earlier period, which explained some of what I’d noticed.

The players were unsurprisingly skilled and other audience members with more experience than I have were particularly complimentary about the cellist, who drew a lot of my attention as well. They received three standing ovations, one at the end of each piece. Unfortunately I couldn’t hear the name of the encore over the whooping and applause, but they played it with even more gusto than the announced quartets. They really let their hair down: literally, as one of the violinists’ hair was flying loose from the vigor of his movements.

Getting out and listening to live music serves the same function for me as the proverbial touching grass. I commend it to anyone who feels terminally online.