10 Best Concerts of the Week: Neil Young, Bad Bunny, Sleep Token and More

It is just a wild mix of shows this week. Everything starts off reasonably enough. Uncle Lucius is playing a nice evening show in Plano under the stars. Then, boom! You see some of the biggest names in music — Neil Young, Bad Bunny, Goodie Mob — and you think, "I'd never see those names in the same sentence." But there they are, and you have to choose. Then you get to Friday, and its country wild man Paul Cauthen playing a sold-out show in Fort Worth (with verified resale tickets still available) and the raunchiest techno group of all time, Lords of Acid, playing in the Design District just late enough to maybe catch both.

But no, the week isn't done with you yet. Death-metal/indie-pop/cult-rock band Sleep Token makes its presence known Saturday night, and Knocked Loose brings the craziest lineup of hardcore bands together on Sunday night. On Monday night, it's heavy metal, avant-garde jazz, ska, disco, funk band Mr. Bungle at House of Blues, and on Tuesday, everything that happened during the past week makes Cypress Hill seem tame and conventional. Good luck this week, North Texas.
Uncle Lucius
6:30 p.m, Thursday, May 2, Lexus Box Garden at Legacy Hall, 7800 Windrose Ave., Plano. $20+ at prekindle.com

Austin country band Uncle Lucius is back in North Texas, playing a Thursday evening show in Plano. In 2018, the band played its last show at Gruene Hall just before frontman Kevin Galloway began pursuing a solo career, but the band came back to life last year after a five-year hiatus. There's something different about Uncle Lucius' style of country music, setting it widely apart. Call it soulfulness or call it grooviness, but Uncle Lucius gives country music a kind of depth that the genre all too often lacks. The band's 2012 song "Keep the Wolves Away" became surprisingly popular during the pandemic, reaching 115 million views on YouTube and earning the band its first and only certified platinum single. Last year, the band released its first new album in eight years, Like It’s The Last One Left, to rave reviews. Fort Worth-based blues artist Michael Lee leads off the night at the Lexus Box Garden.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 2, The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving. $85.50+ at livenation.com

For all the legendary acts still touring, Neil Young is one of the few who has managed to maintain his relevance rather than touring on his legacy alone. Young had spent the early '60s knocking around from show to show as a solo act or with short-lived bands, including a brief stint with the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds. After the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young drove to Los Angeles, where he would meet Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield. In the late '60s, Young formed hard rock band Crazy Horse with Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums. The band came to be recognized as a key influence on the grunge genre of the '90s, prompting renewed public interest in his work. Though Whitten died in 1972, Talbot and Molina remain with the band, whose Love Earth Tour rolls through Irving this Thursday.
Bad Bunny
8 p.m., Thursday and Saturday, May 2 and 4, American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave. $141+ at ticketmaster.com

So few Spanish-speaking artists have captured the nation's attention like Bad Bunny. In just a few years' time, the Puerto Rican singer has gone from "Who was that guy performing with J.Lo at the Super Bowl?" to selling out two nights at the American Airlines Center. Don't worry, there are still verified resale tickets available if you haven't gotten yours, but it'll cost you at least a couple hundred to get in. Bad Bunny was not an overnight success, however. The Latin trap artist had done features with rappers Drake and Cardi B in the years leading up to his Super Bowl appearance. Even before that, Bad Bunny made 15 appearances as a featured artist on Billboard's Hot Latin Song charts in 2017 alone, working with the likes of reggaeton superstars J. Balvin, Karol G, Ozuna and many more. The singer's Most Wanted Tour was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but the Friday date has been rescheduled for Thursday, May 2, due to the Dallas Mavericks' playoff game.
Goodie Mob
10 p.m., Thursday, May 2, Lava Cantina, 5805 Grandscape Blvd., The Colony. $20+ at eventbrite.com

Atlanta hip-hop/R&B musical group Goodie Mob has been through town a few times in the last couple of years, supporting its 2020 return, Survival Kit, but it was always as a side act in some '90s nostalgia tour. This week, the group that gave us classics "Cell Therapy" and "Black Ice (Sky High)" will be leading its own show at Lava Cantina. Goodie Mob came to life in the same Dungeon Family hip-hop collective that produced groups such as Organized Noize and Outkast. The group's lyrics centered on issues like racism and discrimination, fusing gritty rhymes of Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo with the soulful voice of CeeLo Green. Green went on to score hits as a solo artist and as a part of the neo-soul duo Gnarles Barkley with Danger Mouse. While the rest of the Mob saw their own successes in the hip-hop underground, the quartet have always worked better together.
Paul Cauthen
9 p.m., Friday, May 3, Tannahill's Tavern and Music Hall, 122 E. Exchange Ave., Ste. 200, Fort Worth. $100+ at ticketmaster.com

Tyler's own Paul Cauthen has one of the best voices in country music today, and we don't just mean here in North Texas. Known as "Big Velvet" for the same gritty baritone of his closest musical ancestor, Waylon Jennings — whose "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" Cauthen covered in 2017 — the singer garnered a national reputation for doing old-school country ("Prayed for Rain") and being able to do it in a new school way ("Cocaine Country Dancing") with his 2019 release Room 41. Cauthen's follow-up album, Country Coming Down, came out in 2022 to many positive reviews. Since then, Cauthen has released new singles about every other month while maintaining a busy touring schedule. His latest single, "Hot Damn," came out in mid-April, and his show in Fort Worth is sold out. Just keep an eye out for those resale tickets.
Lords of Acid
11 p.m., Friday, May 3, The Echo Lounge & Music Hall, 1323 N. Stemmons Fwy. $41.75 at livenation.com

Belgian-American electronic dance music group Lords of Acid hosts a late-night, 18+ event this Friday in the Design District. Led by musician Praga Khan, Lords of Acid grew to prominence in the '90s due in part to its sexually explicit lyrics on tracks such as "Pussy." While the bulk of Lords of Acid's work was released in the '90s, the group has continued to release music sporadically throughout the 21st century, with its most recent release, Acid Reign, due out this year. Lords of Acid is known for its electronic music, but the group also tours with a live band, giving the music even more depth and power. With sexually provocative lyrics, Lords of Acid is also known for putting on raunchy stage shows. It has been said that the shows have tamed down a bit since the group's heyday, but there wouldn't be an age restriction if something kinky wasn't on the bill.
Sleep Token
8 p.m., Saturday, May 4, The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, 300 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving. $78+ at stubhub.com

OK. Maybe you've been distracted or something for the last year, so here's the deal with Sleep Token: It's a concept band. Sleep Token claim to be the human representatives of an ancient deity known as "Sleep." The band is led by a masked singer known only as "Vessel," and its members are known only by numbers. Each song the band plays is a "token" or offering to "Sleep," and its performances are intended to be sacred worship services for this deity. There, now you're all caught up. Given the band's anonymity and the richness of its lore, the Sleep Token has garnered a rabid, cult-like following that is either having a lot of fun with this or taking it way too seriously. All the mythos aside, Sleep Token takes metal to places it has never been before, combining it with progressive rock and indie pop to create something that is genuinely interesting to listen to. The band will have service this Saturday in Irving on its The Teeth of God Tour with Empire State Bastard
Knocked Loose
7 p.m., Sunday, May 5, The Factory in Deep Ellum, 2713 Canton St. $39+ at axs.com

Kentucky hardcore band Knocked Loose has been on the scene since 2013, and it has only gotten harder and faster over time. Like many hardcore bands, Knocked Loose has seen its share of lineup changes over the years, but it has always been fronted by singer Bryan Garris and backed by Kevin Otten on bass. Also like many hardcore bands today, Knocked Loose likes to test the limits of the genre. The band's new album, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To, which is scheduled to drop May 10, will have tracks featuring electropop-metal artist Poppy and Chris Motionless of industrial metal band Motionless in White. The band comes to town with English heavy metal band Loathe, banjo-playing hardcore band Show Me The Body and five-piece Australian hardcore punk band Speed. This one is sure to get your heart rate up.
Mr. Bungle
7 p.m., Monday, May 6, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $53+ at livenation.com

You really either love or hate experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. One of the many, many projects of vocalist Mike Patton, Mr. Bungle is by far the most difficult to access with its wild fusion of heavy metal, avant-garde jazz, ska, disco, funk and whatever else the band is feeling at the time. The band is also known for using unconventional instruments (e.g., jaw harp, cimbalom, Italian accordions) in a lineup that has only three consistent members in addition to any number of studio or touring musicians. To top it off, it's never certain what vocal style Patton will use on any given song: growls, crooning, rapping, screeching, gurgling or whispering. In this way, no two Mr. Bungle songs are exactly alike, making the band either really exciting or really frustrating to get into. Despite the band's experimental approach, it has gained a small but enthusiastic following over the years. IDM and breakcore musician Otto Von Schirach opens the show.
Cypress Hill
7 p.m., Tuesday, May 7, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St. $64.50+ at livenation.com

After 35 years straddling that soft line that divides the worlds of hip-hop and rock, the legendary crossover act Cypress Hill returns to Dallas for a show at House of Blues. Cypress Hill members pursued projects separately for three years, then came roaring back in 2021 with a new single, “Champion Sound,” from the album Back in Black, which dropped in March 2022. The song was used for the video game R.B.I Baseball '21, and was the featured track for Cypress Hill’s partnership with Montejo Cerveza. The We Legalized It 2024 Tour has Cypress Hill teaming up with the iconic South Central alternative hip-hop group The Pharcyde and the Oakland hip-hop collective Souls of Mischief. There is clearly an old-school vibe this lineup is throwing down, and it's sure to be a party.