Best Shows of ’25

One day, assuming we still reside on a habitable planet, when AI versions of Paul F. Thompkins and Michael Ian Black tackle the Big Beautiful Year of 2025 in one of VH1’s campy Best Week Ever-style retrospectives, we’ll be relentlessly quipped into reliving the collective trauma of this foul year. The Luka trade, Chili’s 86-ing the skillet queso, the confounding ubiquity of “6-7,” Tarifflation squeezing every red cent out of our stagnant wages, the inexplicable continuing music careers of Benson Boone and Morgan Wallen, the long-awaited final season of a once-favorite sci-fi show being ruined by increasingly confusing lore and clunky dialogue delivered by supposed high shoolers played by damn near 30-year-olds, the return of Chili’s skillet queso — oh, and the sudden unexpected drop of pics of Noam Chomsky just chilling with Steve Bannon on Epstein Island. It would be nice if 2025 could have made like Gen Alpha’s chances of ever owning a home and simply not exist.

Yet exist it did, and as live music is our lifeblood, we intrepid music journos needed plenty of phat beats, heavy riffs, and sad boi (or girl, or neither) lyrics to get us through the grind. Here are just a handful of our favorite live musical experiences that helped us endure the last 12 months.

Patrick’s Bests

As it has since I was old enough to drive, live music continues to take priority over every spare dollar I can squirrel away. I managed to scrimp and save my way into some pretty awesome shows in 2025. As much as possible, I tried to prioritize seeing an artist for the first time. While ’90s alt-rock icons Pavement do not necessarily fit that narrative, their late September show at the Longhorn Ballroom (my first time there) was the first time I’d seen them since 1999, which basically counts. For all the time between, throughout the killer set that ran the gamut of their entire career, they were in every bit the fighting shape they were a quarter century ago.

I also managed to check off a couple of bucket list acts that were worth my lifelong wait, first with Urbana, Illinois’ legendary American Football when they performed their genre-defining Midwest-emo self-titled debut in full at the Granada Theater in May. Then with former Talking Heads’ singing head David Byrne with his wildly fun and artistic performance last month at the Texas Theater, which is perhaps my favorite venue in all of DFW now that the Ridglea Theater no longer does national, touring, big-room shows.

I caught Irish post-punks Fontaines D.C. in the spring as well. This quintet of twentysomethings’ infectious blend of psyche, dreampop, and hardcore help prove that the next generation can still make great rock music. They’re easily my favorite new(ish) band going.

Speaking of psych-punk vibes, catching locals Love Cuts’ first-ever show along with the first (proper) set by mathy wall-of-sound purveyors Horsepowers topped my homegrown live music experiences.

However, the highlight of my musical year, perhaps ironically, was AC/DC at AT&T Stadium in April. Catching the Aussie rockers in their 70s in the famously anti-audiophile confines of that oversized football stadium wasn’t necessarily on my personal list of must-sees, but it was on my 12-year-old son’s. He’s been a big fan since he was introduced to the band by Jack Black in School of Rock. I personally may not have High Voltage or Back in Black in my record collection, but a steady diet of classic rock radio as a kid and a decade spent working in a Guitar Center exposed me to enough of Angus and Co.’s catalog that only one song in their thunderous two-hour set was foreign to me. They still rock, no septuagenarian qualifier needed, and sharing the experience with my tweenager and seeing the live music bug take root in his heart made me enthusiastically stand with 80,000 others in salute to those about to rock.

Steve’s List

I think the most fun I’ve had at a show all year was on December 6, when my girlfriend got us tickets to see the Marked Men and Labels at Rubber Gloves. I hadn’t been to this Denton institution since, like, 2009, and as I second-guessed my own memories about what was different, we wandered into the smaller room. We were practically hypnotized by Thinky Flesh, a punk septet that seemed to use harmonic theory and guitar solos as vectors for withering sarcasm, warping nearby brains with disturbing intervals and the incendiary performance of their singer. Clad in a skirt and shiny, silver gift bow in lieu of a top, she contorted onstage, invaded the audience, then, at the end, sang a pretty badass song about hotdogs.

Thinky Flesh were totally captivating, sonically unsettling, and about as Denton-y as you could imagine — brainy, noisy, and as locked-in as Pinhead’s puzzle box. Their show was fantastic, and I hope someone books them in Fort Worth and gets a good crowd in front of them so they can weird the pants off people. We watched their whole set, missing all but three songs from Labels, who were playing to a full house in the big room.

In the aftermath of Labels’ set, the room was practically crackling with “holy shit!” energy. Labels has played Denton other times, but it seemed like there were a lot in the crowd who had never seen them before. The band’s proggy, psychedelic hardcore was supercharged by the packed-in crowd.

Then the Marked Men came on and ripped across a set that included something between 20 and 100 high-velocity punk songs, all of which blew my hair back like stray bullets (if stray bullets were made of anthemic, singalong hooks). We left after their set, and for once, that drive back to Fort Worth didn’t seem as interminable as it does normally.

Kena’s Highlights

An excess of Fort Worth artists filled the annual Amplify 817 Showcase: 88 Killa, Grady Spencer & The Work, Kendi Jean, Tipps and Obermiller, Asa Ace, and Cherry Mantis. Rotating between the two stages at Birdie’s Social Club and The Post, the artists carried the tunes and the vibes that resonated throughout the event. Since February 2020, Fort Worth Public Library has been innovating ways to support local music, but this annual showcase gives the artists the chance to show what they can do live. And live music makes the beat for the heart of a city. Thank you, Amplify 817.

Weird Al Yankovic’s Bigger and Weirder 67-city (don’t say it) tour included a stop at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie on August 2. With an off-the-wall opening from Puddles the Clown, Weird Al made sure that his 40-plus-year streak of unpredictability continued as he emerged from a side door into the crowd to kick the show off strong. Bringing back the early hits that shot him to fame like “My Bologna” before moving through time with “Amish Paradise” and “White and Nerdy,” he made sure to showcase “Polkamania,” a new smashup influenced by the likes of pop icons Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift. Between bangers and costume changes, Weird Al showed interviews and clips from his career, creating a seamless entertaining circus of a show.

Johnny’s Favorite Shows

The best show I took in this year was Voodoo Glow Skulls headlining the Granada Theater in Dallas this summer. The show opened with San Antonio’s Pinata Protest with Mesa, Arizona’s Authority Zero in between. It was a heavy, rocking punk show and made me feel like I was a teenager again. Seeing Glow Skulls for the first time checked off an entry that’s been sitting on my bucket list since first listening to them in the early 1990s.

Joe Gorgeous at Denton’s Aura Coffee last month was also killer. I’ve been a fan of the Fort Worth band for several years, and when they asked me to photograph this show, I was super-excited to capture their infectious punk energy with my camera. The show was in support of their new album, Life in the Faust Lane, a serious banger.

Early aughts indie-rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah also top my list. They were on a national tour for the 20-year anniversary of their self-titled debut and made a stop at Tulips FTW in the spring. Frontman Alec Ounsworth has a perfect way of balancing the band’s soft, intimate moments with leading the crowd during more energetic songs. Opening that show was New York’s Babehoven. It was my first time hearing and seeing the group, and since then they’ve been steady on my playlist rotation.