Tonight, Tonight: Tom Petty and ZZ Top at Superpages, Jurassic Park: The Musical at Dan's, Black Tusk and Radio Moscow at The Nightmare

By Darryl Smyers Tue., Sep. 21 2010 at 7:02 PM

Interesting couple of "shows" happening in the North Texas area tonight. Fans of classic rock, metal and bizarre performance art all have something to look forward to this evening.

Tom Petty and ZZ Top at Superpages.com Center
Thirty years ago, it might have been Petty opening for ZZ Top, but it's an easy call these days on which of these acts has had the better long-term career. Petty's riding pretty high on the strength of his most recent effort, the bluesy, jammy and ballsy Mojo. ZZ Top, on the other hand, hasn't released an album since 2003. But before we dismiss Billy Gibbons and crew, word is that the Texas trio is working with Rick Rubin on a new record that is promised to be a return to the classic "La Grange" period. And like Petty's Mojo, the last couple of efforts from ZZ Top have been definitely blues-based. Either way, this double-bill represents a killer selection of true American music.

Black Tusk and Radio Moscow at The Nightmare
We briefly mentioned this show on the blog last week. This show will be super loud, super brutal, and super fast. Easily the second-best metal show this week.

Jurassic Park: The Musical at Dan's Silverleaf
From the truly weird department comes Jurassic Park: The Musical, a melodramatic and musical rethinking of the classic movie series. Seems that Max Brown, a former UNT music student, and Ryan Cortez, an economics junior at UNT, thought that rapping dinos would be a cleaver theatrical endeavor. Both Brown and Cortez are also behind Savage and the Big Beat, an indie outfit that's been around a couple of years. Jurassic Park: The Musical consists of two acts and 10 songs. With a set featuring large, fake eggs, it's easy to see the whimsy in the work of Brown and Cortez.