Get Turnt With Chingy at Canton Hall, or Celebrate Prince’s Birthday, Play By The New Rules With Dua Lipa, Laugh Your MASS Off With JT Habersaat and More.

Last month, a 21-year-old Connecticut man was kidnapped, tied up and held hostage. The assailant’s weapon of choice? A 3-foot gator he kept threatening to make bite the man if he didn’t get his $800 ransom.

Fortunately, the ransom calls were traced and the victim was rescued with only minor, non-gator-related injuries.

Get this – the kidnapper was from Garland. Not sure where you get a gator in Garland but, um, maybe avoid that part of town until we get more answers. You don’t know what’s lurking out there.

Below we’ve detailed a few places we believe to be free of gators. — Cory Graves

The Second City Summer Blockbuster at Wyly Theatre
The Second City’s touring cast was started by comedy giants Harold Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Joe Flaherty, and the company has featured dozens of Saturday Night Live alumni and comic legends, including Joan Rivers, John Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Dratch, Amy Sedaris and so many more. It’s a comedy training ground whose shows are not only guaranteed to make you laugh, but shine some light on the stars of tomorrow. — CG

Dua Lipa at South Side Ballroom
The 22-year-old British pop star was the most-streamed female musician in her home country last year. After crossing the billion streams mark on YouTube for her “New Rules” single, and an SNL appearance earlier this year, it’s no wonder she’s headlining this large venue on two back-to-back nights. Clairo opens. — CG

Melissa Villasenor at Amphibian Stage Productions
The SNL featured player and Adventure Time voice actor has logged time on tour opening for Whitney Cummings. Now she’s embarking on a national tour of her own, following a five-night warm up stint in Dallas. — CG

Darrein Safron at The Prophet Bar
The Tech N9ne protégé and son of Marvin Gaye’s touring drummer got his first taste of spotlight performing Aretha’s “Chain of Fools” on Showtime at the Apollo at age 11. Now in his 20s, he’s putting a more modern spin on the R&B genre. Poundgame Addison opens. — CG

Curtis McMurtry at Fort Worth Live
The son of singer-songwriter James McMurtry and grandson of Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry is something of an adored creative in his own right. He performs solo acoustic here. — CG

Turnt Up Tour at Canton Hall
It’s a Chingy, Pete Pablo and Ying Yang Twins triple bill. Now that’s a party right thurr. — CG

Justin Townes Earle at Kessler Theater
Justin and his daddy Steve both had dueling albums fighting for the top spot on the Americana radio charts last year, each prevailing in different weeks. He’s in town performing solo acoustic this time. Lydia Loveless opens. — CG

Purple Rain on 35mm + Prince Birthday Dance Party at Texas Theatre
On what would have been The Purple One’s 60th birthday, the gone-too-soon legend gets a dance party thrown in his honor. It’ll be preceded by a screening of 1984’s quasi-autobiographical film. — CG

Aly & AJ at Cambridge Room (Sold Out)
After focusing mainly on acting the past decade (Aly currently stars on iZombie, while AJ is in The Goldbergs) the sister teen idol duo is back with a more grown-up comeback album. — CG

Shakespeare in the Park: The Comedy of Errors at Samuell Grand Park
Tucked away off of I-30, there’s a park with a small amphitheater, the Samuel Grand Amphitheater. During the summer months, Shakespeare Dallas puts on two shows in the park. This year, they take on the classic, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew. A recent show we attended began at 8:15, as the sun was setting behind the trees. The amphitheater allows for food and adult beverages (no liquor) to be brought in, so it’s the perfect date night or gathering with a group of friends. Just bring a blanket or your lawn chairs, or you can even rent chairs there, and you can feast on finger foods and beverages before the show. — Angela Jones

Stoney LaRue at Lava Cantina
Some argue that country music doesn’t need saving. LaRue, on the other hand, begs to differ. However quiet The Colony’s regulations require him to play, he’ll likely sell out the restaurant venue. — CG

Self Defense Family, Sannhet, Street Sects at The Ridglea Room
The long-running, pop-culture-loving post-hardcore collective headlines the under-utilized Fort Worth venue. — CG

Laugh Your MASS Off w/ JT Habersaat at Main At South Side
When he started doing comedy in Austin in 2008, Habersaat modeled his approach on the trajectories of some of his favorite music acts. That led to bold early choices, like bypassing the open mic circuit and diving straight into booking shows at whatever music venues were receptive to having stand-up comedy. It was a major gambit, and even he’s hesitant to tell someone to start in the exact way he did. But, hey, it’s paid off for him. Habersaat has earned opportunities to work with prominent comics who were also looking to work outside the club system, and go on to pick up a deal with Stand Up! Records too. Check out an interview we did with the comedian here. Brad LaCour, Sam Dobbin and Dalton Pruitt also perform. — Alex Gaskin

A-Kon at Fort Worth Convention Center
Taking over the Fort Worth Convention Center this weekend is North America’s longest running Anime convention, which returns to the Metroplex for its 29th year. — Blake Lumley

Breweries Read One-Star Reviews at Common Table (Free)
In the vein of Jimmy Kimmel’s segment in which he has celebs read mean tweets about themselves, the other CT is getting its brewer buds to live read bad reviews of their brews/breweries. The interesting music of Marc Rebillet follows. — CG

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