Dallas: Tricky at Trees

Tricky, the influential trip-hop pioneer, brings his atmospheric, genre-defying sound to Trees in Dallas on September 20, with tickets starting at $46.

Born Adrian Thaws in Bristol, England, Tricky first rose to prominence as a member of the Wild Bunch sound system collective that also birthed Massive Attack, before launching a solo career with the landmark 1995 album “Maxinquaye.” That record, built on hazy production, whispered vocals, and a fusion of hip-hop, reggae, and electronic textures, helped define the entire trip-hop genre and remains one of the most influential British albums of the 1990s. Tricky has continued releasing acclaimed records for three decades, including “Pre-Millennium Tension,” “Angels with Dirty Faces,” and more recent work like “Fall to Pieces” (2021), each finding new ways to reinterpret his signature murky, atmospheric sound.

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Trees has been a fixture of Dallas’s Deep Ellum music scene since the late 1980s, one of the neighborhood’s original rock clubs and a stage that has hosted acts across punk, metal, alternative, and electronic music for decades. The mid-size room retains the gritty, no-frills character that made Deep Ellum a magnet for touring bands long before the neighborhood’s more recent redevelopment, and it remains one of Dallas’s most reliable venues for genre-spanning club shows. Fans can find more on the venue’s history at Trees’ own page on Texas Music Map.

Tricky’s live shows are known for reworking his catalog into darker, more improvisational forms, often built around a rotating cast of vocalists and musicians rather than a fixed backing band. That approach has kept his live performances feeling vital across a career that spans generations of electronic and alternative music evolution.

Doors open at 7 PM. Trees’ close, club-sized setting suits Tricky’s moody, bass-heavy sound especially well, and Deep Ellum’s nearby restaurants make for an easy pre-show stop before settling in for a set built on mood and atmosphere.