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BEST MUSIC VENUES

By MARIO TARRADELL/Music Critic

In Dallas-Fort Worth, music venues are plentiful. And they regularly sing favorite tunes – booking the same types of acts again and again in an effort to entice concert enthusiasts. Which acts to see and where to go can lead to head-scratching, since D-FW is a major market for just about every musical genre. With the opening of some new venues in 2009, including Cowboys Stadium and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, we thought it was time to do a checkup of them all.

So let's look at local music venues and briefly examine each location's sound and versatility. Seating capacity and parking are part of the checklist, too, since both are always huge considerations when searching for concerts to enjoy.

We have excluded music nightclubs because they generally do not offer reserved seating. Dallas' House of Blues and Fort Worth's Billy Bob's Texas sell reserved-seat tickets, so they are on the list in this music version of The Best in DFW.

Staff writers Joy Tipping and Dawn M. Burkes contributed to this report.

Best in DFW: Music venues

About the Best in DFW series

The Best in DFW series presents critics' and staff picks and asks readers to chime in with their favorites.

This feature started with a focus on the area's best restaurants and is expanding to include entertainment venues and other high-interest topics.

How we choose

The Best in DFW series presents critics' and staff picks and asks readers to chime in with their favorites.

Critics' picks are presented without ranking.

To view other dining features, check the Restaurants page at DallasNews.com.