Friday, August 30, 2013

Show notes, last half of 2011

These are the notes I recorded on my phone during the shows. In some cases, I added my tweets from that night.

The usual caveats apply: I am not a music critic, I don't pretend to be. I likes what I like. These are my opinions only, worth what you paid. If you are a thin-skinned band member, you should think twice before proceeding. You have been warned.
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Haileys 4/10/11
Two knights. One guitar, drums. Oh yeah, love that two-hands-on-the-fret shit. Young, angry, enjoyable

Babar. No vox. Just math rock tapping. Blech. Don't get it. "This song is called x and is about this", then 3 minutes with no words. Giggle.

Manned missiles. Great rock. Tried not to hold their drunk-ass fans against them.

4/20/11 the loft
Sundress - trippin' balls

Freelance Whales - goddam, this band loves them some bells. Loved it.

Arcade fire 4/30/11
Omg, i officially hate Gexa fucking energy pavilion. So "state fair", with the $14 beers, the sausage-on-a-stick, plus the ticket-checking Nazis.
Arcade Fire was awesome, tho.

Dada 5/20
Austin band, my something. Instrumental, buncha olds, bass player tryin to sell it, rest of em bored, violin player reminded me of eastbound & down dude

Air waves, straight outta Brooklyn, yo. Pretty awesome.

Joan of arc. Lotsa instrumental math rock. Almost walked. Started singing. Much better.

Gal from Air waves confused by Bob.

Loft 5/22/11
The Ones You Loved. Wow. Proof that even the Mormonites can kick ass on stage. Who'da thunk it?

Hells yeah. The Rocketboys seemed to have jettisoned Holmer Hiccolm without a hitch. Awesome.

Sweet Jeezus. An Horse. Fantastic.

Loft 6/7/11
Caddywhompus
Family of the Year
Givers

Haileys 6/17
Alphabet. Four man, all guitars. Finger tapping, ugh. Lead, not a great voice. Buried in the mix, probly a good thing.

Mary walker. Her on keys, dude on bass in jorts, drums. blech. Sorry Mary, despite ur super-low neckline & the bass player wearing the super-ridiculous jorts, ur not for me

Hares on the mountain. Jc, George Neal, rtb, two more. Very folky. "Ain't no big man sittin in the sky. Ain't no angels sittin way up high". HOTM, I love u for no other reason than that

Roy Robertson: very nice, but u shud work on ur addiction to the massive amount of reverb u use on ur vocals. Admission is the first step

My gawd, I loves me some Sundress, have I made that clear? Even tho they exceed the Max Allowable # of Wife-Beaters Per Band (one)

6/23 dada
Oax. Started off boring, got better. Still, meh. Pretty routine pop rock.

Other lives. Cello, violin, trumpet. Awesome. Squeezebox, Autoharp. Everyone a multi-instrumentalist. Drummer picks up clarinet, violinist picks up trumpet. Incredible.

Rosebuds. 4 man, violin. Very nice pop.

Dans 7/1.
Salim w acoustic & electric guy. Very pleased w himself. Good stuff, tho.

Elaine Greer & friends. Awesome. Kristina morland voice plus full band.

Sour notes. Elaine & guitarist from her band. Good, hard to categorize.

Matas. New bass player

7/15 dada
Gallery cat. Criminal overuse of "make some noise!!". Good hip-hop, if ur into that. 2 singers, plus guitar, bass, keys, drums.

Larry gee. Fuckin 10 people on stage, 2 saxophones. Soul. ugh

Dovetail. With Bob accompanying. 7 on stage, Russell brand-ish lead.  Took themselves waaaay too seriously, esp lead wearing pajama pants

7/21 Granada
Stupid ass juggler opener. wtf

The Submarines. 2 people, acoustic, electric, bells. Cutie, but horrible knees.

Eels. Awesome

8/4 the door
New regime. Suckage. Ordinary rock, hated vox

Wallpaper. An absolute riot

AWOLNATION. good, mixed screaming w falsetto

8/19 dada
Sphynx - guitar, synth, drums. Gayest pants ever on all 3. Icky falsetto & creepy porn stache on lead. Very synthy pop. Enough falsetto to deafen all dogs in a 2-block radius. Not bad, tho

The globes. Awesome

El ten eleven. Great. Lotsa loops, like tartufi, but no vox, catchier

8/26 haileys
Ethereal and the Queer Show. Blonde chick singing, with scarf on head, longhair dude on guitar, chick dancing in background. Electronic. Funny

New York city queers. Houston. Hot ass bass player in white shorts & black hose. Decent pop.

Black & white years, Austin. Supergay lead, over-vibrato Vox, porn stache. Electro. Reminds me of George quartz. Didn't get it at first, but finally did. Great stuff. Ended up loving it. Actually had fans singing along.

Holy fiction. Nice orchestral pop. Very earnest.

Sundress - nuff said

9/1 loft
The lukyas. Chick lead, quirky vox, French horn, trombone. Lightbulbs. Ok

The dodos. Awesome

9/9 spune fall social, Dada
Mission to the sea. Boring
Gold beach. Meh
Bethan.Ok
Seryn. Great
Telegraph canyon. Amazing
Balmorrhea. Ok, but instrumental

10/11 dans
Pillars and Tongues. 3piece squeezebox violin drums/bass, recorded tracks. Western, nice harmonies, very nice

Dark Dark Dark. Was hoping for Wild goose chase & Make time. No such luck. Beautiful tho

A Hawk and a Hacksaw. 5-piece, klezmer. Devotchka without the vox. Oh wait. Vox now.

10/23 palladium
Little hurricane. 2 peeps, bluesy guitar, hot chick on drums. Nice

Dear hunter. Lotsa people on stage. Good stuff.

White denim. Good, but not my thing

It's Denton short in here.

Manchester orchestra

11/05 Trees
Bear Hands. Wow - Archie Morris of ER fame found a gig as a frontman. Who knew?

Royal Bangs - dug it

We were promised Jetpacks - awesome. Sweet jeezus, the lungs on Adam Thompson. Amazing.

12/3 dada
Comrade, nice, but never Rock out
Radiant. Great stuff, did not end on strong song
Blurries. Ok
Quiet company. Always good, lotsa emotion from Taylor

12/11 Dan's, A Spune Xmas
Voltrevolt. Loved it. Lead sounds like a billygoat, sez Josh. On patio, freezing my ass off.
The Angelus. Ok, too serious, o night Divine?
Spooky Folk - Little drummer boy??
Doug Burr - opened with O Come all ye faithful
Seryn. Way too many church hymns
Goddam, when did this turn into a church service??

12/28 Wednesday la grange hotel tesseract
Gal at door asks me: "what happened to the hotel?" Say what??
Bartender ripped me off , charged me 4 for a 2
First band. Vaqueros electronicos? No idea, they didn't say. A bit too country for me

Manya, with Doug for a song. Pretty

Trumpet with mute, guitar player from first 2 bands as lead singer.
Then chick singer. very incestuous, this is

Doug explains, says its a collective.

Next band hot chick singer, no incest, no idea who they were, iris leu?

Fuck, bob showed up

Sitting w lesbian couple, they're cool. Pronounced Astronautalis "Astro-no-TALis". Cracked me up. I straightened 'em out.

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