5/13/10 - Foe Destroyer, Smile Smile

again, at Lochrann's in Frisco, gawd bless Mr Spune. The Les Savy Fan showed, too, and unleashed his considerable charms on the helpless suburban female crowd. Look out.

Smile Smile was up first. Really enjoyed it, great stuff. Was shocked by how many songs of theirs i seemed to know. Only advice? Quit with the whole 'we-used-to-be-boyfren/girlfren, but we broke up and now we just verbally pick at each other during our set, isn't that funny?' thing. it's tired. i heard that shtick two years ago, and it just seems forced now. your music is good enough without it. just my two cents, which ain't worth even that.
Foe Destroyer headlined. former members of Oso Closo, i understand. Kept thinkin Weezer, but probly cuz of all of the BC glasses on display. 'twas OK.

7/12/08 - Calhoun, Smile Smile

went to the barley house on saturday night to catch the greatness of one of my absolute favorite local bands - Calhoun.


finally had some company - batman and wifey, the Les Savy Fan, and Joe the Boy Toy all showed up, although half-way thru Smile Smile's set, the LSF just had to leave to go join his gun-show-flaunting, oh-so-ironic-t-shirt-wearing, faux-hawk-sporting buddies down on lower greenville to "mix and mingle", as he put it. i'm sure he was a good boy.


big crowd at the barley house. many frat-boy douches, yes, but that was more than made up for by all of the amazing sun-dress-wearing sorority gals. oh my. also had the pleasure of watching Manya of blue petal dance her drunken ass off. veerry entertaining.


amazing sound system, too, btw. definitely been upgraded since the last time i was there.


up first was Smile Smile, who I've seen 3-4 times, and who seem to be blowing up right now. 3-man band: Ryan on guitar, Jencey on keys, and drummer (sorry, dude). it's always very nice - some songs happy, some sad, some country-tinged, some pure pop. Ryan's voice can get a tad reedy sometimes, but thankfully it gets smoothed over by Jencey's beautiful harmonies. anyways, they played a nice (if a bit long) set.

next up was Calhoun, and i cannot say enough good things about these guys. there's no doubt that they'll be huge one day, and i'll be proud to say 'i knew them when'. my gawd, if these guys can't make it big, i don't know who can. every song, a pure joy to behold. i was just blown away (happens every time i hear them). at one point, they were joined by Jencey doin some beautiful harmonies - talk about a dream team. they definitely are the masters of the start-out-quiet-and-pretty, then-kick-into-anthemic, wall-of-sound, kick-your-ass rock. one thing i really noticed last night - tim can fucking wail on that guitar. they did all the old songs i love, plus a bunch of new stuff too, which was fantastic. their new album comes out September 9. can't wait.

12/6/07 - Smile Smile, Calhoun, Frontier Brothers (Cavern)

writin this WAY too long after the event, just so you know...

frontier brothers - 3-man (guitar, keys, drums (no bass)). definite beatles influence, some space-pop and power-pop. lead vocals a bit unconventional (smiths-like?), not my fav. some good stuff, just didn't connect with me.

Calhoun - read one of my prior reports to see how much i dig calhoun. i do have to say, tho - this performance wasn't quite as magical as the dada show. dono why, mebbe the environment ( i hate the cavern), mebbe the sound system - not sure. still a great set.

Smile Smile - listened to a couple songs, but since i'd already heard them twice, and it was really late on a weeknight, i split.