'Twas very depressing to see The Bone and my beloved Club Dada shuttered, but it was encouraging to see all the new restaurants and bars that have opened recently in Deep Ellum. Also took a trip to Kettle Art between sets, and was happy to see it packed. Anyways, back to the show...
John Lefler, of Dashboard Confessional fame, was up first. Solo w/ acoustic guitar/keys. Decent, but nothing overly compelling.
Another Year Colder was up next. Ugh. Totally generic alt rock. Headed for the door when they covered Roxanne about 3-4 songs in. Kill me.
Grassfight was next. Loved it. Dark, anthemic, beautiful. Right up my alley. Highly recommended.
American Strange was next. Nope - not for me. Really don't care for the over-vibrato'd vocals the lead was throwin' out.
The Heligoats (Washington) headlined. Pure. Effing. Genius. Quirky, catchy, smart, funny. Loved it. Kept hearing early solo Paul Simon, but also heard some Johnny Cash-type arrangements (not the voice, tho I loved his voice). Lead entertained between songs with some very interesting stories, including one about his "nervous tic" that involves sliding around inside AC ducts covered in vegetable oil in order to eavesdrop on party conversations. (OK, so you had to be there). Anyways, really enjoyed the set. Fantastic stuff.
short rant: k, look - to the moron who's running the show - when you've got 5 bands to get in before 2AM, you've got to start before 9:30, and you've got to watch the clock, goddammit. Don't let some spare band go on and on (I'll let you guess which one i mean), so the goddam headliner goes on after 1:30, and has their fucking set cut short cuz you gotta shut down at 2. My gawd, that pissed me off - The Heligoats come all the way from Washington only to have their genius set cut short cuz some stupid-ass can't fucking tell time and do some simple math. unbelievable.
1 comment:
i appreciate your kind words, especially since i am the bass player of American Strange... also, not that important... but it was our CD release and we put the show together...and you're right... i've never felt guiltier in my life then when my band wanted to force two more songs in when i announced to the audience we where through...especially since The Heligoats stayed at my brothers house that night being that im really good friends with Chris Otepka of The Heligoats... the singer of our band has left and we are restarting with a new singer, new drummer, and adding a second guitarist, i hope that some day down the road you catch an American Strange show and give us more then one line...
p.s. did you catch The Heligoats at Doublewide on 5/26/10 ??? if not i must say it was brilliant... and be sure to follow them on
facebook/twitter/myspace/theheligoats.com
they should be back this fall Chris Otepka just went to Spain as an additional guitarist for 'Clem Snide' whom i also seriously recommend looking into.
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