2/4/10 - Dust Congress, Daniel Folmer, New Science Projects, Ryan Thomas Becker

An all-Denton night at Trees. K, i will admit, i journeyed down to Trees mainly to see Matthew Gray's Writer, who i absolutely love, but who apparently canceled at the last minute, which disappointed me greatly, just sayin...

When I got there, Ryan Thomas Becker was playing, solo. K, make no mistake, RTB is a fucking genius, enough said. Sure, not quite as ass-kicking as when he's playing in RTB2, but still, such an amazing talent, he's a definite must-see. So do it. "My cannonball, my cannonball..." Next up was New Science Projects. My position on this dude is well documented, so I won't repeat myself. I'm afraid his uh, unique presentation is more suited to the intimate settings to be found in Denton. In the wide-open Deep Ellum venue in which he found himself, his style was mostly lost on the (scant) crowd. My opinion only, i assure you.

Next up was Daniel Folmer, who I've seen multiple times before. I remember nothing of his set, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, it was just one of those nights.

Same goes for Dust Congress, who I've enjoyed many times before.

8/16/09 - Heartstring Stranglers, New Science Projects, Ryan Thomas Becker, Febrifuge, Roy Robertson

was feeling kinda restless on sunday night, in need of a live music fix, an adventure, and maybe somewhat of a bender. found out about a show in denton being put on by the gutterth boys - 5 bands, in a house, starting at 7, free, and BYOB. i thought, perfect. showed up at 7:30, hung out in the backyard with a bunch of drunk-ass, funny-as-hell guys half my age, who made me feel right at home. gawd, i love the Denton music scene.

back inside the house and up the rickety staircase in the attic, Roy Robertson started things off. Was very impressed by Roy - loved his voice, his songwriting, his guitar-playing - everything. Liked the non-standard structure of some of his songs. Really enjoyed it. Told me his influences were Dylan and The Beatles. i should mention - this whole show was completely acoustic (demonstrating how committed the music scene is to lowering its carbon footprint. or maybe they were just trying to keep the cops from busting down the doors & shooting whatever dogs they could find, in response to a noise complaint). sorry - bit of a tangent there.

Back downstairs, Febrifuge (which is just one dude, Chris Day) was up next. Really liked what i heard on myspace from this guy. Of course, what i heard sunday was a very much stripped- down version of his recordings, so it wasn't quite as compelling, but i still enjoyed his set. Really dug his voice - quite a range - very Thom Yorke-like in places. He played acoustic guitar and autoharp, and tapped a tambourine with his foot to add a percussive element. Very nice set. Will definitely be looking out for Febrifuge shows in the future (I assume he plays with a full band at times). Ryan Thomas Becker then played in a different room on the bottom floor. Seen him perform many, many times, and i'm always amazed by his voice. very unique, incredibly soulful. great stuff, as always.back upstairs in the now-sweltering attic (did i mention that the house had no AC?), New Science Projects did his thing. It was funny to see him smearing what looked like fake blood on himself down in the laundry room before his set (ok, i dono why that was funny, but it was). Anyhow, it absolutely amazed me that almost the entire crowd (and that attic was packed) seemed to know every word of every one of his songs. you don't see that very often. i thought the addition of a cello player to some songs was a nice touch. i'm not a huge fan of NSP - it's a little over the top for my taste, and i don't care for his voice at all - so after 4 or 5 songs (during which i sweated off half my body weight), i headed back downstairs and outside to the relatively cool summer night. last to perform was Heartstring Stranglers - this was actually their cd release show and going away shindig. couldn't really see the whole band - the whole bottom floor of the house was jam-packed (guess that's why they invented stages, eh?), but i think there were five of them. nice collection of (hard to describe - old-timey? ethnic? gothic?) folk tunes. very nice. bought both cd's. violin player drove my pants crazy (sorry!). all in all, i had a blast - good booze, good people, good music. can't ask for more than that.

10/25/07 - Parata, Sean Kirkpatrick (updated)

Went to RGRS to see Sean K and Parata.

i apologize in advance - this report will not be up to the usual standards (hah!), due to a few factors, mainly related to the firewater (no, not the club).

New Science Projects - one man in army jacket and WWII helmet, with acoustic blues (?) guitar and tambourine on the floor, upon which he would stomp now and again. couldn't tell if he was special needs or trippin massively, at one point held up a piece of paper and said, see - my friend made me a picture drawn in his own blood! so is this performance art, i wondered? during one song, he started wandering around the crowd, shout-singing in peoples faces. dude had talent, could play the geetar, but there was a lot of violent shouting going on. but then he would stop down and play a nice acoustic song with pretty vocals and some nice picking.
very interesting, i'll say that.

gutterth guys in back screaming after every song - yeaaaaaahhh!! annoying.

Silk Stocking - gal on keybd, dude on guitar - bluesy tunes, howling vocals (i'm sorry, it's around this point that my memory starts getting fuzzy).

sean kirkpatrick - was really looking forward to this, based on what i'd heard on the interweb. sean on keybds, another dude on keybds, drum. all i remember is that it sounded like what you'd expect, based on the myspace page. not exactly hard-rockin, what with just two keyboards and all, but that's what his stuff is. i still plan on gettin his cd.

christened the bathroom.

last was Parata, who i'd seen before and really dug. dono what it was, but i didn't really get into it this time. can't splain why.

60 degrees outside, and the damn ceiling fans were on full blast, freezin my ass off.

four bands to play, and they start at 10?? ridiculous. didn't finish til 1:30-ish, on a weeknight, with a half-hour drive home. couldn't they at least start at 9?