Most folks in the know (don’t look at me) are pumped about the new Black Dog Tavern. (In case you’ve been sleeping these past two months, Tad Gaither’s slice o’ the East Village is relocating from a cellar on Throckmorton Street in downtown to a posh address off West Seventh Street near Fred’s Texas Café and Pop’s Safari Cigars & Fine Wines.)
Not only do insiders say that the new Dog will be cleaner, safer, and cleaner (and have I said, “cleaner”?) – without losing its rough-hewn image – my moles also tell me that the bands are gonna be much happier; rumor has it that Gaither’s even sprung for a stage. (Holy shit.) It won’t be as big as Axis’, no, but it’ll be better than the old corner of the room where Dog performers were forced to play in the Throckmorton joint. Before the Dog shut down to begin moving recently, the club was also getting way more adventurous in its booking.
The trend seems to be continuing: The ka-razy house bands that have recently been brought on – Confusatron, Sonic Death Monkee, and others, including the folks who play on jazz night – don’t seem to be in danger of getting the boot, and every Friday in the fall, the Dog plans on hosting Dog Shows, in conjunction with the mature children at The Good Show (broadcast every Sunday night on KTCU/88.7-FM The Choice) and local do-it-all music team Spune Productions (representing Lamonica, Sleepy Atlantis, The Snowdonnas, The Theater Fire, and others). Until the new Dog gets up and yapping, swing by the Wreck Room (3208 W 7th St, FW; 817-348-8303) and check out Confusatron on New Year’s Eve and Sonic Death Monkee tomorrow (Thu), with Tame Tame & Quiet and Heaven is a Hotel.
… Congrats to the good folks behind Experience the Art of Music, an annual weekend-long music and art extravaganza that helps expose the plebes to Art and raise money for a worthy cause. This year’s installation, which took place last weekend at Axis, generated approximately $1,100 for the Women’s Center of Tarrant County. Maybe by 2010, Experience will completely obliterate – um, I mean, complement – that other annual multi-discipline festival, in Austin.
