Every year around the middle of March, Fort Worth – and probably every other alleged flyover town in the Southwest – gets spillover from SXSW, the music conference and festival that takes place in Austin every year. I don’t know about exceptional touring acts coming here (yet), but Dallas will be hopping this week.
On Tuesday at The Cavern (1914 Greenville Ave., 214-828-1914), The Evangelicals are slated to play along with the Headlights and Gentleman Auction House. I saw The Evangelicals at South-by last year. They were opening for Centro-matic, the legendary Denton band I had trekked across half of Austin – through the greasy, angry, non-showering masses, mind you! – to see, and all I remember was the sight of about 15 people onstage, wearing silly party favors and stuff, and making a hellacious racket. I had been drinking all day long and just wasn’t in the mood. Basically, The Evangelicals drove me back to my hotel room. I didn’t even get to see Centro. Anyhoo, Centro – what a coinky-dink! – is playing on Saturday at the Granada Theater (3524 Greenville Ave., 214-826-1885), headlining a killer line-up that includes Robert Gomez and the Centro guys’ side-project, South San Gabriel. Almost as killer is the theater’s Monday bill, when the Supersuckers, the Railbenders, and, Fort Worth’s answer to The Lemonheads, the cut*off play. And then there’s the Granada’s Tuesday marquee: The 817’s Blood of the Sun will be performing, and the muscle-car stoner-metal band itself is worth the drive to Big D. But headlining will be Blue Cheer. Yes, that Blue Cheer, the stoners from MTV’s early days who were on seemingly every other minute, playing their trippy, sludgy version of The Who’s “Summertime Blues,” taped, like, in 1968 on somebody’s cell phone. (Did they have cell phones back then? I can’t remember. Gimme another toke.) Remember the video? Dudes with hair so long you couldn’t see their faces, playing on a soundstage with swirling, tripped-out lights behind it? Awesome stuff. No doubt cashing in on the resurgence in stoner-rock, Blue Cheer has cut a new album, What Doesn’t Kill You … (like, uh, mescaline? ‘ludes? bennies? Jack Daniels?!), and is touring in support of same. Expect a lot of loud, loud, loud music and extended solos thick with wah-wah. The local boys are kicking off their own tour with the Granada show. Afterward, they’re heading straight to Austin to play SXSW, then coming back to North Texas to play the Dallas Doom Stoner Festival, and then it’s off to Europe, baby, where stoner-rock is appreciated with only the slightest inkling of sarcasm, unlike here, where listening to Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Thin Lizzy, and every other dirty, sloppy band of yore is what wannabe hip kids do when they’re not pleasuring themselves to – what? – American Idol? Good rule of thumb: If your little brother or sister thinks Deep Purple et al. are cool, it may be for reasons other than just digging the tuneage. Blood of the Sun is hitting Holland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. (A lot of shows in Deutschland, for BOTS.) Visit www.myspace.com/bloodofthesun or www.bluecheer.us.
Contact HearSay at hearsay at fwweekly.com.
