Last spring, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth did a trés cool, trés New York City thing and produced an outdoor concert, in the sculpture garden on the second floor.
“Modern ’til Midnight” drew a ton of people, who took in the perfectly balmy spring air, noshed on cuisine tendance served up by the museum’s onsite restaurant, Café Modern, and were regaled by local and regional indie-rock bands, including St. Vincent (Dallas), Tame … Tame and Quiet (Fort Worth), and Doug Burr (Dallas). The second “Modern ’til Midnight” happens on Friday and, true to the museum’s egalitarian nature, will feature a more diverse bill.
Slated to perform are indie-rockers Yellow Fever (Austin) and Fort Worth’s most popular purveyors of goth-country, The Theater Fire, plus some hip-hoppers: the old-school party trio PPT, whose members hail from Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Dallas, and headliners the Strange Fruit Project, from Waco, another trio but one whose vibe leans more toward soul and R&B and, as its name suggests, is more serious. (“Strange fruit” comes from the 1930s Billie Holiday song of the same name, decrying the lynchings of Southern black men, that horrific “fruit” hanging from “the poplar trees.”)
The most intriguing act, though, stands to be the Trimble Tech High School marching band under the direction of Earnest Colvin. The student-musicians will perform a composition by Patrick Grant, the musical director for special projects for Kehinde Wiley, a New York realist painter whose work will be on exhibit as part of the museum’s FOCUS series beginning on Friday and running through May 25. Wiley’s work juxtaposes European classicism with urban archetypes and ideas. (In one of his paintings, “Equestrian Portrait of the Count Duke Olivares,” Wiley depicts a young African-American man in a red hoodie in Titian-like detail atop a glimmering, rearing stallion and brandishing a lance.)
Early attendees to “Modern ’til Midnight” will be able to stroll through Wiley’s exhibit as well as the museum’s expansive retrospective of wood sculptor Martin Puryear. Admission to “Modern ’til Midnight” is $15 per person (free for members). Visit www.themodern.org. … This weekend will be madness for local music fans. Starting tonight (Wed.) at Lola’s (2736 W. 6th St.), you’ve got fusion legends Bertha Coolidge, followed on Thursday by dirty, White Stripes-ish blues and country-rock (Red Herrings, JJ & the Rogues, the Kyle Sherman Band), followed on Friday by singer-songwriter pop (Chatterton, Sam Anderson & the Thrift Store Troubadours), followed on Saturday by The Burning Hotels, followed on Sunday by several groovy country-hippies (Catfish Whiskey, the Vagabond Kings, KatsüK, and Jordan Mycoskie & the Fire Breathing Fish).
On Friday at the Aardvark (2905 W. Berry St.), it’s all melodic-metal, with Merkin. On Saturday at Rubber Gloves (411 E. Sycamore St. in Denton), a North Texas-centric line-up includes: Astronautalis, Mom, History at Our Disposal, Sarah Jaffe, and Tame … Tame and Quiet. And on Sunday at the Granada Theater (3524 Greenville Ave. in Dallas), you have Ralph Stanley, Sunny Sweeney, and – wait for it – the New York Dolls. Too bad they’re not all sharing the stage at the same time.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
