Tuesday nights at Lola’s (2736 W 6th St, 817-877-0666) have become a staple in the Fort Worth nightlife scene. The Weekly has covered the Higher Dudes’ Torquila Tuesdays (read: Quaker City Nighthawks and a rotating cast of friends playing mostly covers with some originals sprinkled in) and I can’t recommend enough checking out their weekly residency. This past Tuesday’s Torquila jam was moved to Monday evening to make room for the final date of Austin’s OBN III’s end of summer tour.
Lead by namesake Orville Bateman Neeley III, veteran of well-known Denton and Austin bands such as Bad Sports and A Giant Dog, OBN III’s Thin Lizzy-esque rock ’n‘ roll is straight up blistering. In the band’s current lineup, Neeley seemed a bit more reserved than I have seen him in the past, perhaps due to being saddled behind the guitar on this tour as opposed to concentrating solely on his bellowing vocals. If Neeley was Iggy Pop in past incarnations of the band — taking the mic into the crowd, messing around with fans, and causing general mayhem — he is now closer to Jay Reatard in the way he leads his band and interacts with the crowd.
“This one is for the guy in front who is definitely a drug dealer,” Neeley barked between songs.
And the crowd at Lola’s ate it up. Sure, it was early in the week, but that didn’t stop those in attendance from getting a bit rowdy. OBN III’s music is perfect for anyone who wants to drink late into the night and doesn’t mind waking up with a hangover. Loud, crunching guitars and a rhythm section whose main goal seems to be making the audience pay for not wearing earplugs, the quartet, rounded out by Tom Triplett on guitar, Michael Goodwin on bass, and drummer Marley Jones, has spent a good chunk of 2015 on tour. At times the foursome lagged, appearing a little road-weary. Though as soon as it seemed they had run out of gas, the band found another gear.
Locals Fogg and Fungi Girls opened the show with killer sets of their trademark stoner-doom metal and garage-psych punk respectively. No, this wasn’t the normal Tuesday night at Lola’s, but it was a nice change of pace and a ton of fun.
