1) If you haven’t already, you should read last week’s FW Weekly’s cover story, because it contains some hot sports opinions about gentrification from 1919 Hemphill Head Volunteer Al Rios. You can read it here and make your own conclusions; it makes for an interesting discussion. Are the white kids buying drinks at 1912 Club shows, thereby helping to keep the bar’s owner from closing up shop, indeed the “physical embodiment of the gentrification of Fort Worth,” or are they just people going to a show and spending money at a bar? I get that they probably wouldn’t go to that bar otherwise, but surely, someone introduced to 1912 Club via a show there has gone on to spend money when nothing’s booked. Maybe that’s a bad thing? So many minefields! But as it relates to this post, Grant Baird, who has been putting on shows at 1912 Club on Hemphill for nearly a year now, has recently started booking at 515 Bar as well. 515 Bar is all the way on the other side of Rosedale at Jennings and Pennsylvania, so hopefully that bar is far enough away that shows there won’t ruffle Al’s feathers. On Friday night, 515 Bar is host to a three band bill on Friday night, headlined by Mañana Cowboy, with The Fibs, and TreeHouse Cabaret. I don’t know if Baird booked this one (Maybe Happy Haus lead lady Kimberly Briley?) The bands are each pretty solid, and the cover is absolutely free.
Hard to believe the Fibs have been around for over four years (this video is from 2012, in other words):
2) Remember that episode of the Simpsons where Homer does his tax return at the very last moment and has to throw it through the gates of the post office before it closes? I just watched it again; while it’s still just as funny, it’s way more stressful to watch now than when I was 20! Take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnJcZ-5P8hE.
See what I mean? Anyway, if you found yourself scrambling to fill in the blanks on the Turbotax website before the IRS SWAT team rappels through your windows and blows your lazy, procrastinating head off, you could probably use some maximum chillzone time. I would highly recommend Ubering to the Green Elephant in Dallas (5627 Dyer St) for the 13th edition of Dallas Ambient Music Night. DAMN XIII features dreamy, spacey, atmospheric sounds and music from: Artificial Earth Machine, Jobert, Wormsign, Chad Mossholder, Triangulum, and Water Falls. Visuals come courtesy even more names you may or may not recognize, including Evan Henry, Brian Tomerlin, Jessie Alexander, and Blair Johnston, plus many more. Cover is $10 (don’t forget to go to the ATM), and it’s also 18+. Trippy shit starts at 9.
3) Austin’s Quiet Company returns to North Texas, this time taking the stage at Dan’s Silverleaf (103 Industrial), ahead of Denton psych-rock band Criminal Birds, and area rock and roll band Oil Boom. Now to be honest, I really want you to go to this show because I am in Oil Boom. But Quiet Company is one of those bands you root for – great hooks, stellar musicianship, rad harmonies, nice guys all around – because they seem to really work hard at making good music. Their bio compares them to Arcade Fire, but I think they rock way harder than that. After a show last year, frontman Taylor Muse told me he is a big Smashing Pumpkins fan; I think that influence shows up in his songs’ arrangements. The all-ages show is $10 and starts at 9pm. This Quiet Company song is called “Seven Hells.” It’s probably not a Game of Thrones reference, but you might as well start thinking about the show now because you’re gonna be inundated with GOT posts in about ten days:
4) Here’s another free thing for you this weekend: on Saturday, drop by the newly opened Sovereign Jewelry and its next-door neighbor Fade to Black Tattoo Company (They’re on the 200 block of Jennings). The former is a custom jewelry shop opened by the Dangit’s guitarist and jeweler Brandon Smith, while the latter is a new tattoo shop opened by artist Chance Webb and Bearded Lady honcho Shannon Osbakken. Besides free beer and food, Dreamy Life peeps will be spinning records.
5) Live Oak Lounge’s Saturday night show is probably a must-go for people who like Americana, folk, and the country music icons that inevitably (or hopefully) seep into the music of artists like Dawn and Hawkes, who headline with Fort Worth singer-songwriter Summer Dean starting the evening. I can’t not say this: Dawn and Hawkes are precious af.. They’re from Austin, and their website design and images suggests some kind of clothing catalog for women and men who graduate with degrees in PR and get jobs in Nashville. But per usual, that’s just me being a joyless windbag. D&H have beautiful voices, and if you read the “story” link on their page, your heart will probably melt like a Steel City Pops popsicle held in a hand at a summer music festival.
