1) When was the last time you saw Tim Locke perform? He’s playing at MASS (1002 S Main) on Thursday night, as part of a songwriter showcase headlined by Taylor Young of the O’s. Locke is probably best known as the frontman for veteran indie rock band Calhoun, but he’s also one of Fort Worth’s greatest songwriters, and if you’re a young, up-and-coming musician and “singer-songwriter” is your musical identity, you could learn a lot from his set. But this show also features three other talented songwriters you don’t want to miss: besides Young and Locke, the Cut Throat Finches’ Sean Russell is performing, as well as Jenna Clark, who you may know if you’ve watched the latest lineup of Whiskey Folk Ramblers. This show starts at 8pm and it’s only $5, or $10 if you’re under 21. That’s right – you can come to this show if you’re under 21 as long as you have $10 and don’t ask the bartender for alcohol! Tell your friends! Here’s a Tim Locke solo song from 2009:
2) Charley Crockett is playing Lola’s Trailer Park (2735 W 5th St) on Friday night, and like the people mentioned in the post above, he is also an incredibly talented songwriter, whose influences include New Orleans soul, jazz, and R&B, mixed with a lot of Texan heart, which means you’ll likely detect a lil’ bit of country and folk in his music, too. Speaking of country and folk, the ever-talented Texas troubadour Vincent Neil Emerson is on this bill, too. He kicks the night off at 8pm. Tickets are $10, and doors are 7pm. Here’s Charley Crockett flexing his Texas roots:
3) Also on Friday: Convoy and the Cattlemen at the Boiled Owl Tavern (909 W Magnolia). Like western swing and amped-up country? Convoy and the Cattlemen are fast and fun and perfect for getting loose on Day 1 of Memorial Day weekend. The show is free and 21+. Did you ever see a band at the Basement Bar? Here’s Convoy playing it in 2012:
4) Yikes… here’s another listing for MASS (1002 S Main), but I assure you it’s worth going to, because it’s gonna be loud and heavy: on Saturday night, psychedelic stoner rock band Royal Sons headline a bill featuring Kyuss-ian hard rockers Duell and doom metal duo Mountain of Smoke. This concert is the kind of thing I like to refer to as a Team to Beat Show of the Week. The details: doors at 8, starts at 9; $10 for 21+, $13 for younger. Check out this Royal Sons promo video:
5) Also on Saturday: Lola’s Saloon hosts “The Return of Mountain Kid,” which sounds like a TV movie from the ’80s (probably airing on a Sunday night on ABC), but is actually a music concert starring a local rock band called Mountain Kid, who have been on hiatus? I think? Whatever that part of their backstory is, Mountain Kid bills themselves as a “blend of local bands from Fort Worth,” but I think their bio needs updating, because the bands from which their members individual hail (Heads of Savage, We’rewolves, and Royal Savages) seem to be on indefinite hiatus as well. What that says to me is that Mountain Kid is probably a “main band” for these dudes, but however you slice it, they’re a prog-minded post-rock band with epic vocals, rad harmonies, and plenty of effects pedal-driven guitar crunch. Fuzzed out, hard-charging power trio Panic Volcanic fills the middle slot, with LeQube in the opening slot. What do they sound like? Listen here and make your own conclusions; they say “alternative rock,” whatever that means – I definitely hear some s’90s signifiers and one of them is actually a Perfect Circle, oddly enough. The show is 21 and up and starts at 9pm; cover is $8. Here’s Panic Volcanic from a couple years ago:
5a) FULL DISCLOSURE ALERT: per editorial suggestion, in addition to writing about music and other shit for the FW Weekly, I am an investor in a venue/bar called Main at Southside, colloquially known as MASS. I also bartend there, as well as the Boiled Owl Tavern, a bar that also hosts shows a few times a month. And, since we’re on the subject of warning you against what may be perceived as my own icky, unseemly self-promotion and/or conflicts of interest, I play bass in the following bands: Oil Boom, Son of Stan, Darth Vato, and maybe, once again in the hypothetical future, EPIC RUINS. Sometimes I talk about one or more of those entities in this space, but I assure you that it has very little to do with my own vested interests; it just happens that the aforementioned venues and bands are part of the Fort Worth music scene, and this music scene is something I care very passionately about, as I have been part of it for the past 15 years.
But even (and look out, because PERSONAL DIATRIBE ALERT) if I hadn’t invested in a venue, or worked at another, or played in any bands and only wrote about the Fort Worth music scene, promoting is something I’d do anyway, because the Fort Worth music scene is on a short list of shit that genuinely makes me happy, and I worked at venues and played music long before I started covering the scene in the local alt-weekly. I love playing in and watching live bands more than just about anything else in my life, and if I could support myself solely by playing bass, I wouldn’t do anything but that. Unfortunately, my personal finances and the economic realities of life in 2017 being what they are, I still have to bartend, and I still have to be a freelance writer, because the money I make holding a bass guitar on a stage barely covers my bar tab, and more often than not, that paltry payout goes back into the band fund anyway; playing music is therefore more of an expensive hobby than anything else. For more information about what that’s like, talk to pretty much any local musician who isn’t named Big Mike, and ask them what they do in addition to playing an instrument to keep the lights on and their phone bills paid. Please forgive me if you think I discuss MASS or the Owl or my bands because I’m abusing this channel in order to make a buck off you. Long story short, if I mention any of the above in a post below, it’s only because it is part of a Fort Worth live music event that merits your attention, and those events always involve other worthy participants besides those that are directly related to me. I mean, c’mon – it’s not as if I’d ever recommend a show with no other bands billed but Darth Vato; three sets of that sounds like a terrible fucking time.
