1) Fairmount-area art collective Neighborhood Cult Productions has its last show of the year on Friday at Shipping and Receiving (201 S Calhoun), and its music lineup is as sultry and edgy as its subject matter. Called TABOO, the show is themed around subverting cultural norms by indulging in the seven deadly sins, and it intends to be as immersive as possible by requiring attendees to come in disguise or otherwise costumed. If you hate the fuss associated with dressing up for Halloween, I guess you could get by with one of those “THIS IS MY COSTUME” t-shirts, but you might as well put some effort into it, since the show will bestow awards upon those with the best makeup, the kinkiest costume, and the most creative disguise. The ostensibly transgressive art content comes courtesy a long list of local artists including Don Beck, Austin Fields, Ali Feeney, Jana Renee, Kaitlyn Cormier, Sophia Ceballos, and 20+ others, and the music component features performances by glitchy synthwave duo Vogue Machine, the self-looping, operatic pop of Sudie, and the fiery rhymes of rapper Sam Lao, who headlines the event at midnight. Makeup masks are encouraged, but full face masks, per S&R rules, are prohibited, so leave your Jason hockey mask in 1989. Tickets look to be $15, doors are at 9, and Vogue Machine starts the live performance part at 10pm. Suffice to say, this is a 21+ event. When I watched this Sudie video, I had to sit through a pre-roll ad for some product that combats low testosterone, and the muscular, 50-something man kept harping on belly fat being detrimental to my sexual performance, so I feel like I’ve already participated in TABOO’s theme by being forced to examine the deadly sins of lust and gluttony. A choice line: “You’re turning into an old-ass has-been in the bedroom.” GEEZ, INTERNET! THANKS A FUCKING LOT! Anyway, the Sudie song is called “FAQ.”
2) As you’ve probably heard, the Grotto (517 University) is not long for this world, and perennial Grotto performer KatsüK will be headlining a two-band bill that also includes fuzzed-out folk freaks I Happy Am. Seeing as how I Happy Am like costumes and other artsy, theatrical shit anyway, seeing them Halloween Weekend at a club that will soon turn into whatever goes next to the newest Starbucks in town will likely be pretty entertaining. The show is 21+ and the cover is $8. Here is an I Happy Am video for a song called “Eleven”:
3) Lots of shit to do on Saturday (see below for more suggestions), but an easy and cheap activity is the Boiled Owl Tavern’s (909 W Magnolia) Halloween Dance Battle, with jams provided by DJ Rikki Don’t. Yes, I’m sure he’ll play “Thriller” at least once, so you don’t need to ask. This is an instructional video for dancing like Michael Jackson:
4) Dallas’ long-running Cramps tribute, the Gorehounds headline Three Links (2704 Elm, Dallas) on Saturday, with Lizzie Boredom in the middle slot covering songs by Shannon and the Clams and Hunx and His Punx, and Nosferat II opening the show. To my ears, the name Nosferat II sounds like it might be an Israeli Defense Force missile system of some sort, but obviously they’re vampire-related, and per their Facebook page, a rock duo. The show is $18+, and the cover is $10. The Gorehounds played Emo’s in Austin in 2011, and here is proof:
5) Angsty, San Diego-based beach rockers Wavves return to the Gas Monkey Grill (10261 Technology Blvd E, Dallas) on Saturday along with co-headliners Joyce Manor, a band from Torrance, CA which takes its moniker from an apartment complex. Now that’s a band-naming convention I can get behind! Speaking of naming conventions, were Wavves annoyed when they first learned there was a band called ALVVAYS? Because the “double v” in the former is a hard consonant, whereas the latter uses the adjacent v’s to make a W, suggesting that Wavves might be pronounced “Wawes.” I know that would probably only confuse someone’s parents, but imagine being an earnest dad trying to connect with your child, seeing that he or she is into a band called ALVVAYS, and learning how to correctly pronounce that band’s name. Then, probably through a Pandora or Spotify radio station, you hear this band Wavves, and because they sound kinda like the pop punk you remember from your high school/college years in the early to mid ’90s, you ask your kid if he or she (or they, because it’s 2017 and kids can be theys now without suffering as much guff as they might have way back when you were their age) has heard of this band Wavves, except you pronounce it so that it rhymes with “cause.” And then your kid rolls his/her/their eyes and both of you are embarrassed, and you go back to listening to the Ticket or Lone Star because those channels are comparatively safe spaces, where you don’t have to consider that now your kids are hitting you with the same sort of somewhat mean-spirited pop culture sanctimony you threw at your parents when they watched part of the video for “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins and wondered aloud if James Iha was a man or a woman. I don’t have kids, but that’s what I assume parenting a tween or a teenager is like right now. Anyway, tickets are $20, the show is all-ages, and doors are at 8. Here is a new Wavves video:
FULL DISCLOSURE/WRITER BIO 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. 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 since 2002.
