1) I still haven’t dropped by Fort Worth Live (306 Houston), but Thursday night’s Max Stalling gig might rope me in. The honky tonker will be joined by his wife Heather on fiddle, and that dynamic suggests a relaxed, easygoing, intimate performance. Fun fact: I’m pretty sure a review of one of Max Stalling’s first album was my first freelance gig for the FW Weekly. It was so long ago that I can’t even find it! This video of Max, Heather, and the rest of his band is much more recent:
2) There’s another benefit for Troll, the local tattoo artist battling colon cancer on Friday night. This one’s at Sunshine Bar in Arlingfun (902 W Division), and it’s heavy af: The Me-Thinks, Mountain of Smoke, Convoy and the Cattlemen, and Duell are setting up a veritable mountain range of amplifiers in a tiny dive, so expect your ears to be blissfully fried by the time the bartender yells for last call. The cover is a $5 minimum donation, and all proceeds go to help Troll’s medical bills. Duell is the headliner; Mountain of Smoke starts the night off at 9, and for a $10 donation, you get a commemorative poster, designed and screened by Dallas artist (and Creepeth drummer) Clay Stinnett.
Hear how loud Mountain of Smoke is? This show will be awesome:
3) Also on Friday: a holiday party and 2018 music preview at the Tin Panther (937 Woodward), which means ugly sweaters, seasonal beers, and the debut of Ansley Dougherty’s full-band-backed solo project, a rock band called Bambina – crewed by people who have been in both Panic Volcanic and Dead Vinyl – and a new iteration of Roar Shack. Cover is $5, the show starts at 10. Not sure who’s in Ansley’s band, but here she is with Frank y Los Frijoles singing one of her own tunes:
4) And speaking of Panic Volcanic and Dead Vinyl, they’re turning up at MASS (1002 S Main) on Saturday, along with a band in the opening slot I know very little about called SubMachine Love. The show starts at 9, and the cover is probably less than $10. What I have gleaned from social media about SubMachine Love: their logo uses a version of the Grand Theft Auto font (I think it’s called “Pricedown”) modified to include a silhouette of an AK-47 with a Stratocaster neck instead of a barrel. They made a short, mid-rehearsal promo commercial for the show that has guitar rock blaring in the background; the video that follows is not that commercial, but it is one of them playing live, indicating that they are hard rock/power trio:
5) Durty Murphy’s (609 Houston St) has a party on Christmas Eve, so if you need to duck out on your family on Sunday, go downtown for A Durty Die Hard Christmas, which showcases my third favorite Christmas movie (after Lethal Weapon and Home Alone) at 11pm. The bar is encouraging you to dress like Bruce Willis’ John McClane character (white, ribbed, tank-top undershirt), though you still need to wear shoes. There’s also a Die Hard trivia contest before the movie. Enjoy the original Die Hard theatrical trailer; one funny thing you’ll notice is how the word “terrorist” was bandied about in 1988 versus how it’s used nowadays – back then, a terrorist could be Caucasian, and not automatically assumed to be from a predominantly Muslim country. I was ten years old back then, and sometimes (like when I read the news), I miss it terribly. Yippy-kye-yay, motherfuckers:
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 at 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.
