1) The ol’ SAD from gray skies, cold temps, and end-of-year/stop-punching-me-2017 blues got me buried under blankets until I’m forced to get out of the house later, but here are some shows for Friday night:
Reggae/hip-hop show at MASS (1002 S Main) feat. Pablo and the Hemphill 7, Sage Mode Wrex, and Neptune Locals. Starts at 9:30 and is all ages with a $7 cover.
Indie/Garage Rock show at Division Brewing in Arlington (506 E Main) feat. Henry the Archer, Big Red Ants, and the Delzells. Starts at 9, is 21-and-up, and has a $5 cover.
Twilite Lounge (212 Lipscomb) has DJ sets from Ronnie Heart and Rikki Don’t, starting at 10pm. No cover, legal drinking age and up.
Here’s a live video of Sage Mode Wrex:
2) In a similar fashion, here are shows for your Saturday enjoyment:
MASS (1002 S Main) has a rock and roll show – self-promotion alert; try not to freak out, Bad Grammar – headlined by Oil Boom, middle-slotted by Siberian Traps, and opened by Majik Taylor. Have you seen Majik Taylor? They are worth your $8 cover on their own! The all-ages show starts at 9:30 and is (see above) $8 to attend.
Free Show in Dallas Alert: the Armoury’s last Locked and Loaded show of the year, starring Chakra Khan, Lorelei K, and Harry Zimm. Harry Zimm features members of Birds of Night, and I really dig that name, as Get Shorty is one of my favorite movies. “You think I watch your movies, Harry? I’ve seen better film on teeth.” What a great line!
Dig this Majik Taylor tune in video form:
3) And now for the NYE shows: Austin’s Uncle Lucius brings their roots rockin’, Nashville-buckin’, Stax-influenced groove to Lola’s stage. This’ll be a pretty fun party to bag up this garbage year with. I guess the show is all-ages, and the ticketing site says it goes from 7pm to 2am, so your $17 cover will definitely get you your money’s worth of hangout time!
This is an old Uncle Lucius tune I like:
4) Dallas-based rockers Dead Flowers put on their favorite musical costume for MASS’ NYE bash, as they’ll be playing an entire set of Replacement songs. When frontman Corey Howe told me this, I wondered if he’d be A) interested in the Fort Worth Rock Assembly, and B) if his band would, as the Replacements, play some old country tunes, as the classic punks were wont to do during piques of doing whatever the fuck they wanted. The show is free, starts at 9, and also features another tribute act, the Texas Jesus and Mary Chainsaw Massacre.
Dead Flowers cover “Bastards of Young” in this clip:
5) If you’re looking for big-ticket NYE event get dolled up and go to the Ritz & Wonders NYE party at the Violet Room (2634 Weisenberger), a huge warehouse/party zone located in the newest arts district in town, that area just north of the Target on West 7th. The ticket’s $40, but you get a different, circus-themed performance every half-hour ranging from acrobatics and aerial contortionism to magic and crystal ball-gazing, plus music from DJ Ronnie Heart. It’s designed as an immersive, big-top experience, and artists Jay Wilkinson and Brandon Pederson have collaborated on some eye-popping, outsized installations as part of the set-dressing. Bring cash for the bar and circus-y snacks. The event is 21-up; here’s ticketing info.
I love it when events make commercials! I wish it would happen more often! This is the ad for Ritz & Wonders:
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.
