1) Your dad or uncle probably knows this already, but I didn’t: Asleep at the Wheel has been playing country music since 1969, and that longevity makes them one of those classic bands with which I am embarrassingly unfamiliar. Along with that fact, I learned they formed in a town in West Virginia called Paw Paw. I presume that name has something to do with Native Americans, but I kinda hope some town founder wanted to pay tribute to his or her grandfather. Anyway, AATW is playing Arlington Music Hall (224 N Center St, Arlingfun) Thursday night. Doors are at 7:30 and Leon “the Voice of Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys” Rausch opens the show; you can get tickets here. Can’t go to the show? Here’s an entire Asleep at the Wheel set:
2) If you’re going out on Thursday night and classic country ain’t your thing, MASS (1002 S Main) has a Denton-forward bill: Denton’s Ditch Prince headlines, with direct support from songwriter/producer Danielle Grubb; she is actually from Plano, but the second-slot band is Sunbuzzed, a psychedelic garage rock band who are indeed from Denton, as is the show’s opener, dance-pop chanteuse Lorelei K. So not entirely Dentonian, but mostly so. This description of Ditch Prince, written in Denton-centric publication The Dentonite (pulled from the band’s Facebook bio) is definitely Dentonian, however: “Dark hues cast over indoor, literally smoke-and-mirror-filled scenes juxtaposed with sunny poolside shots sharpen and dramatize this post-millennial nightmare. By the end, a song laced with cocaine references loops in your mind while visions so eccentric, but even more so enchanting, occupy the leftover head space.” – Victoria Falcon (writer, The Dentonite). Look at all those things! Post-millenial nightmare! Cocaine references! Enchanted head space! Fort Worth bands sound so boring by comparison! Jokes aside, Danielle Grubb’s recordings move my meter the most out of all of these, so if you go to this show, be sure to get there in time to see her play, though really, get there for all the acts, because why not? It’s all entertainment, right? Lorelei K’s set starts the night at 9:15. 18+, $5-10, or possibly more. Check out Lorelei K’s latest video:
3) Or you could skip either of those other shows and see Riff Raff at the Lizard Lounge (2424 Swiss Ave, Dallas). To each their own, and to his credit, his Instagram antics still make me chuckle. This is an official Riff Raff video:
4) As the year progresses, Houston gets hotter than hell, which is possibly why that sprawling, seething morass of oil-slicked swamp, vehicular mayhem, primeval gators, and glittering skyscrapers spawns a band like Killer Hearts, themselves a five-man punk ’n roll demolition unit soaked in sleaze and amped up to their eyeballs with greasy, high voltage rock. The Dangits and the Drawer Devils are in the middle and opening slots, respectively, and both deal in breakneck speeds and dangerous volume. Should be a nice time! Doors are at 9, show is all ages, cover is $7. Here’s a Killer Hearts video that has some good riffs:
5) Three Links (2704 Elm ) has three Dreamy Life bands playing on Sunday: Sub-Sahara, War Party, and Drawer Devils, all of whom can be loosely identified as punk. Someone recently tried to imply I mention Sub-Sahara an inordinate amount in these weekly lists, but you know what? Even if I do, they deserve it, because they’re one of the best fucking bands around. Unless you haven’t seen them, that assertion is not really even up for debate, and if you haven’t, what’ve you been waiting for??? Jesus Fucking Christ! This show starts at 9, it’s only $5, and Sub-Sahara hit the stage at midnight. Here’s Sub-Sahara. If you skip this video, well that’s just kinda lame:
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.
