1) Lola’s gravitational pull on the universe will exert its influence a little harder on Thursday night, due to a very heavy bill: Proggy, Madison, WI-based Ancient alien aficionados Droids Attack headline a lineup rounded out by Witchcryer, a Sabbath-esque four-piece from Austin, plus two local openers: Temptress (whose YouTube about section suggests a veritable buffet of classic metal influences), and stoner doom agents Deadhawke. If you want to watch people trying to discretely hit a wax pen indoors, this is definitely the show for that. The bands are also enjoyable. Show is 18+, cover is $10, doors are at 7, Deadhawke starts the music at 8pm. Here’s a Droids Attack set from a couple years ago:
2) Oh shit, here’s a cool show for Friday night: Adrian Hullet, once upon a time the frontman for clever, hooky indie act Oso Closo, will be singing with the Mark Lettieri Trio at the Post at River East (2925 Race St) from 8pm to 10pm. Mark Lettieri shreds in Grammy-winning jazz act Snarky Puppy, so if you get goosebumps head-’splodin’ guitar pyrotechnics and world-class technical precision, don’t miss this one. The show is all-ages and FREE! Check out this dope Mark Lettieri jam session:
3) I don’t know if you’d call the reemergence of some of the best-loved DFW bands from 15-20 years ago a revival, but Baboon, the Denton-born art punk band I recall promoting on KTCU DJ shifts in the late ’90s, has been playing more-often-than-occasional shows for a few years now. They’re headlining the Kessler (1230 W Davis, Dallas) Friday night, at an all-ages show that cost $16, is all-ages, and includes opening sets from Daniel Markham and show-opening post-rock outfit Caved Mountains, who can be viewed doing the thing live in this video, itself shot at the Double Wide:
4) Man, would you look a that last sentence? So many clauses! It’s so overstuffed with information, if it were a drink, it would be one of those outrageous Bloody Mary’s you get at a fun, free-wheeling booze brunch, the kind that are crowded with groves of celery, oddly buoyant pickled vegetables, and thickets of pizza rolls, cocktail wieners, and boneless Buffalo wing sliders skewered and hovering over an icy well of well of well vodka and tomato juice. The thing and the metaphor are both veritable ecosystems, in other words, teeming with life, or, depending on your POV, writhing with mouths to feed, at least as far as I’m concerned with the closing sentence of list item number 3. Seeing as how I just can’t escape my tendency to cram a ton of bullshit into the confines of limited narrative space, I’d like to draw your attention to a real-life analog to a sentence that’s spilling over with modifiers, asides, and flights of appositional fantasy, more succinctly known as Arts Goggle.
Arts Goggle, at least for the Near Southside, is the biggest event of the year. Nearly every business on Magnolia allocates part or most of its space to artists of both the visual and sonic varieties, as does the street and sidewalks themselves. There are well over a thousand artists registered to exhibit their work and wares, and seemingly about as many bands booked pretty much everywhere there’s a liquor license. It’s a huge day for servers and bartenders, and a blast for the dudes and babes who fill the lineups of Fort Worth’s local music scene. There are no cover charges, and bands play all afternoon and into the night. For more information, consult this FB page. As for the band lineups, I would say your best bet is to get an Uber to Magnoia, then start bar-hopping, asking about the day’s lineup at each of your stops. This is a video of an ultimate Bloody Mary at Chicago’s Crystal Lake Rib House. It has a fucking hotdog in it, and that’s not even its most absurdly extra feature. It makes me think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, mixed with the grocery store food orgy scene from Sausage Party:
5) Arlington’s Division Brewing (506 E Main St, Arlingfun) throws its annual Heavy Mash fest on Saturday. For diehard fans of the slower, sludgier, dankier sounds found in the sub-basements of Heavy Metal’s moody, majestic mountain fortress, Heavy Mash is more or less the social event of the year ’round these parts. Doors to all-ages event open at 2pm, and the eight-band lineup starts at 2:45 with Sonar Lights, followed by C.I., The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, Summit TX, Funeral Horse, Vorvon, Forming the Void, and Destroyer of Light. Cover is $15. Ever wondered what a show in El Paso looks like? Here’s Destroyer of Light playing at an El Paso venue called the Sandbox in 2017:
