This past weekend was our 12th annual Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards Festival downtown, and by most accounts the shindig went off without a hitch and may have been the highlight of lots of people’s weekend. Easily more than 1,000 folks braved the heat to catch performances by 35 local bands, all nominees in our annual popular vote in categories ranging from jazz to indie-rock, C&W to Artist of the Year.
Our six host clubs — 8.0 Restaurant and Bar, Bent Lounge, Embargo, Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, Paddy Reds Irish Pub, and Scat Jazz Lounge — saw a steady stream of customers throughout the day, according to my own two eyes. As in years past, the concert got under way at 4 p.m. At opening time, I happened to be at Eight-O, where electric-folk singer-songwriter Daniel Katsük was playing to a decent crowd out on the spacious patio. The space was (thankfully) a lot shadier than I’d remembered. My next stop was the Scat, where I caught Chatterton‘s set. The sound was perfect — loud but not loud enough to hinder conversation — and the band was tight. No transients requested frontman Kevin Aldridge‘s autograph on a 40-ouncer paper bag. (Inside joke.) The first real rock show I got to see was next, at Bent, where February Chorus frontman Brandin Lea was playing with a monster lineup of backing musos, including Aldridge on keyb’s, Stella Rose‘s Matt Mabe on drums, the Feb Chor’s Taylor Craig Mills on bass (see: Music feature to the left of this column), and, on pedal steel, Ben Roi Herring, father of and accompanist to Fort Worth alt-country singer-songwriter Collin Herring. And at one particularly deafening point, Tony Ferraro (Bob Fante, Eaton Lake Tonics, Fate Lions) got up and bashed out some guitar. My ears are still ringing. The rest of the night at Bent belonged to R&B/Hip-Hop nominees the Rivercrest Yacht Club, who were rowdy, and hard-rockers Stella Rose, who were equally enthusiastic, especially during their “disco song” (as described by frontman Stephen Beatty). At each venue, Weekly volunteers were soliciting votes — over the past month, we’ve received several hundred in total — and peddling copies of our annual compilation CD. Our business manager says sales of the $5 soundcards (the songs are digital files) helped us raise in excess of $800 for this year’s charity sponsor, the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Copies are still available. To have one shipped out to you directly, please e-mail your name and snail-mail address to associate editor Anthony Mariani at anthony.mariani@fwweekly.com. Tracks include The Burning Hotels‘ “Where’s My Girl?,” RYC’s “The Tuck,” The Orbans‘ “Were Her,” AwkQuarius‘ “Let’s Hit the Town,” The Campaign‘s “The Easy Way,” Clint Niosi‘s “My Mephistophilis,” Chatterton’s “Thrown Out,” Lea’s “When They Come For You,” and many more. Thanks to the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who came out and the bands that played, the bands that didn’t play, and the bands that neither were nominated nor played. Winners will be announced in next week’s issue. Thanks also to the Weekly employees and their friends who volunteered.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
