1) Newly minted Honeycomb Salon and Colorlab (6040 Camp Bowie #3105A) has a grand opening party on Friday featuring a hair show, raffle items, door prizes, snacks, and an open bar with beer, wine and honey-tinged cocktails, plus the groovy selections of DJ Ronnie Heart. All money raised benefits SafeHaven of Tarrant County. Side note: salon parties are a blast – between the booze and the beats, there’s always someone who can tell you what kind of hair style fits your dome the best. That’s what I think is cool about salon parties anyway. There’s no cover charge, but if you want to donate it will go to a worthy cause. Ronnie Heart is a DJ, but he also plays his own music:
2) Also on Friday: the Fort Worth debut of the Medicine Man Revival at Lola’s Saloon (2736 W 6th). This week’s Hearsay column had more to say about the band via an interview with singer Keite Young, who calls the music “future soul,” a genre that makes me think of Anderson Paak or Thundercat. The video I watched of Young and guitarist Jason Burt playing a song in a diner in Dallas literally over breakfast seems to vibe on Quaker City Nighthawks’ slower, ballad-oriented songs. I also remember watching Young front bands at the Moon Bar, and I recall that he puts 100% into performing, so this should be an entertaining show. The openers are Kalu and the Electric Joint and Jake Paleshic. Cover is $10, and doors are at 8pm, with the show starting at 9.
3) Instrumental prog band Programme is at Republic Street Bar (201 E Hattie) on Saturday night, headlining a free gig with ominous electro act Beachpriest (aka Grant Ring, aka the DJ half of Def Rain) in the middle spot and the mysterious solo artist Diamond Age, whose electronic music would fit right in on a Drive soundtrack, if Ryan Gosling’s character were actually a cyborg. The show is free and starts at 9pm. This Diamond Age video is pretty trippy:
4) One more for Saturday: long-running funk and soul band Mingo Fishtrap at Shipping & Receiving. I think Mingo Fishtrap was one of the first bands I ever saw upon returning to Texas from a year at my parents’ house in northern California; the show was at the Aardvark, and my buddy Dan, who I was crashing with at the time, had talked up the show for weeks. He was way into jam bands (you have no idea how much Widespread Panic I had to absorb during the six weeks I couchsurfed at his house), and while Mingo Fishtrap doesn’t necessarily fit in with the tropes I usually draw upon to make jokes about the jam band scene, they are still, some 16 years later, a tight and groovy good time. Opening act Chris Watson mines similarly soulful, Motown-oriented roots. If you don’t dance even a little bit at this show, I hope it’s because you have a note from a doctor. Doors are at 9pm, and the all-ages show is $12. Here’s an entire MF set from 2016:
5) How about an addition “one more for Saturday?” Cowpunk trio Holy Moly headline Lola’s (2736 W 6th), with Haltom City hard rock lords The Me-Thinks in the second slot and glitchwave solo artist Squanto’s queasy beats and frantic beeps starting the night off. This Holy Moly video is kinda old (it’s from 2012), but it’s from Billy Bob’s, so it was obviously a big show:
