Top 5 Shows

1) Like a stew made of dick, period, and fart jokes, seasoned with self-deprecation and shit-talking, and batched to offer second and third helpings for anyone who wants a bowl, the Fort Worth comedy scene continues to simmer and burble, not only with up-and-coming locals who take their craft seriously and are always on that get-better grind, but also with regular appearances by a lot of really funny, mid-level touring comics. MASS’s (1002 S Main) Laugh Your MASS nights are on the forefront of this (but let’s not forget everywhere else area chuckleheads like Brian Breckenridge and Monna set up shows and open mics), and on Wednesday night (2/5), the Near Southside venue hosts Whitney Chitwood, the Chicago-based, comedian/“lesbian squirrel in a box” who career seems to be on the upward swing – per her bio, she’s impressed big-name comedians like Maria Bamford and Eddie Pepitone, and if you watch any of her clips, you can see why. Hopefully she’ll be able to transcend the purgatory of the “comics’ comic” commercial obscurity, because she’s pretty fucking funny. As with ever LYMA show, Breckenridge hosts, and this edition’s openers include Ralph Barbosa, Javoris James, and Katlynn Nicole Hasenauer. Show is free, 21+, starts at 9pm, and cash donations at the end are highly encouraged. Here’s Whitney Chitwood doing a bit in Atlanta at what appears to be a rustic taproom:

2) On Friday night at the Moon Bar (2000 W Berry), garage-synth trio Big Heaven open a bill featuring one of my favorite, sort-of-on-a-hiatus-but-not-now, non-Fort Worth local bands: Birds of Night. The Denton four-piece came up around the same time I joined Oil Boom, and blah blah blah when they started to sound darker, even arguably Sabbath-ier, I really caught on to what a versatile songwriter frontman Andrew Rothlisberger is, anchored by bassist Brooks Martin’s melodic heaviness, and a rotating cast of drummers and guitarists. Wow! I did not anticipate writing this much about this show, but I’m really glad I did, and as soon as I’m done, I’m going to get Dark, the band’s 2015 full-length (which, in my estimation, is when the band got heavier, riffier, and well, darker) floating around my auditory cortex, probably while I drill some holes in my patio to hang houseplants in the spring, a rabble of spider plants and ferns and some succulents likely doomed to die in July. The things you occupy your time with when you work from home! I can only imagine what life is like for a person who sells essential oils – probably a lot of taking kids to various places, worrying about money, and bothering friends via social media, but also ample time for pursuing fun projects like expanding the patio’s décor. Boy howdy, did I get carried away thinking about houseplants! The show winds up with a band called Clifffs, who seem to fall directly into the space of ’90s-to-early-aughts Dallas power pop, which is no surprise given that two-thirds of Clifffs were in The Deathray Davies. Sucks I have to work. Really would like to go to this show. Please attend in my stead! Doors are at 8, cover is $10, show is 18+, Big Heaven starts the night at 9:30. Big Heaven dropped a new video in December for “Someone Else,” in which you will probably see people you know:

3) Lola’s (2736 6th Ave) Friday night bill is loud rock ’n roll: Dead Vinyl headline, with Crooked Bones in the middle spot and Ghoulsby kicking the doors open around 9. Doors to the 18+ show are at 8, and cover is $10. Good news! I found another band called Dead Vinyl, but they’re FRENCH:

4) Grandma’s (formerly known as Off The Record, found at 715 W Magnolia) is throwing a “house party” Friday night, featuring DJ Soft Cherry. She’ll be playing house music and hip-hop all night, and there’s no cover. Starts at 10pm, and it’s a bar, so it’s 21+ (duh).

5) Shipping and Receiving’s (202 S Calhoun) Saturday night show has been on my calendar for months now, because it features my friend and former Oil Boom bandmate Ryan Taylor, fronting Yeah Huh, the new band he formed with three-fifths of the Orbans. The last time I saw Ryan play, it was a week after Oil Boom’s final show in May of 2018, and he was doing a rare solo set for one of Cameron Smith’s Excursions On A Wobbly Rail showcases. He played some songs I remembered from the demo folder in Oil Boom’s shared Dropbox, but he also played a bunch I’d never heard before. I asked him about those unheard songs he played after he finished, and his answer was something to the effect of “Oh, I wrote five or six new ones this week.” Needless to say, I’m very stoked to hear his new stuff fleshed out by some of the dudes from of Fort Worth’s best-loved, dearly defunct rock bands. I think they headline. Also on this bill: Jake Paleschic, and Dustin Arbuckle and the Damnations. Cover is $10, doors are at 8, bands start at 9ish, and the show is 21+. Here’s Dustin Arbuckle and the Damnations: