1) You know what would be a fun date night? Taking your boo, bae, or ball ’n chain (or your ballin’ chain) to Shipping and Receiving tonight at 7:30 for dinner and dance lessons. Of course, this being Fort Worth, dinner and dance lessons means barbecue sandwiches and two-stepping, provided by Steve’s FTW BBQ and Fred Astaire Dance Factory. Doors are at 7:30 and the music starts at 8; the bands are of the bluegrass and C&W variety. I’m not sure if the free two-step and polka dancing lessons are to be provided before the bands start or in between sets, but the lineup starts at 8pm with the female-fronted (and drummed) honky tonk act the Blondettes, followed by folky songwriter Bad Mountain at 8:45, the Panther City Pickers (an all-star band of local bluegrass players you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever seen Big City Folk or Walker and the Texas Dangers) at 9:40, and band called Mountain Sprout headlining the event at 10:45.
Per the press release, Mountain Sprout “has the look of wild all over them in their long beards and smoke-and-drink-while-they-play attitudes.” Fiddles and banjoes are involved, used to perform “funny songs about weed-smoking and beer-drinking and fight-causing.” Oh really? A band called Mountain Sprout makes music like that? You might as well just say “Mountain Sprout sounds like a cartoon show about hillbillies spittin’ in a tin pail.” While I am a fan of smoking weed and drinking beer and watching other people cause fights, the whole goofy Appalachian hick context surrounding a lot of bluegrass music doesn’t do it for me, unless it’s a real-life Appalachian hick making it, and I’d probably be more interested in hearing him or her tell stories about OxyContin and being grateful to find squirrels and rabbits to eat during the cold months, but minus the banjo and major 3rd harmonies. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’d much rather watch Winter’s Bone than hear a cartoony bluegrass band, but then again, I arbitrarily despise a lot of things that are universally regarded as fun. Sorry for never enjoying the circus or the hokey pokey. If you go to this show, definitely don’t miss the Panther City Pickers, as those cats are all really good players. Anyway, here are the Blondettes; they are pretty good too:
2) If you think that last post was long, at least know that my X-Mas wish list was really short. Just two things, both of which are available at Target! Briefly: tonight’s show at Lola’s is another night of high-gain punk ’n roll. The Dangits headline, preceded by Bad Blonde, West Side Drunk Punks, and Hello Lover kicking the night off at 9pm. For me, the highlight of this bill is West Side Drunk Punks, but that’s because sometimes I get a little teary about being old if I’m drunk enough and hear certain NOFX songs; WSPD, as far as I’ve ever experienced, cover the punk rock hits of Epitaph’s and Fat Wreck Chords’ heyday (that’s the mid-’90s, fam), which presses my nostalgia buttons like a kid trying to beat Street Fighter II with E. Honda. Enthusiastically, in other words. This Dangits video is kind of old, but it’s more than kind of rad:
3) Support Misty Ann Dixon’s battle against melanoma on Saturday night at the Grotto with a four-band bill that includes Foo Fighters tribute the Foo, songwriter Matt Tedder, Luther & Parish (of Hanna Barbarians), new indie pop band Troody, and interstellar cruise ship funk band Vodeo. Man, I love thinking up new, spacey phrases to describe Vodeo! Doors are at 6pm, and donations are gratefully accepted, and a silent auction will be held throughout the night. All funds raised from the show will go to Misty’s medical fund. In this video, the Foo plays “Everlong”:
4) If you’re into dreamscape scrapin’, dub-influenced, sonic collages, both Wire Nest and Tidals are playing a free show at the Boiled Owl on Saturday, in celebration of the brand new 7” split featuring both groups. Glitchwave pioneer Squanto starts the show at 9:30, followed by Wire Nest, Tidals, and Botany at 12:30. I’m tempted to say that this show is the team to beat this week, but there’s a free show Saturday night at the Sunshine Bar that is also solid from top to bottom (see below). Fucking opportunity costs! Oh well. Here’s Botany:
5) If you want to get an idea of what a Metallica gig at some crummy dive in 1983 might have been like, don’t miss throwback thrashers Steel Bearing Hand Saturday night at the Sunshine Bar in Arlington. They’re headlining a four-band birthday bill for three mutual friends who were born this week, so if you know them (their names are James, Chris, and Natalie if you don’t), be prepared to buy some drinks – at the Sunshine, I feel like $20 might actually buy you four hundred shots of well whiskey. Eh, that’s probably not true, but anyway, besides Steel Bearing Hand (feat. birthday boy 1, Chris), Mountain of Smoke, Duell (feat. birthday boy 2, James), and Wildspeaker (feat. birthday girl Natalie) are also playing, so it’s plenty of heavy from various branches of the heavy metal tree – I hear Mountain of Smoke has some new material, so I’m pretty stoked for this show, which is also cover-free. Wildspeaker getting loose right here:
