Monday, April 12, 2010

4.10.2010, oak cliff

in the event, bolsa was too busy (sorry, but i don't wait an hour and a half to eat _anywhere_), so we toddled across the street to the original gloria's (there's another one in the fort, in montgomery plaza) for some groovy salvadoran chow -- thinly sliced meats, fried plaintains, argentine sausage, black beans and rice, with chocolate flan for dessert really made it. oak cliff was in the middle of its arts crawl and unveiling new murals along 7th street, which seemed a li'l more organic and locally-focused than the main street arts fest in the fort, which in fairness i haven't visited since my kids got too big to enjoy "ice cream of the future." noticed a new space on the davis side of the kessler theater building, which is apparently the new home of cliff notes bookstore.

the band descender is the latest project of casey hess, ex-doosu (beloved of the old wreck room crew) and burden bros., whom i last saw doing his solo electric jump rope girls thing in the front room at el wreck. they're very pro and very rawk, with a hard-hitting drummer, arena-rock sonics and stage trip (lots of guitar changes) laced with some metal moves (right-hand-muted dropped-D guitar-bass unisons). i wondered how they felt about the blonde girl (somebody's g-f? the next warhol superstar? america's top model contestant?) who used them as the backdrop for a photo op.

i asked the bassplayer from true widow whether it was safe for her to play with beer bottles atop her rig; she said she does it all the time. damn solid state amps! (chad deatley from dove hunter started the set with _four_ bottles atop his rig and none of 'em budged, either.) true widow's guitarist used four different combo amps to get a harmonic-rich, F/X-laden sound. the band's music reminded me of nothing so much as doom metal of the southern lord variety, done as appalachian folk music. the drummer hit softer than any percussionist i've heard in such a context -- maybe a tenth of the intensity of a trinidad leal or henry vasquez. 'twas all good, though, and true widow's crowd was particularly enthusiastic (and loyal -- all of 'em unassed after their band played.)

as an indicator how disconnected i've become from local music i'm not a participant in, this was the first time i've seen dove hunter, even though they've played as close to mi casa as the ginger man on camp bowie. they've played at spencer's corner in ridgmar, too. you get the impression that these guys really love to play. having seen quincy holloway in the dfw punk doco (with lickity split!) and in person at last saturday's stoogeshow, i figured it was time.

the lineup's now trimmed down to just jayson wortham (voxxx-guitar, ex-mandarin), chad deatley (bass-keys, another doosu vet), and quincy, with new guy will kapinos on guitar. will was in jetscreamer, a denton grunge-blooze outfit, and recently did a solo turn as a one-man band during the tommy atkins benefit at the kessler, inadvertently becoming the only performer that night to make the 10 o'clock news and generously inviting tommy's bandmate daron beck to join him for a psychotic version of "i put a spell on you" (a signature song of daron's from his american idol daze).

while he's still finding his feet in dove hunter, the guitar interplay between will and jayson wortham is already quite stellar -- not in the solo-wank sense, but in the way they interlock their clean-toned lines like muddy waters and jimmy rogers or, dare i say, the grateful dead's weir and garcia. quincy is so in control of time it's scary, playing inside and around the beat like some unholy hybrid of john bonham and sly dunbar. (the italian kid waggishly referred to the band as "dub hunter" for quincy's sub oslo-ish breakdowns in the middle of songs.) words can't express how refreshing it is to hear a rock band improvising onstage in 2010. unfortunately, not a lot of folks hung around to hear the transformational toonage. hopefully, more will be present when dove hunter plays lola's 6th for the good show showcase on 4.23.2010.

kessler impresario edwin cabaniss joked that people in the fort are going to start talking bad about me if i keep spending so much time in his venue. i figure i don't need any excuse to patronize a good-sounding room, run by enlightened folks, that presents interesting, well-curated shows. even if it's 30 miles from my living room. listening now to the james hall disc that jeff liles burned me, as well as eight tracks from james' new album i downloaded free from james' website. i'm _almost_ sorry i'll be playing with the stoogeband and won't get to catch james and the futura bold at the kessler on 4.17.2010.

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