I meant to do a piece on the Run the Jewels show last Thursday but I didn't. Luckily my lovely wife-time companion has a lot to say about Run the Jewels. Stay tuned!
Man, what a good line-up tonight at the Double Wide. Thanks, Parade of Flesh, for doing what you do to get bands like this to Dallas. This was our first visit to the Double Wide Tavern, located in 'the deepest of Ellum," as a guy I work with put it earlier today. Or yesterday. It's late, we got back from the show a little while ago. I am jazzed.
Triathlon came on at 9:20 and the room was full, but it was odd because it was mostly normal looking, older people and not the type you usually see at rock'n'roll shows. Turns out the guys in Triathalon, who hail from Georgia, have family and friends here in the D and they came out tonight Texas style to support their boys. Triathalon has a low-key surf rock thing goin' on and the lead singer, Adam Intrator, has a great falsetto. The wife objectified Adam and felt guilty after realizing his folks were standing behind us. What's wrong with her? Their set was super-tight. The wife thinks they could be the next Maroon-5. I dunno if anybody wants to be that, but she meant it as a compliment for sure. This is my fave song:
Seeing it live, it came on like Paradise Cove by the Lively Ones, which I love:
Next up was Future Death from Austin. The room cleared out and man they played like champs to maybe fifteen or so people. It was one of the loudest things I've heard in a while -- manic and ambitious and great noisy rock'n'roll. Bill the guitarist for Future Death played his instrument like the Flash, his hand was a total blur. Their new album is called Special Victim and they have a song called Speedweed. My wife put the two together, that the band is Law and Order: SVU fans. Bill confirmed this for me. He chatted with us about SVU and Seinfeld, two of my favorite subjects. He was a super cool dude, and a crazy guitar player. I objectified the lead singer, Angie Kang, and felt guilty. What's wrong with me?
Roomrunner was up next and the room I think got a little bigger for them but not by much. They're from Maryland like Dope Body. It was lead singer Denny Bowen's birthday. For his birthday, he and his band put on a top notch show.
The last band was Dope Body, also from Maryland, and man I've been listening to them so much the past week, in anticipation of this show. I was a little bummed I couldn't hear Andrew Laumann's vocals as much as I wanted to; I had the same problem with Future Death's Angie Kang. The other two bands seemed equalized, vox to music. Anyway, Andrew Laumann is worth seeing perform, as he's got his Mick Jagger swagger thing and the band happens to be moving rock music forward, like Jesus Lizard or Protomartyr, IMO.
There were maybe ten or fifteen people to catch this show but the band played like they had to impress one hundred angels. They played a request from a dude, a song they hadn't played in a while. They played their hearts out. It seemed to me that each band did. And there's three words for that:
Rad. Ass. Shit.