The wife and I went to see Ex Hex and Mind Spiders at Club Dada in Dallas last night. We missed the opening act, Dallas-based five piece Party Static, due to a timing error on our part. We were bummed we missed them because their 6 song EP from 2013, This Isn't Music, is good stuff. Since they're local hopefully we'll catch them soon:
Mind Spiders is a band from up in Denton, their 2013 album Inhumanistic was put out by Dirtnap Records. Lead vox/guitarist Mark Ryan is also in the similarly awesome The Marked Men, but that band hasn't put out anything since 2010.
What is there to say about Ex Hex that hasn't already been said? Mary Timony is approaching legendary status, Rips, released late last year on Merge, is an excellent album, etc. It was a pleasure to see Timony shred on the guitar, and bassist Betsy Wright, who wrote a couple of the tracks on Rips, has a magnetic stage presence. They stayed after the show and (wo)manned their merch table, took pics and signed autos with the crowd, which was big by the way.
I managed to babble incoherently to Timony, before stupidly asking how long she'd been playing guitar. She was polite though and said she'd been playing since she was 13. I also managed to stare blankly at Wright, while thinking to myself, "say something cool, dummy, don't just tell her how pretty she is," before my wife politely led me away from further embarrassment. I think Wright mighta winked at me but also she mighta just had something in her eye. Mrs. CNQ got to take a pic with Timony, and all three signed the vinyl we got from them. It was an awesome evening. Rock'n'roll is here to stay: