concerts
By Matt Stubbs of The Jerry Jonestown Massacre Podcast
This is one of the stormiest times of year in Dallas, Texas. But what you heard coming out of the Las Colinas/Irving part of town Monday night, was no brutal Texas storm. It was two of my favorite bands with two totally different sounds, Gojira and Deftones. This great night of metal happened at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Tx.
Read MoreWords by Matt Stubbs from the Jerry Jonestown Podcast Show
On Sunday night I had the honor to catch Baroness in concert with tour mates Deafheaven and Zeal & Ardor. This show was at Canton Hall, in Deep Ellum. It was an evening of cross-genre live music, with the exception of Baroness. These three musical performances were very different. But the one thing they all had in common is creativity.
Read MoreDia De Los Toadies is an annual festival where the Toadies invite a bunch of their friends to tear up the stage with them over the course of a few days. For it's 7th year it returned to Panther Island Pavillon in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.
Read MoreMy goal for SXSW this year was just to go down there, wonder aimlessly, and just see what we happened upon (see yesterday's post here). The only thing we had in stone was making it to The Main Friday night to see The Artery Foundation Showcase featuring A Lot Like Birds, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, For The Fallen Dreams, Attila, Woe Is Me, Chelsea Grin and A Skylit Drive.
Read MoreSouth by Southwest is a chaotic orgy of sensory overload that leaves your body and mind pummeled for days. Over 90 venues and 2000 artists turn downtown Austin into the largest music festival for 5 days every year. It's a music nerd's nirvana.
It's been years since I've made the trip down for SXSW, and until a couple of weeks ago, it looked like I was going to be missing out on another year. But my schedule cleared up and the madness of last minute planning began.
Read MoreThis past Sunday, Swedish heavy metal band, In Flames return to Dallas in support of their latest release Sounds of a Playground Fading with Trivium, Veil the Maya, and Kyng along for the ride. Each of the opening bands did a pretty decent job warming up the crowd, but for me, this night was all about finally seeing In Flames after gaining knowledge of them in 2003. Well that's kind of misleading, I did see them at Ozzfest in 2005 on the side stage, but seeing a band in the parking lot of an amplitheater with crappy sound and a 20 minute set really doesn't count as seeing them. I digress.
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Local indie pop/sex wave darlings The Burning Hotels capped off my evening Saturday night with there midnight performance at Trees. I believe I've gone on record at least once or twice before with saying that these guys are one of my favorite bands in North Texas, and if you haven't had a chance to catch them live yet, well your really missing out. Their set Saturday was fantastic, and possibly the most aggressive I have ever seen them. In fact there were a few points that I feared one of their instruments was going to meet it's untimely demise.
Wrapping up the main stage activities on Saturday night was Fort Worths' own, the Toadies. And as the first notes of I Come From The Water rang out, it quickly became evident that they weren't there to pace through another set. Instantly the air became electric and the crowd was easily whipped up into a fist pumping craze which helped feed the aggression of the band. It was becoming clear that this night was going to be a special night in DFW music history, not to mention the sports history that was being made by the Rangers on the Jumbo-Tron across from the stage.
The Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase was held this past Saturday and over 50 bands played on 10 different stages through out Deep Ellum. The Main stage hosted Sarah Jaffe, Centro-Matic, the Old 97's and the Toadies while directly across from the stage the Texas Rangers were playing game 6 on a large portable jumbotron. It was a fantastic evening, and all bases were covered, no pun intended.
Chaos, mayhem, and panic was in store for the Palladium Ballroom, and that was before the any of the 30 or so bands even took the stage. Due to the recent deaths and injuries at the Electric Daisy Carnival, the Dallas Fire Marshall and Police Department would not allow the promoter, AEG, to operate stages in both the main room and the South Side Music Hall.
