28 April 2014
Hello again. Monday is hitting pretty hard after having five days off….
Lots of shows in the past week and many more coming up.
I started things off with a few comedians. Wednesday I saw Hannibal Buress at The Paramount in Austin and he killed. He has only been around a few years but I feel pretty safe saying that he is already one of the five best standup comedians on the planet. Thursday I saw Maria Bamford at The Paramount and she seemed to be in a transitional phase. I think it would have been better to see her in a club. She was doing lots of new material and it was remarkably inconsistent. Some of the new stuff was just bizarre and silly, almost making a caricature of her. But some of it was really serious, profound, hilarious, and brilliant. She’s as good as anyone at making comedy out of tragedy. Friday night at Sons of Hermann Hall I saw Todd Barry on his Crowd Work tour and it was incredible how effortlessly he got laughs every few seconds simply by talking with people in the audience.
Saturday I took a break and missed Warpaint; I’m sure they sounded okay and looked great. Lost in the Trees and Dark Rooms across the street at Three Links probably would have been the best choice Saturday night but I just wasn’t up for it.
There were lots of great shows Sunday night. Charles Bradley at Trees, Goblin at Texas Theatre, but I went with The Men and Cloud Nothings at Dada and both were incredible. The Men never disappoint but Cloud Nothings are getting sharper every year, they really had the crowd in a frenzy. As great as their last two albums I still doubt they have peaked. If they played Dallas once a month I probably wouldn’t miss a show. Shame I missed the opening band, Nude Beach, sounds like they played a hell of a set.
Coming up we have The Night Beats and Cosmonauts at Dada on Wednesday and you’d be a fool to miss it. The newest album from The Night Beats, Sonic Bloom, is essential Texas psych rock, as good as anything to come out of The Reverberation Society, even that magnificent album from The Elephant Stone. If you missed their sold out show at Doublewide in November you are in for a real treat. Cosmonauts are also on this excellent bill and I am very excited to finally see them. For several months I have been enjoying their instantly-likeable psychedelic pop album, Persona Non Grata, and I have been hearing their name dropped quite a bit lately.
On Thursday we have another excellent double bill, the noisy space rock of White Hills and the laidback southern rock and boogie of Natural Child coalesce at City Tavern. It will be lots of fun, a great way to spend Thursday night, maybe the best ten bucks you will ever spend.
On Friday morning I will be headed to Austin Psych Fest but Parade of Flesh has three more incredible shows I will regret missing this weekend. Temples at Dada on Friday is a no-brainer but get there early to see Boogarins from Brazil! They’ll put a smile on your face. Good luck choosing between Woods (with Quilt) at Dada and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at The Foundry. Both shows are on Saturday and that is a tough choice.
Until next week.
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