Skip to main content

Disco for Daisies

In my short time of seeing shows at the Cavern, I have seen two-piece bands (ie, the Lord Henry) all the way up to six-piece bands (ie, SOUND team and Pegasus Now). After last night, I can now say that I have seen eight- and nine-piece bands play on the Cavern's tiny stage.

Austin's Golden Bear and the Channel came into town to spread some good tunes for us Dallas folks. I didn't get to see all of Last Picture Show and Belafonte, so I can't really describe what I saw. I was there to see Golden Bear and the Channel as they play a friendly mix of layered chamber pop without feeling like kids' music.

With eight members onstage, there wasn't much room for moving around during Golden Bear's set. Three guitars, one bass, one rather large vibraphone, one regular-sized drumset, a saxophone and two keyboards stacked on top of each other is really pushing how much you put into the Cavern's space. Josh was doing sound and gave every instrument enough volume to hear them all without over-powering (though the sax sounded a little too loud from where I was standing, but that's no reason to say that was a major drawback).

The sound on Golden Bear's self-titled album is rather hazy and psychedelic, so I wasn't expecting to hear that live. Well, I didn't, but what I like about their songs are the hooks, especially on songs like "Ten Thousand Orchestras." The band was understandably cramped onstage, but by the middle of the set, they were moving around. All the while I'm watching them, I kept thinking of seeing them in a larger venue, like the Backyard or Stubb's outside. Their sound is big, so I hope they do get to play bigger places that accommodate this.

With the Channel, they had nine people playing (seven of them were playing in Golden Bear), but the set felt a little more fun. Golden Bear kept getting better with every song they played, but the Channel was fun the whole time. More bouncy and country-fied than Golden Bear, this felt like two distinctly different bands, but that was fine by me. Despite the line-up similarities, they put on some different vibes that were great and engaging.

The good thing about this show was that a decent amount of people came out despite the lack of "known" names on the bill. I've seen the Cavern be filled to the brim and completely empty on prime weekend nights regardless of who was playing. Yes, I know more people go out to bars to hang out and drink than see bands, but I always wonder why the massive fluxuation. Sure, a band like SOUND team may attract more than the bar's usual crowd, but what about the bands that don't get that kind of publicity? I'd like to think that every major bar in town has a regular crowd, but you never know. Regardless, I had fun and that's why I go out to shows so often. I can only handle so much reading, writing and dog walking at home before I go nuts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Hello, Control

I'm still a big fan of iTunes . I haven't tried Napster , Urge or eMusic as I've been perfectly happy with Apple's program ever since I downloaded it two years ago. However, an annoying new feature has come up with its latest version, 7.0. Whenever you pull up your music library, a sidebar taking up 3/4ths of the screen appears plugging the iTunes Music Store. Why is this an annoyance? Well, first and foremost, since you can't close the sidebar, you can't escape it. I believe a music library is a private collection, a spot away from the music store. So what's the need for constant advertisements and plugs? To provide a better visual, let me describe what I see whenever I pull up a song in my iTunes library. When I listen to "This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open" by the Weakerthans, I see a graphic for Left and Leaving , the album that it comes from (and available in the iTunes Music Store), along with a list of the Weakerthans' other albums,

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J