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The Numbers Twist

Last Friday night was spent watching Bram Stoker's Dracula, but Saturday night was a much better experience. I saw The Numbers Twist play with El Gato and [daryl] at the Doublewide.

The Numbers Twist consists of three members of Red Animal War (Justin, Matt and Brian) with two drummers (Todd from Doosu/Flickerstick and Tony from Tendril). As a longtime fan of Red Animal War, I was very impressed.

I'm starting to see two drummers in groups of all sorts of styles: from The Go! Team to . . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead to the Happy Bullets (almost always when they play a show with The Tah-Dahs). Sometimes having two drummers at once sounds like a sloppy mess, but in the case of The Numbers Twist, they made for a powerful force that was felt. Rather than playing the exact same things together, Todd and Tony gave each other space. If one was hitting the hi-hat, the other was hitting something else (from a rim to ride cymbal). They didn't step over each others parts; they made them fit together nicely.

Other than the dual drumming, this is not too far removed from what Red Animal War had been doing for a while. This is more tight, angular, poppy post-hardcore without any wimpy emo shenanigans. I don't care if "the kids" like this or not; this stuff speaks to me now and will probably speak to me in years to come, just like Red Animal War's stuff.

The show was packed by the time [daryl] stage and it made me think. Sure, other major Deep Ellum venues are shutting down for various reasons, but in the case of the Doublewide, I hope it sticks around. It's a nice, intimate venue that can hold plenty of people between its two rooms and patio. I don't go to DE that much anymore for various reasons (no major shows that I really want to see, parking is a hassle, homeless people pestering patrons for money, etc.), but when there's something too good to pass up, I had to go. I'm glad I did.

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