Comes to mind

"We used to bring four-tracks all the time to our practices--or what we call practices--because so many great things happen there," Poetschke says. "Of course, we've also been to shows, had all the recording equipment there, we thought we had gotten it down, and then something was wrong with the tape or something. You never know when that spark is going to hit the band and we all jell and it sounds great." He pauses, then laughs. "Because we have our train wrecks, that's for damn sure."

Scene, heard
Not even a small skirmish involving members of Tripping Daisy and some Arcadia Theater security staffers after last week's Dallas Observer Music Awards could diminish all the love in the room that night. Hey, nobody got hurt, and nobody got arrested--that's our idea of a fight, even if it has since taken on the aura of "a riot," as one giddy e-mailer put it. It's going to take a lot more than that to ruin a night that saw Jim "Reverend Horton Heat" Heath accept his Rockabilly/Roots award from The Beautiful Harvey Martin, X's John Doe perform with Rhett Miller and Murry Hammond, Jerry "Mr. Peppermint" Haynes tell the crowd that Gibby sends his regards, and Willie "The Mack" Hutch fill a little time by singing a few lines from his immortal "Brothers Gonna Work it Out."

It's nights like that--when Mental Chaos, Bobby Patterson, Meredith Miller, the tomorrowpeople, Go Metric USA, one-half of the Old 97's (and, can we say it once more, John Freakin' Doe) and the Daisy share the same stage--we're reminded of how astonishingly vibrant a music town Dallas really is. (The secret renaissance isn't a secret any longer.) It was the feel-good event of our year, at least; we even recall giving a drunken congratulations to the fellas in Hellafied Funk Crew, who seemed a bit confused by our clumsy backstage attempts at a whad-up-fellas embrace. But, hey, we were in a damned good mood. Thanks to the voters who cast their ballots in this year's open-voting; thanks to all the presenters (including last-minute add-on Ty Macklin of Music Award-winning Shabazz 3) and performers; and thanks to all the kids who stuck around for the Daisy's rousing finale, brawl not included. Lotsa love. Did we mention John Doe was there?

Send Street Beat your love to rwilonsky@dallasobserver.com.