Doosu

Every once in a while, when I'm preaching the gospel of Dallas music to out-of-towners, some faraway friend asks about the band Doosu. That's odd for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that this outside-Dallas Doosu chat is more common than inside-Dallas Doosu chat. At least that was the case before the band posted a breakup notice on their Web site last month. Since the news, local lips have finally begun moving about the hard-rock outfit, which was never crazy enough to get a foothold in the hardcore scene led by Brutal Juice and Baboon and never pandering enough to crack any sort of mainstream market. Still, Doosu released a few records on local hard-rock label One Ton Records and grabbed a few choice opening gigs, including shows with the Toadies, A Perfect Circle and Porno for Pyros. Along the way, they built a small-but-dedicated fanbase and progressed nicely as a band, which is most obvious in their promising 2002 release, Feng Shui. Actually, "promising" no longer fits so well, and we're assuming recent developments within Doosu--including bassist Chad DeAtley's first son born in September and guitarist/singer Casey Hess' move to the Burden Brothers--accelerated the split. At their farewell concert at the Curtain Club on Saturday, Dallas fans have one last chance to say goodbye. So be a sport if you attend and hold up a cell phone for those faraway fans they've secured in the past 11 years.