Tsunami Benefit Concert

It's hard to say which was the high point of the Granada's Tsunami Benefit: the spine-chilling Pleasant Grove set, which lasted a mere 20 minutes but ended with an instrumental climax somewhere in the stratosphere; the piano-pounding, punch-drunk Centro-matic finale, which placed the perfect exclamation point on the evening; or the fact that, by night's end, the event had raised more than $20,000 for UNICEF. Regardless, those who stuck in there for the seven-hour haul were rewarded with one of the strongest local bills in recent Dallas memory. Other standout performances include [DARYL], whose new rock sound and new (and numerous) members proved that the song doesn't always remain the same, and The Deathray Davies, who refused to be upstaged by Pleasant Grove's Marcus Striplin engaging in a bout of play-fighting with multi-instrumentalist Kevin Ingle. Like the best of the DD's shows, it was giddy and unpredictable, with front man John Dufilho encouraging the audience to throw ice at him. We all missed his mouth, but it was fun anyway.

More than 900 people came out for a show that lacked any traditional "headliner," thus putting the lie to the notion that Dallas doesn't support its local music scene. And refreshingly, many of those faces were new. To those people, I say: Hi. I hope this concert was proof of what you've been missing. We hope to see you again.