Shibboleth, The Cut Off, Slider Pines and Airline

This event is actually a benefit for The Orphanage, a Saturday morning radio show hosted by Danny Balis and Dave Lane on KTCK-1310 AM The Ticket. Both Balis (who played in Sorta and is now in The King Bucks) and Lane were both real orphans who organize this concert each year in support of the Fort Worth adoption agency The Gladney Center. Normally, this annual event offers a good lineup, but this year's quartet of stellar local acts is truly a high-water mark.

Interestingly, the headliner is not the main attraction here; Shibboleth is fun in a smart-ass, geek kind of way, but just how much the band actually has to say is, well, questionable. Fort Worth's The Cut Off, on the other hand, has plenty to say—and a forceful way of saying it. Packaged Up for Beginners, The Cut Off's most recent effort, shows the band finding a balance between its Pixies fixation and its more original mix of garage rock and '60s psychedelia. Frontman Kyle Barnhill has one of the best snarls in the region and guitarist Jayson Hamilton can negotiate a killer riff quite effectively.

Adding substance to an already appealing night are Slider Pines and Airline, two acts who share only one trait: subtle intensity. Hats off to Lane and Balis for assembling such a top-notch lineup for a worthy cause.