Tonight's show at Denton's Rubber Gloves Rehearsals Studios, featuring Paul Collins' Beat, Bad Sports and Occult Detective Club, promises to be a scorcher -- even if a certain tattooed bar manager doesn't crank the AC down to 63 degrees. Don't say we didn't warn you.
It's no secret: Denton's Bad Sports is considered a favorite local live act by several of us here at DC9 HQ. Same goes for Carrollton's Occult Detective Club. In our eyes, a bill pairing these acts with Collins, who was recently dubbed a "Power Pop God" by Free Press Houston, is an inspired one.
So, in advance of tonight's show, we decided to play some catch-up with Bad Sports' Orville Neeley and Daniel Fried to talk about about the gig and the band's forthcoming full-length LP, Kings of the Weekend. Fried in particular sounds stoked about tonight's show: "I've seen him twice in the past few years," he says. "You know how you'll go see reunion bands and tours and they'll usually suck? He was awesome both times."
Bad Sports stands to do well at this show, too, though: The punk trio's about to release its second full-length album for Portland's Dirtnap Records. It's worth noting that the disc was recorded in February 2010 at Mark Ryan's home studio in Fort Worth -- the same studio where Ryan, the former Marked Men frontman and guitarist, recorded Mind Spiders' fantastic self-titled debut (also for Dirtnap). The 14-track Bad Sports disc was originally slated for a March 2011 release. According to Dirtnap, Kings of the Weekend has currently been re-slated for a "late summer release."
Tonight's bill -- and, really, this entire Texas run for Collins, which finds Bad Sports opening for him all weekend long -- originated from a chance encounter at last year's Atlanta Mess Around Festival, when Collins caught Bad Sports' set.
"He played on the second night, and I guess he watched us the night before," Neeley says. "He said he liked our set, and that we should play a show together sometime."
Not a bad shout-out from a "Power Pop God." And tonight's show isn't a bad take, either: Tickets are just $6 a head. As if that wasn't enough of a reason to check the show out, Bad Sports also passed along two new songs from the band's upcoming release for DC9 readers to download free of charge. Grab them -- and check out Fried's informative back-stories on each -- after the jump.
Bonus MP3: