Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Dallas Observer Free
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures Dallas Observer can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Spend your Wednesday night under Eugene Chadbourne’s gaze.
With the fact that we’re just two weeks off from Christmas, and, well, it being Wednesday and all, you’d think this would be a slow night for good shows.
Well, you’d be mistaken. There’s actually several acts playing about Metroplex tonight–and all of them are worth fighting the frigid temperatures to catch.
- For starters, we here at DC9 previously mentioned that legendary weirdo Eugene Chadbourne is playing at The Lounge. The 54-year-old Chadbourne has played with a myriad of top notch performers, including John Zorn, Fred Frith, Camper Van Beethoven, Jello Biafra and They Might Be Giants. An amazing guitarist and banjo player, there’s really no telling what genre Chadbourne may be tackling on any particular evening.
- Roots rocker Austin Collins is from, you guessed it, Austin, and he’s at
8.0 Restaurant and Bar in Ft. Worth. Collins’ hard edge folk/country is
the closest thing our state has to Steve Earle. And Roses are Black,
Collins’ most recent effort, might just be the best roots record of the
year.
- Another Austin resident, Susan Gibson, plays her tough but tasteful
version of country at Dan’s Silverleaf this evening. Best known as the
writer of the Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces,” Gibson possesses a bold
set of pipes and isn’t afraid of mixing it up with a crowd. Her
third effort, New Dog Old Tricks, is as fine an example of
singer/songwriter fare as one is likely to come across.
- Jamie Richards, meanwhile, comes from Nashville by way of Oklahoma and is a more
of a traditional honky tonker. But, still, that doesn’t prevent Richards from making
songs like “She Hates This Place” and “”Country Song Waiting to Happen”
(both from the excellent album Drive) stand out as more honest and
intense than most of what comes out of Music City these days.
- Also tonight is Orlando’s poppy punkers Transmit Now at the Lakewood
Bar and Grill. The band’s debut, self-titled EP offers five propulsive
cuts of metal/punk that are, thankfully, not sappy enough to be
classified as emo. A bit generic perhaps, but Transmit Now makes up in
volume and dynamics what it may lack in originality.
So there you go, five shows taking place all over the area, each act
just waiting for you to show up. Swill some beer and bellow your
approval. Or disapproval. Either way. –Darryl Smyers
