On Monday Night, several hundred of the area's coolest people converged on Hailey's Club in Denton to see a bill consisting of three blog-tested, hipster-approved acts.
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Magic Kids, and Puro Instinct (formerly Pearl Harbor) have just hit their stride on this leg of their US tour together, and, judging by the line of folks waiting for the doors to open, the fans were primed and excited.
They had a good reason to be: The show's promoters, Gorilla vs. Bear and Spune Productions,
have been calling this "the bill of the summer of 2010." And, for many in
the audience, it would be the first time to see an Ariel Pink
performance.
Any expectations from first-timers were quickly
shattered.
As the sweat-drench audience filed out of Hailey's, they looked like they'd been hit by a bus that they never saw coming. Who would've guessed that the freak-folker from California could put on such an explosive show?
Magic Kids, however, didn't have the swagger of Puro Instinct's lead vocalist, Piper Kaplan. The sound for their set was muddy, and they asked for the stage lights to be turned off, which left them in the dark for most of the time.