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Welcome to My First Show, where we give bands a chance to talk about the first shows they ever attended — no matter how uncool and embarrassing those tales may be.
Chance Morgan and Matt Mooty, friends since childhood, are the masterminds behind one of Fort Worth’s finest acts, The Burning Hotels. An EP, Eighty Five Mirrors, and a full length, Novels, have generated plenty of praise beyond the DFW area. (Plus, it didn’t hurt they were featured in Bandslam, a 2009 movie starring Vanessa Hudgens.)
The band has a second LP, Burning Hotels, coming out on August 30. And to help promote its release date, they’ve posted a new video a day on Vimeo called “60 Days of Burning Hotels.”
Morgan has been around the DFW area for quite some time and had plenty to share about his first show memories. In an especially nice one, he recalls one of the final shows at the Bronco Bowl before it closed for good.
Check it out after the jump.
What was the first show you remember seeing?
First show was the Allman Brothers at Starplex with my dad and my brother. It was in the early ’90s.
Anything stick out about it?
No, I remember the guy in front of us smoking weed and my dad getting
pissed and that’s about it. It was anything about the music. I grew up
listening to my father’s Rolling Stones to all the way to crazy jazz
stuff. I was always influenced with different kinds of music.
What was the first show you remember paying for?
I remember seeing Eisley, The All-American Rejects, and The Rocket
Summer. I liked The Rocket Summer at that point, but we saw Eisley and
never heard of them at that point. We were blown away. That was when
Stacy, the youngest sister, was 14 or younger. They were super-young, so
it was interesting. It was nice to see somebody young, because we were
probably sixteen, playing out at Trees, this legendary venue where
Nirvana played. We were in awe of them.
Were they known as Mos Eisley at the time?
It was Mos Eisley when I saw them.
I remember hearing about when they opened for Coldplay. Everybody was
talking about this opening act called Mos Eisley and nobody was talking
about Coldplay. Anyway, what was the first show that really made an
impact on you?
I think it was Regina Spektor, Ben Kweller, and The Strokes at the
Bronco Bowl. Burning Hotels’ music now has kind of changed from what we
used to be. It’s definitely a lot different than how it was then. We
were really into post-punk and all the kind of “The” bands that were
coming out at that point. We were in high school, the jumping off point
for us to start something we really could identify and could enjoy. So I
think that show was probably the most influential. Every band on the
bill was great. One band and then the next band. Each performance was
just better and better until The Strokes played and then it was insane.
Who headlined?
It was The Strokes. But Regina Spektor was by herself and she was really
unpolished at that point. Not the poppy kind of stuff you hear in
commercials and stuff. Ben Kweller was doing his first record with songs
like “Commerce, TX” and “Wasted and Ready.” That was cool because I was
really into that record at the time too. And then The Strokes were the
headliner.
It was probably one of the last shows at the Bronco Bowl.
Yeah, I think that was right. It was kind of cool that I got to go there.
What was the worst show you’ve seen?
Matt and I road-tripped down to Houston. My brother was going to UT at
the time and were staying with him. Then we went to Houston and we saw
Jet and The Vines at the Warehouse. Jet was awesome. They played really
great. And then The Vines headlined and just fucking trashed the stage
and that was it. Like, they played the first half of a song, there was
this feedback, and Craig Nicholls rolling around. It was very
disappointing because we drove a pretty far drive when you’re sixteen.
What do you remember about the first Burning Hotels show?
It was at the Wreck Room and was pretty nerve-wracking because we were
young. I think our first was when we were nineteen, but we had already
been frequenting bars and always with older people. Before our first
show and before we released anything, we did a three-song demo in an
attic studio with a friend of ours way out in Weatherford.
So we had this demo and we played it for friends, but somehow it got
back to Anthony Mariani at the Fort Worth Weekly. We had this buzz
before we put a real record out and had a first show. I remember
thinking, “We have to be pretty good because if we suck on our first
show, we can’t really go anywhere up at that point.” We practiced and
didn’t play for people for about a year. We were pretty adamant about
being polished before we did anything for people.
What do you remember about the first time you played Dallas?
The Cavern. We were very excited. We were always going to be a fan of a
dingy, small bar. Not that we would rather to play that, but you can
connect with people when you’re standing face to face with people. I
think we played Black Tie Dynasty. They were our buds. At that time,
they were drawing really well, so it was crazy. Just completely packed.
Burning Hotels play their CD release show at Dada on Thursday, August 25th.
