It’s after noon on Sunday and I’m still in sugar shock from NovemberFest at Rubber Gloves in Denton last night. Not only were the bands and the sound guy in sweet form, but the NF bake sale was incredible. And I mean incredible. Nouns Group produced some of the best puzzle bread ever (biscuit bits bathed in butter, cinnamon and sugar and all smooshed together before being baked, turned out and rolled in more cinna-sugar for treats perfect at breakfast or 1 a.m.).
Tre Orsi’s Brian VanDivier succeeded in baking the item that had people piling their arms high with charity baked goods: beer bread. Haven’t dug into mine yet as I promised my ma I’d wait for her to come over for a little football snack, but it looks and smells deelish.
Katey Margolis (full disclosure: one of our Night & Day freelancers, and man am I excited about that after tasting her wares) rocked the “That’s What She Said” nut bars. They were sticky, sweet and yes, nutty. The chocolate wasn’t overpowering but the love was, dammit!
Shiny Around The Edges’ Jenny and Mike Seman put forth some of the most professional-looking and tasting pies I’ve seen in a bar. Lattice work? Seriously? Well done.
Random brownies were all bueno as approvals came from Stumptone’s Peter Salisbury (plain), the Paper Chase’s Sean Kirkpatrick (with nuts) and a guy with a beard who was so totally into the Reese’s cup brownie he just moaned.
As of my writing this, the estimate of the bake sale (care of Denton Rock City) was more than $300 for Denton Community Food Center. Now that’s the Thanksgiving spirit!
As far as the music, I wish I could have seen more of Fierce Perm but in all honesty got held up in a sweet potato versus yam debate in the bar area. Tre Orsi issued a helluva an amped up run-through of its 7-inch and other tracks that better find their way to a full-length before audiences raise hell. The band seemed especially inspired during “The Illustrator” and the crowd responded with full-on head bobs and body rocks as is the indie club way. Guitarist Matt Barnhart also made a plea for finding a home for Potato, a large, good-looking, lap cat. So, there’s that.
Shiny Around the Edges played easily the best show I’ve ever seen by them—energetic, sexy, loud, guttural and hypnotic. (More on both them and Tre Orsi in this week’s music column, so I don’t want to blow my wad here.) Tame..Tame and Quiet was, as usual, far from what its moniker suggests, but unfortunately I had sampled a bit too much on the baked front and had to take a breather in the fresh air outside. The sugared nuts sent me over the edge…as they are wont to do. -- Merritt Martin
