Wall of Apathy

I've already bought my tickets to Wall of Sound. Have you? If you live in Dallas or Fort Worth, prolly not, according to Lance Yocom, owner and head of A&R at Spune Productions, the local force behind the two-day, 88-band festival scheduled for April 8 and 9 at Fort Worth's...

By Robert Wilonsky

March 27, 2006

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I've already bought my tickets to Wall of Sound. Have you? If you live in Dallas or Fort Worth, prolly not, according to Lance Yocom, owner and head of A&R at Spune Productions, the local force behind the two-day, 88-band festival scheduled for April 8 and 9 at Fort Worth's Ridglea Theater.

The sad fact is, indie-rock enthusiasts from Illinois, Kansas, California and Maine have bought more tickets than Dallas and Fort Worth folks combined, according to Yocom. Not that I'm surprised. Hell, I've been guilty of Dallas' lamentable it's-mostly-local-bands-so-I'll-just-pay-at-the-door mentality. But with 88 bands (including Low, Starlight Mints, The New Year, the Czars, Pedro the Lion's David Bazan and Okkervil River) on three stages, I'm not taking any chances this time.

Spune's not taking any chances either. "When I booked the bands, I asked them to give me a couple weeks of blackout before their performance," Yocom says. (That's why you didn't see Austin's The Arm playing their previously scheduled show at the Darkside Lounge last Friday.) Some bands obliged, some didn't. (That's why you'll see The Happy Bullets and The Theater Fire playing the Undeniable Records showcase this Saturday at Double Wide.) Yocom assures that the request wasn't to screw bands out of additional shows, but to avoid the ever-present DFW apathy that comes with seeing a band too often. I can see where Yocom's coming from, at least from a promotional standpoint, but it seems a shame that bands we rarely see lost out on creating some additional buzz for the festival, while other acts that play often may deter folks from buying tickets to one helluva festival.

Lesson hopefully learned: Buy WOS tickets now. And if you don't? Don't even think of bitching about not getting in. And no, I'm not slipping you my ticket stub, because your absence is no loss to me. Didn't I just see you last week? --Merritt Martin

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