Decent Days and Nights
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 26, 2007 9:03PM
While the deluge of bands making their way through town after SXSW remains strong, we decided this week we would focus on some hometown heroes.
All Smiles is Jim Fairchild, stepping into the spotlight after play guitar in the now defunct Grandaddy. Fairchild crafts just the sort of lush pop you would expect, given his pedigree, but it's missing his previous group's willful quirks. Fairchild adopts a more direct approach with earnestly pleasing results. We're curious to see who he has backing him up, and just how they replicate some of the more lush selection from his forthcoming debut, but we have faith that since this is the last night of his month long residency at Schubas the tunes are probably fine tuned to live perfection.
Schubas, tonight, 8:00 p.m., $6, 21+
Scott Lucas and the Cold Space is basically Lucas and a bunch of his pals busting out covers and generally having a good time. In Local H, Lucas is a furiously intense figure whipping out one acidicly beautiful shard of guitar rock after another, so it's understandable folks might not be familiar with his more playful side. As a true and total music fan, the man has an encyclopedic knowledge of music history that plays incredibly well when it comes to his selection of artists to cover. These sorts of evenings are always unpredictable in the best ways, so don't miss it.
Debonair Social Club, Tuesday, 10:00 p.m., free, 21+
Power-pop is one of those genres who's name seems to get thrown around a lot. As a result the phrase has lost a lot of its original meaning. The Handcuffs do their best to remedy that situation by adopting the power-pop mantle and then piping energy into their music until they induce aural hallucinations akin to a cascading fireworks display. After years of subtly shifting line-ups, the group, based around the core of singer Chloe F. Orwell and drummer Brad Elvis, have finally found what we believe is their strongest line-up to date. We saw them play a few weeks ago and were just blown away. Also playing are the always lovely, always deadly, always entertaining zombie-rockers, The Venom Lords.
Beat Kitchen, Wednesday, 8:00 p.m., $7, 18+
Finally, do you ever have that experience of going out to see a band and walking away with the stunned realization that if only people were exposed to them, they could be the biggest band in town? We just had that experience last night watching two local groups -- Dorian Taj and Penthouse Sweets -- pour an astounding amount of energy into early sets on a Sunday night. Nobody is pumped on a Sunday, yet there they were, giving it their all, and getting absolute love back from the crowd in return. During DorianTaj's rock-n-soul shredder of a set, EVERYONE in the room was dancing, and this one gal was so giddy she just kept spinning in circles. The guitarist for The Penthouse Sweets (which, by the way, are very Old 97s by way of The Replacements so how can that go wrong?) spent the first song or two on the ground just rolling around. Why are these two bands not fucking huge yet?! help us rectify this situation, for your own good.
Penthouse Sweets, The Note, Thursday, 8:00 p.m., $5, 21+
Dorian Taj, Quencher's, Friday, 10:00 p.m., free, 21+
Pictured: Penthouse Sweets