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Show #6 – Christian Dozzler at Scat Jazz Lounge
Today marks the first day the concert a day challenge feels like a grind. I didn’t expect the feeling this soon, but I’ll attribute the weariness to my introverted self wanting to turn off sensory input for a little while.
At Scat Jazz Lounge I found out what Bob Ross would look like if he were still alive and a jazz pianist. Christian Dozzler sat behind a piano, wearing a Hawaiian floral print shirt and a brown haired white man’s afro. Accompanied by a drummer, the duo played jazzy numbers smoothly and enjoyably. A couple, in their seventies, stood up from their table and began swing dancing in front of the stage, smiling as they twirled and hustled.
Christian Dozzler at Scat Jazz Lounge -
Show #5 – Songwriter Showcase at the Grotto
Green light bathes the stage. Why? Does anyone look good in green light?
First guy (Randy Barnett) has at least 2 songs with whiskey references. Self aware and self deprecating “played for a room full of strangers / and they didn’t like our songs”
He has a ragged country voice that works with the bluesy riffs.
His last song was written about a girl who worked the door at a bar. It received a few laughs from the crowd and gave the female bartender a reason to smile.
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Show #4 – Jake Robison at Magnolia Motor Lounge
Sunday afternoons at Magnolia Motor Lounge are known as Sunday Fundays. A lineup of acts begin playing around 3pm and continue through the night. I showed up for the first act, Jake Robison, a folk-country singer who curls his lip delivering a song. He strummed his acoustic, sang songs of growing up and being a father with touching melodies. He threw out a countrified take of The Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon. “A little White Album, for ya.”
As an aside, I’m not sure I saw Jake Robison. The dude I took a picture does not look anything like the Jake Robison I found googling, but that’s who the waitress says it was… so…
What I found more interesting was the thing where people drank Miller High Life out of mason jars. I’m so not hip.
Jake Robison plays the Magnolia Motor Lounge -
Show #3 – River Trip at Mercury Chophouse
Downtown Fort Worth, on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night allows for a little serendipity with patios, restaurants and horse drawn carriages. After two botched attempts to find live music, this combination led me to the Mercury Chophouse patio.
My first attempt to check out live music in the evening resulted in a total fail: the stage for the venue, 1919 Hemphill, was upstairs. It would be too much to ask for an elevator in the midst furniture salvaged from curbsides and graffiti covered walls. I left not at all disappointed that I’d miss 45 minutes of metal.
On the fly, I made a stop home, checked various venue calendars to figure out where to go for the evening. Also, I sought to get a feel for the next few days. Early evening shows would be hard to come by, and I wanted to take advantage of them as much as possible. Eventually, I settled to head downtown to Queen City for Luke Wade, leaving The Grotto and Magnolia Motor Lounge as future options for the week ahead.
As I strolled by Queen City at 9:45pm, the line stretched down the street to Barnes and Noble. I didn’t feel like standing in a line and then having to wait an hour for a show to start. Luckily, I heard music playing down the street at the Mercury Chophouse.
The Chophouse’s patio is nondescript, and I didn’t realize I was even at the Chophouse until I left, rolling by a chalkboard sign, “CHOPHOUSE LIVE MUSIC on PATIO –>>”.
The band playing on the patio, consisted of three guys, calling themselves River Trip. For the most part, they spirited their way through 60s and 70s era covers with an acoustic rock bent. Prior to “Heart of Gold”, they asked if there were any harmonica players in the house. No, there were not any harmonica players, thus, Neil Young’s harmonica solo would be missing for the night. At one point, they pulled out a deep track from the Beatles catalog, “Norwegian Wood”. Not too shabby.
River Trip on the Chophouse patio -
Show #2 – Overseas and Monahans at Live Oak
[Note: this is part of my “concert a day” challenge]
Knowing I’d be busy early Friday evening at a scotch tasting, I needed a local show I could get to quickly. Thank goodness for living five blocks from Live Oak. I showed up still a little buzzy from sipping on 18 year old scotch for the better part of the evening. Paid my cover, received my wrist band and entered halfway into Monahans‘ set to a fairly packed house.
The main draw for this show were two indie rock legends: David Bazan and Will Johnson. Bazan made his name in the mid to late 90s as Pedro the Lion, and Will Johnson still puts out music with his Centro-Matic bandmates. The two joined with two other indie veterans to form Overseas.
Overseas‘ sound is interesting, combining what Bazan does best, downtempo ballads that fit his limited baritone range, and Johnson’s low fi rock with frenetic hooks. One song, the bass would lead a pop-like dirge, and in the next, the distorted electric would crank to 10. Early in the set, a short, honey blonde woman made her way to the front. Her eyes, facial expressions and catcall of “welcome back, Dave,” made it clear she was a Bazan fan.
I wish I had arrived earlier to catch more of Monahans’ set. Their sound of rock uses atmosphere, reverb and harmonies over a driving tempo, made for some cool arrangements.
David Bazan of Overseas at Live Oak -
Show #1 – Terry Rasor and Michael Hearne at Chubby’s
[Note: This is part of my “concert a day challenge“]
For my first show, I scanned the listings on fortlive.com searching for something free. In the West Fort Worth section, I spotted a gig at Chubby’s Burger Shack. A little Googling checked out that Terry Rasor is a veteran Texas singer song writer with a standing gig on Chubby’s patio, called “Raz and Friendz”.
Patio shows are typically free, but waitstaff get grumpy if you’re not buying food or drink. Seeing that Chubby’s was a contender in the 2013 DFW Burger Battle (they lost in the first round), and I’d never been there, it seemed like a good pick.
A buddy met up with me a little before 7pm and the patio remained empty. And the outside temperature held fast at 100 degrees. We opted to enjoy our burgers with air conditioning and then venture to the patio. We finished and ventured outside, and it appeared Terry “Raz” and his partner for the night, Michael Hearne, had yet to play a song. (Sidenote, a waitress stopped by our table, asked if we were going to order anything, and we said no. She ignored me for the remainder of my 45 minute stay.)
Within a few minutes, the duo took to the front of the patio and Terry began to play while Michael sat, leaned forward with his guitar and listened. Terry’s sound, with his voice and a guitar, reminded me of John Prine or late era Merle Haggard–an earnest guy who’s played hundreds of shows and enjoys strumming his guitar and delivering life truths with a grizzled voice. Michael Hearne complimented Terry, with Hearne’s songs more Americana and country. One song, (I found to be called Evergreen) reminded me of Nick Drake, a light melody that floats up with the chorus, made the entire patio stop talking as if this was a moment to truly take in.
Terry Raz Rasor and Michael Hearne at Chubby’s Burger Shack -
A concert a day in August
Sometimes we need projects to challenge us. Make a thing a day. Learn a word a day. Appreciate an aspect of life a day. The point is to do something and be persistent. For the month of August, I’m going to see a concert a day.
That’s 31 live music experiences during summer’s hottest month. I’ll be doing more work than 535 congress people.
To clarify, for a show to count, it has to be a group or performer putting on a show. Thus, church choirs, curbside troubadors and collective drum circles won’t count. And I have to be there for at least 45 minutes or one set. This is to give an act time to play, especially if it’s an opening act, and also, gives me an out if the music does not move me. Lastly, I can only go to the same venue once a week. I live five blocks from Live Oak, and could hang out there four to five nights a week. This will force me to venture to other venues that I may not typically go to. If I can, I’ll try to meet the acts, and will post a writeup a day to keep track of where I go and who I see. Pictures will be included. If you’re on Twitter, I’ll probably post live commentary.
Already, there will be challenges. I work a day job with long days and I’ll need to plan shows around currently planned engagements. I won’t be jammin’ at 11:30pm on a Tuesday, and during the weekends I’ll be looking for day time gigs to attend. And my wallet will demand free shows, too.
For shows, I do intend to seek out an assortment of genres. Amongst the blends of country and rock, Fort Worth has a rap/hip hop scene, as well as a dedicated core of metal heads that rock out. DFW.com, fortlive.com, Fort Worth Weekly and Google will be my main planning tools.
Anyways, It’ll be fun.
[display-posts tag=”august concert a day”]
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30 days of ties
Through the month of September, I designed a tie a day. A day early, below are the results. Click to enlarge and check out some of the details. I prefer minimalist designs, solid colors and a contemporary look. Some designs could have any sort of color variation, so I only did a few and then moved to a different concept. Day 1 is in the top left, then Day 2 through 6 in the top row, etc.
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And the arts bring life to your city
“Creative centers provide the integrated ecosystem or habitat where all forms of creativity–artistic and cultural, technological and economic–can take root and flourish.” Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited.
Approximately $300,000 will be cut from the Public Arts budget in Fort Worth, a 25% reduction from 2012. That 25% reduction will multiply into other areas of the Fort Worth economy as the people who will receive those cuts create tremendous value for the city–value the city will lose.
The arts are a tricky thing to value. Painting, photographing, performing, pirouetting, playing with ideas that reflect a culture, mean different things to different people. Through asking a lot of questions and doing math, we can get get a sense of their nominal value. The Arts Council of Fort Worth commissioned a study regarding the impact of the arts to Tarrant County. $200 million dollars coalesce, swirl and reverberate through the economy across industry expenditures, income, taxes and money spent on events.
To echo the point of how amazing that is, consider that Fort Worth contributes $.94 per capita towards the arts. Our Dallas neighbors to the near east–$3.10. Our El Paso (EL PASO!) friends to the far west–$1.95. Per capita measurements are how we make cities equal. And for a city that prides itself in Cowboys and Culture, the per capita measurement of arts investments ought to be an embarrassing shred in the in the back of our jeans.
The study also touched on those that put their painters’ jeans on. 3,000 jobs thread in multiple directions due to the arts. Those are people. Creative people. Creative people who know people. Creative people who attract people who know people who know people.
There’s the rub. There’s the collective tumbleweed blowing through our prarie. There’s the boot in our cowboy rear end.
The arts attract creative people, to create things or events. They bring skills that we can’t send to India or China, and instead apply them to our community. When creative people combine and share ideas, innovation happens. Also, they spend money, they attract night life, they attract more culture and value.
A prime example is the Magnolia corridor. A mix of bars, restaurants, shops, galleries and housing that feels uniquely creative. Property values between 2004 and 2011 increased 137%. Some would say that a vegan restaurant kicked it all off. A vegan restaurant in a steak town attracted so much more.
Much more, innovation, like fortune, favors the bold, the prepared and those who nurture it.
Fort Worth has a choice, one that isn’t zero sum–public policy is rarely zero sum–but one that is nuanced. The city manager stated in the proposed 2013 budget that this budget is a maintenance budget. Yet, they city wishes to grow revenues and increase economic development.
Taking money away in the short term will cause longer term impacts for numerous organizations, and consequently, the city.
If Fort Worth nurtures its arts and creative citizens, makes the policy choice of supporting the arts, it will bring in much more than it invests.
I grew up in surburban Houston, a place without zoning and seemingly any forthought to growth and development. A trip to the museums encompassed a day trip downtown. Nightlife was the movie theater. Street festivals were neighborhood affairs of a lone street with a couple of pies and a few coolers of cold drinks.
In staying here after TCU, I live in a city that astutely manages its land for development. I have five world class museums within a half mile of each other and can visit them all before lunch. Rooftops, live bands, speak easy cocktails and amazing food are a ticket to any night of the week. Street festivals in this city bring in those across state lines.
All of this is possible because we have creative people within City Hall who beleive in what our tax dollars do. These creative people live here for some reason or another. And maybe they stayed because they liked it here. Because it’s a city that supports the arts and creativity. Cowboys that rustle the resources to a diverse Culture that is Fort Worth.
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Miniature Sky
[wpaudio url=”http://www.pjhstudios.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/minisky.m4a” text=”Patrick J – Miniature Sky” dl=”0″]