backsliders, goodwin, sunday drive, me-thinks, scene girls

went to the big rawk show at the ridglea friday night -- a veritable cornucopia of rockaroll thrills for someone who doesn't get out that much anymore. 'twas goodwin's ceedee release party and katboy generously sent us an invite to the pre-show reception, so we got to chow good 'cue (from red hot & blue?) with tony diaz's parents in the upstairs lounge before the music started. some girl from the fwweekly was trying to get someone to play guitar hero on the big screen downstairs for their camera; i think ray from the me-thinks finally did.

then got to hear a lounge set by the scene girls, whom i'd never heard of before but turned out to be ryan thomas becker and the other dude (dominic ferraro?) from the eaton lake tonics, a band the goodwin boyzzz dig but i've never gotten. i liked thisun better than most of the bands i've seen these guys in; the music was quirky and occasionally dissonant indie-pop, with one song that verged on prog and another where the bassplayer played a ukelele. (look to hear more ukelele in local rawk music!)

after that it was downstairs to the big room for the me-thinks' set. i was shooting pics with rat and calvin of the asian media crew. ray is threatening to buy us new jumpsuits. i asked him if he does, to make it more rat-size than calvin-size. not that i mind wearing the squirrel-sized one i have now; if i slouch, it's not quite as uncomfortable. the me-thinks ripped through a pert tight and focused set, hampered by a somewhat-less-than-fresh sound mix. i was standing up front and i could hear ray's voxxx louder from his mouth than i could through the p.a.; his bass sounded puny and marlin and bandy's gtrs coulda been underwater -- again, it was all stage volume, nada from the mains. the mix improved somewhat over the course of the evening, which put me in mind of shows i've seen in dallas where the opener and the headliner played through the same backline and the former sounded like ass but the latter were pristine. i'm just sayin'.

next up were sunday drive and wouldn't ya know, there was ryan thomas becker and the drummer from scene girls again, along with jeff gruber from amedigan, a band with ex-engine of the ocean musos whose ceedee i have sitting on my dresser waiting to be reviewed for iloveftw.com. apparently, these guys are a veritable goddamn parliafunkadelicment thang of local indie-rock ooze. they rocked out melodically and i liked 'em fine, which is too bad, because they're breaking up so the various members can concentrate on the godzillion other bands they're all in together.

i got to see joe vano from pablo, which is always a treat. his gtr player (and, um, stoogeaphilia's), sir steffin, was playing with his ex-bindle bandmates in goodwin again -- lucky for me because i missed them by being in new joisey the first time he sat in back in january. gomez hurt his leg so no scissor-leg leaps this night, but the two-gtr lineup (both playing semi-hollow yamahas; no sg for gomez this night) sounded ultra full 'n' rich as they tore through almost the entahrty of 2 plus "arm and mouth" as closer (thank you) and a coupla goodies from the "blue album". steffin's presence seemed to light a fire under the other four necktied dudes onstage and drove them to _yet another_ "best set" i've ever heard 'em play. for real.

after that, the unenviable task of batting clean-up fell to dallas' backsliders, who lost a good portion of the crowd after the early leavers decamped, but worked hard to earn their headlining slot. some folks don't dig their revivalist ramalama (like, um, wanda jackson fronting the attractions), but kim pendleton remains an onstage dynamo, chris bonner (ike to kim's tina) drives the band and serves as his wife's visual foil, his brother jason bonner on bass is a nice guy who lives in noo yawk and digs johnny thunders, and taylor young on drums looks enough like jonathan irwin from ph7 to cause some confusion among fort worthians who don't get outta town much (and possesses enough onstage flash to give damien stewart a run for his money). their new cd you're welcome is set for a june release but they had copies on sale last night. in the fullness of time, i'll review for the i-94 bar, but all i'll say right now is, this thing is gonna blow some people's heads off.

whew!