FTW/Denton, 9.20.2023

My buddy Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve, Vomit Fist) was in town from NYC to attend the Gored in the Heart of Texas fest at the Haltom Theater and had a free night, so we invited him over la casa for some of Kat's spinach lasagne and homemade bread, then he and I trekked up to li'l d to catch Molten Plains XVI at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. 

In between sets, I buttonholed Molten Plains's visionary impresario Ernesto Montiel to talk about the state of creative music in North Central Texas. While he might beg to differ, I see his involvement in promoting shows at Oak Cliff's The Wild Detectives and Texas Theatre, Fort Worth's Grackle Art Gallery, and RGRS as crucial in the development of an environment conducive to left-of-center musics in the area.

For years, performers like Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Tim Berne, and Andrew Cyrille had regularly visited Houston and Austin, due to the yeoman efforts of Dave Dove's Nameless Sound and Pedro Moreno's Epistrophy Arts in those burgs. Beginning with a memorable Brotzmann show at The Wild Detectives in 2018, continuing with Atomic and Ra Kalam Bob Moses at Texas Theatre and the recent Dallas debut of Joe McPhee at The Wild Detectives, Ernesto has been instrumental in bringing such performers to DFW, to the great benefit of adventurous listeners who can't afford to make pilgrimages elsewhere in the state to hear them. In addition, the ongoing Molten Plains series at RGRS, curated by Ernesto and Sarah Ruth Alexander, has picked up where Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez's Outward Bound Mixtape Sessions left off in bringing forward-looking performers, both local and national, to the area on a regular basis.

Montiel, who originally hails from Maracaibo, Venezuela, credits the late Oak Cliff-based Renaissance man Dennis Gonzalez, Austin/Mexico City-based No Idea Festival impresario Chris Cogburn (at whose fest Ernesto was the resident DJ for four years before the pandemic), The Wild Detectives boss Javier Garcia del Moral, and Texas Theatre honcho Barak Epstein with showing him the ropes of event promotion and being willing to take a chance on programming that was unproven in this area. 

Montiel makes a point of maintaining focus in the shows he curates, booking artists whose styles are complimentary, rather than appending experimental music to a rock show. He also believes that it's important for the setting and presentation of the show to be appropriate, insisting that seating is necessary for listeners to hear "music that doesn't involve your body; standing just makes you tired." He's equally insistent that the house music played between sets should compliment the performances. And he's a great believer in creating new collaborations and combinations of artists. On tonight's bill, topped by Illinois-based heavy guitar soloist Brian Barr (aka Granular Breath), there were first-time collaborations between Sarah Jay and Lo Ramirez on vocals and electronics with guitarist Christopher Robinson, and bassist Kory Reeder with electronic musician Daniel Ryan. A night of heavy drones and feedback, whetting my anticipation for the second Molten Plains Festival, scheduled for December 8-9 at RGRS.