19. Le Cure, Lakewood Bar & Grill, 7/15/11

19. Le Cure, at Lakewood Bar & Grill.

It is Day Fifty.  Like Hank Hill's posterior, this project is a little behind.  But we remain sanguine that we will finish in triumph.

We'll just say this up front: this was an evening of watching bands that were talented but not exactly our cup of tea.  So read the corresponding, brief, reviews with the caveat: they're great if you like that sort of thing.

The first band was Le Cure, a Cure cover band, at Lakewood Bar & Grill.  The cover was seven dollars, and that included a free bar's worth of fog from the fog machine.  About seventy-five people were there, and LBG isn't huge; it was a fairly crowded scene.  The atmosphere was mostly laid-back and happy, the ages skewed to the middle and up, and only a few goth-type costumes in sight.

Jumping someone else's train.

The band dresses the part; at least singer Mark Hernandez does, makeup and scraggly black hair in his face and sounding very much like Robert Smith.  The band is skilled; they sounded pretty much like we expected the Cure to sound.  Maybe they're even better than the original at this point.  Since neither of us has seen the Cure in concert, we're only going by the studio recordings, but to us they seemed to nail it.

The crowd was appreciative, responding to the more energetic numbers well; when Le Cure launched into the hit "Pictures Of You," the area in front of the stage instantly filled up with exuberant, gleeful dancers.  (At this point we noticed that a certain type of woman will dance to a Cure cover band shamelessly, if not entirely appealingly.) 

In sum: Le Cure is a fun night out.  The vocals are spot on, the band quite talented.  They use lights and fog to create a certain atmosphere that is undoubtedly appropriate for their audience.  The trouble is that neither R nor N are a part of that natural audience.  When Le Cure played songs we knew, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit; but they play a lot of material that is not familiar to anyone who is not a solid Cure fan.  We watched only the first half of their show; perhaps they loaded the second set with songs more recognizable to the casual listener.  In any case, Le Cure seems to know exactly how to play to their audience of fans, so more power to them.

4. Gray, the New Black at Lakewood Bar & Grill, 6/1/11

4. Gray, the New Black, at LBG, following Zach Potts.

66% grayscale.

So Gray, the New Black advertised this show by tweeting to a few Dallas media outlets.  Nothing wrong with that, but they included the hash tag #bestbandindallasipromise.  If you're going to flaunt this kind of hubris, our advice is to actually be the best band in Dallas.  Failing that, you ought at least to have your full band present.  Their website lists three members, but the bassist was nowhere to be found.

They took the stage (as a two-piece) a bit after 11:00 p.m.  The lead singer and guitar wizard, Mike Hamilton, sort of resembles Dallas music icon Don Cento, but in a western shirt with an ironic hole in the knee.  Oh, all right, maybe the hole was just from normal wear and tear.  The drummer appeared to be some species of "peep" or "bro."  But appearances can be deceiving.

Hamilton used all sorts of effects on the guitar, with sometimes quite impressive results.  Noodling away and making use of foot pedals, he made the guitar throb like a bass, chime like a keyboard, or growl like... uh... an electric guitar.  In any case, he was doing his best to prove it's better to be the most interesting, rather than the best, guitar player in the room.  Of course he's by no means unaccomplished, but his willingness to stretch the limits of the instrument to make new sounds was more enjoyable than a cold technical demonstration would have been.

Their songs aren't catchy per se, and I doubt that's what they were going for, but they are toe-tapping and engaging in a sort of pop-prog way.

N thought Gray's sound was somewhat emo, with Hamilton's David Lowry voice and earnest over-enunciated personal lyrics ("I practiced kissing in the bathroom," or "You don't know me any more, a slave to the wind that blows you away") a la Say Anything.  Although it should be noted that Hamilton said from the stage, "We don't have any sad songs."  R thought they were too '80s influenced and nuanced (both of which he meant as compliments) to be strictly emo.  We both heard echoes of early Eels in there.

Song titles which we picked up included "First Train to Brooklyn," "8 mm" and "I Don't Suppose" (which can be heard on their website).

We were enjoying Gray more than we'd enjoyed their opener, Zach Potts, but at 11:23 the Lakewood was down to 40 people attendance.  Apparently a lot more people had come to see Hamilton solo earlier in the evening.

We didn't have a lot to say about the poor drummer.  He was simply overshadowed by Hamilton's adventurous pyrotechnics, and while he certainly wasn't bad, he was also not great. It sucks to be merely good when you're in a band with someone who can showcase.

Late in the show, the two switched instruments, and while it was kinda neat, not all that impressive in the execution. Bottom line, if your trick doesn't improve the show, don't do it, at least not while you're still building a reputation.

R often notes that you can judge a band by the number of musicians who come to see them. we saw just one --- but a good one, Chad Stockslager of King Bucks, a brilliant keyboardist and all-around damn friendly guy.

At a quarter to midnight, the band was still playing away, but we counted only 26 attendees.  As 12:00 approached, less than twenty.  The dwindling audience was sort of a shame, because Gray, the New Black does deserve at least a listen by more people.

In sum: we enjoyed them, especially Hamilton's talent, but we both thought that Gray would benefit from a stronger band sound.  The drummer could stand to make his hands a bit heavier, and perhaps they suffered from the lack of the bass.  Overall, lots of potential but by no means the best band in Dallas.  Sorry, fellows.

***

LOCAL MUSICIAN NOTES:

We talked outside to Kyle Harris, of the Pull Tabs, who are still recording.

Later on at the Barley House, we ran into Danny Balis and Max Hartman.  The latter said that he's working on a new band with engineer and producer Tom Bridwell.  Exciting!

3. Zach Potts at Lakewood Bar & Grill, 6/1/11

3. Zach Potts, at Lakewood Bar and Grill.

Sorry this is so blurry, Zach.

We entered LBG around 10:00 p.m., in time to catch Zach Potts, the penultimate in a fairly big lineup that night:

  Note the confusingly identical lower case L
and upper case I in the writing.

Cover was $5.

It was a mixed age crowd.  Around 55 people there when we arrived, which turned out to be the peak population that night.  The Lakewood is comfortable kind of dive, with a clear view of the stage, a relaxed atmosphere, and walls festooned with graffiti.  Mostly this latter was made up of proclamations of puppy love or people advertising their web concerns, but we particularly appreciated the sentiment of: "Here In Arms > Jesus."  It would have been nicer to have more than one bartender or some kind of wait staff, though, as it took a while to get drinks.

Zach Potts (who seems to have zero presence on the web) turned out to be two guys on stools playing acoustic guitars. The one on the right in the photo above was the singer, presumably Zach himself.  The guy on the left played rhythm guitar.  (On a purely aesthetic level, we were far from convinced that a tank top and shorts was the best outfit for that guy.)

The crowd was supportive; we heard "I love you, Zach" shout-outs a couple of times.  In addition there was lots of mobile phone video going on. We weren't sure this show warranted it; their look certainly does not, and the duo wasn't exactly blazing up the stage with energy by sitting on those stools.  But hey, the guy's got a fanbase, looks like.

With no online details to fall back on, it's hard to give specific reactions to Zach's material.  Guy with guitar, what can you say?  He seemed to be going for that bare-bones but somehow elusive Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt sound.

He did three covers: "Old Devils," a number by a tattooed fellow named William Elliott Whitmore, which seemed to fit his musical sensibility, at least what we gleaned of it.

Zach also did justice to the second cover, Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel."

We had never heard of Adele's "Rolling In the Deep," but he certainly made it sound like his own.  We both enjoyed the rendition, and the original that immediately followed was R's favorite of the night, remarking, "If he played more like this earlier on, I wouldn't be tired of him now."

At times Zach's sound evoked Steve Earle, a sparser Uncle Tupelo ("we must ultimately compromise and leave our true potential on the shelf"), an angry Chris Isaak ("I was a devil of a man / A man like me is just better left alone"), even Loudon Wainwright on a song he called "Austin's Gonna Have to Wait."

In sum: We didn't feel like we saw the best of Zach Potts.  The songwriting is there, but we thought he'd be better with the right band, some more arrangement, more tempo variation.  He'd do well in a Nashville band that could back up his vision with some musical muscle.