A Night Out: Small Black and Terry Malts

Hey, all. Catching up on sharing some show photos. Last Friday was an insanely busy night with bands like Real Estate, Small Black and Terry Malts headlining around The Red River Cultural District. It meant meeting different groups of friends and seeing more bands in one night that some people see all year. Don’t you feel sorry for them?

Bands in order of appearance – Nite, Talkies, Small Black, Business of Dreams, Hidden Ritual, Terry Malts.

So click through for some notes about dinner, drinks, bands and coughing fits with a nice big gallery.

If you haven’t had a Salt & Time burger yet, get thee to a butchery. You don’t need the egg and bacon, but if you are gonna be a bear, be a grizzly. I stopped into Mohawk to say hi to a few friends, Real Estate being really sold out; I decided at that moment they were not really a band I need to see again. I bailed out to head to Barracuda for our first main attraction.

@TheSidewinderATX – Nite kicked things off. I wrote about them with the show notes for the last Midge Ure show. There were a few people in attendance that knew the band’s work, but for the most part it was a cold open again. Despite the fact that the sound at Barracuda will never rival that of 3Ten, they pulled off another crowd-winning set with applause growing after every song. If I am to be honest, I thought they were the better band. It may have been that sound for the three piece (Nite had a live drums this round) with a little more backing tracks made for an easier mix. And yes, Small Black had the hits and they are stripping down to a better live set, more band, less tracks, but that also means that the songs sound new. Either way, great opener/headliner combo. I am keeping an eye on Nite, they just signed with Cleopatra Records so more to come.

@BarracudaAustin – We had a back and forth of local and touring as Cory from Terry Malts plugged in a set for his (very) solo project called Business of Dreams. Again, I think Terry Malts was the best thing on the night, but the thing I was must excited to go back and listen to was the Business of Dreams record. It was dreamy pop and post-punk mashed into a solo package using a phone as a backing track. It was pure and Phil (plays bass/sings in Malts) was beaming with glee from how much he loves his bandmates record. The locals didn’t disappoint, Talkies with a shuffled lineup and new members in Jolie of many bands and Ali from Que Pasa and a bunch others. Not too many beats missed and it made things fun. Hidden Ritual just fuzzed my brain. Perfect lead for a headliner that face punches with hardcore tinged punk-pop-punk. “I’m neurotic, that’s what she said” was on repeat in my brain all the way home.

There were hugs. There were reunions. There was a guy painting Cheer Up’s neon scene. I also started a slide into a really awful respiratory infection. Blergh, still recovering. #bloggystuff