Show Pics: Small Black @ Sidewinder (10/16)

This was my first trip to The Sidewinder. For a “new” venue, things seemed pretty well sorted. We’ll have more on that in a bit.

Small Black headlined on release day for the new record, Best Blues. THeyh had a pretty strong showing last time through as part of SxSW, but I was really interested to hear the new songs as they are positioned as the break-through. New record, new tour, same nice people. ATH faves Painted Palms opened.

Click through for pics and a few notes…

To start, The Sidewinder has made some solid strategic choices. First of all, there are plenty of familiar faces from Red7, which is only a good. Especially with the bar staff; I have seen two of them take on sold out shows with nary a moment’s wait for your whisky/Lone Star needs. They are also taking a festival point of sale approach with iPad register things. You can’t run a tab, but you won’t forget your card anymore. Sound is a mile away from where Red Eyed Fly was and everything was, well, clean. Looking forward to many-a-variety of show.

Painted Palms unassumingly strolled on stage to a crowd of very dedicated and enthusiastic Small Black fans. They set about the business of winning an unknowing crowd. They had the crowd’s attention, only a few conversations interrupted a dance party. “Tracers” was my hit. “Spinning Signs” was the other highlight. Strong opening set.

Small Black is a known thing for ATH. We have always been down with the groove, but the vocal was always tough when translating the recorded material to the live show. I felt that with the new material, they had a reboot of recording and writing that would translate far better and it did. Best song of the night for me was a tie, both “Boy’s Life” and “No One Wants It To Happen To You”. Yes, I do love Limits of Desire a bunch and the rebooted live versions of their first songs were cool, but the new stuff ruled the night for me. Add to that a fancy lighting set up (that made for hellish photography) and you have a show to recommend.

They tour through November with Painted Palms, trust me and go.