Presto Electro

My favorite living band, The Fiery Furnaces, came to Dallas last night! Although it was a Wednesday, I still found time to make the drive down. It was an AWESOME show, of course (And they're playing in Austin tonight, and Houston tomorrow, if you'd like to see for yourself!) and it was definitely worth the half-hour drive. The odd thing was, even though I spent most of the evening in Dallas, little things kept reminding me of good ol' Denton.

I have a tendency to mistake doors-open-at times for band-goes-on-at times pretty regularly. Unless I've brought someone more sensible along, I usually show up to shows way earlier than I should. Last night was no exception. I showed up to The Lounge at 7:55pm and handed the bouncer my ID. The venue was eerily empty… He gave me my ID back and told me to get the heck out until the place opens, and that the bands didn't go on until 9. So I had some time to kill!

I went to a coffee shop across the street and picked up my time-waster of choice whenever I'm in Dallas: The Dallas Observer. The Observer is the "free press" of Dallas. It's all over the place and it usually has a few stories about Dallas drama (usually in regards to public corruption and whatnot) and reviews of various arts & culture events.

Imagine my surprise when the front cover had absolutely nothing at all to do with Dallas! The cover story last night was about a Denton band, Midlake, and the life and times of the music scene in Denton. That's right, Denton is so awesome it scored a cover-story in a local newspaper based in a completely different city! It was a really good article, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the music "scene" in this city of ours.

Disclaimer: I have not yet listened to Midlake! I am recommending this article solely on journalistic merit! I've been meaning to give them a listen, but I got home late last night and woke up early for classes this morning.

After treating myself to a really fine cup of coffee and a really fine article about a really fine city, I returned to the Lounge for my second attempt. It was open this time, and the first thing I saw when I walked in was none other than Matthew Friedburger staffing his own merch table! We had a nice chat about all sorts of things (including the fact that their next album is going to be a silent record).

Later on Matt traded places with Eleanor, and I told her they should've come to Denton—and she agreed! She would have preferred Denton, but their management didn't give them a choice. I can't tell you how pleased I am to live in the city musicians prefer! And it's only going to get better…