edited by Christopher Gray
PHISH
Southpark Meadows, Saturday 26
Austin got the big, hard summer-tour shaft this year, but the cows of Southpark Meadows must finally yield their pasture to hordes of love children and merry pranksters; Phish is in town. What, me hippie? Call the pan-cultural musical stew of Ben & Jerry’s fellow Vermonters what you will, but four hours’ worth of seamless improvisation and a caravan of Phish-heads from here to Giddings still sounds like one of summer’s most entertaining outdoor evenings.
THE GLUEY BROTHERS, DARLAHOOD
Stubb’s, Friday 25
When New York’s Darlahood outrocked Collective Soul last month at Liberty Lunch, it was obvious that this is the kind of three-piece, no-frills, big-hooks rock outfit that this town lacks. Their appropriately titled Big Fine Thing debut places them somewhere between Billy White and Buick MacKane, which makes it all the more interesting that they’re paired here with the Gluey Brothers, a goofy, Santa Fe-based Beastie Boy-meets-Beefheart outfit that’s committed to “soul, freedom, emotion, and a good falafel.” — Andy Langer
BRUCE ROBISON
Broken Spoke, Friday 25
Real country songs are as intricate as Chinese finger puzzles: the more they’re dissected, the more complicated they become. Simple heartbreak mutates into existential dread, and whiskey makes both manageable — for the time being. Bruce Robison is one songwriter that knows the score (as on his recent disc Wrapped), so remember the following as you’re charmed by his timeless honky-tonk melodies: this is serious shit we’re dealing with here.
THRALL, ENDURO, ROCKET FUEL IS THE KEY, BOXCAR SATANS
Emo’s, Friday 25
“As the Prozac Generation implodes, choking on its consumer products and dysfunctional relationships, reeling from the hypnotic TV death-beam and government lies, Thrall will be there to document it all,” announces Alternative Tentacles. Okey-dokey. Thrall’s AT debut, Chemical Wedding, certainly revs the thrash grinder; live, former God Bully Mike Hard seethes riveting invective over cataclysmic riffs and pummeling rhythms. Add Enduro’s whiplash blues, Missouri’s Rocket Fuel is the Key, and San Antone’s bruising Boxcar Satans, and you might skip the Prozac for once.
ALL BLACK AND SOME BLUES
Victory Grill, Saturday 26
Texas Folklife Resources, forever refracting old traditions through new lenses, focuses on African-American oral expression Saturday night, and how crucial to the culture it has become. Blues masters T.D. Bell and Mel Davis, children’s author/storyteller Angela Medearis, coastal cowboy preacher Reverend Mack Williams, and veteran local rapper N.O.O.K. all represent their unique oral traditions.
THE BACKSLIDERS
Continental Club, Saturday 26 & Sunday 27
Raleigh, N.C.’s Backsliders may or may not take their name from the Toadies song; the howling guitar attack of their Mammoth CD Throwing Rocks at the Moon still hits the same volume redlines as the Metroplex metalheads. The songs, though, have that classic Southern twang, centered between Jason & the Scorchers and Carolina brethren Whiskeytown, that’s Dixie-fried as crawfish pie and fil� gumbo.
WEEN
Liberty Lunch, Sunday 27
Ten days from Sunday, Ween joins the H.O.R.D.E. tour. Society crumbles shortly thereafter. Love ’em or hate ’em, the bizarro Philly duo are rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with, pop-cultural savants who love a good jack-off joke. Back from Nashville, now up to more mischief on The Mollusk, their last Lunch show left the crowd soaring even higher than if they’d all sniffed cow manure.
SOUL CLAP NIGHT
Electric Lounge, Tuesday 29
Austin’s boiling B-boy cauldron has another hot spot. Now, thanks to organizer Tee-Double, Tuesdays at the Lounge got DJ Snoopi and Liquid Soul spinning R&B, dancehall, and hip-hop, plus plenty of chilly AC, cheap cover ($3), live emcees, even an open mike for onlookers brave enough to test their own skills. Time to put your hands together and Soul Clap.
GARY PRIMICH, JUKE LOGAN
Continental Club, Thursday 31
L.A. harp wizard John “Juke” Logan lays down music in La Bamba, Heathers, and Midnight Run, plus he’s the one behind the signature “Roseanne” lick, but there’s nothing Hollywood about his first solo album for Razor & Tie, The Chill. A studied, passionate rethinking of the harmonica’s place in rhythm & blues, it, and local harp homeboy Gary Primich’s Company Man (Black Top) are both recent exercises in rootsy virtuosity. One bill not to blow off.
ALSO PLAYING
Friday: Cher UK, Peter Lorre Quartet, Brit Jones & Larry Seaman, Hole in the Wall
Saturday: June of ’44, Dianogah, Sap, Emo’s; Dokken, Back Room; Clandestine, Cactus Cafe
Sunday: Reggae Haze, Auditorium Shores
Monday: Ted Roddy’s Tearjoint Troubadors, Ego’s
Tuesday: Debra Peters, Broken Spoke
Wednesday: Texas Meat Purveyors, Nooners, Bates Motel; Ta Mere, Elephant Room
Thursday: Kathy McCarty, Flipnotics
This article appears in July 25 • 1997 and July 25 • 1997 (Cover).