Today marks the first day the concert a day challenge feels like a grind. I didn’t expect the feeling this soon, but I’ll attribute the weariness to my introverted self wanting to turn off sensory input for a little while.
At Scat Jazz Lounge I found out what Bob Ross would look like if he were still alive and a jazz pianist. Christian Dozzler sat behind a piano, wearing a Hawaiian floral print shirt and a brown haired white man’s afro. Accompanied by a drummer, the duo played jazzy numbers smoothly and enjoyably. A couple, in their seventies, stood up from their table and began swing dancing in front of the stage, smiling as they twirled and hustled.
Sunday afternoons at Magnolia Motor Lounge are known as Sunday Fundays. A lineup of acts begin playing around 3pm and continue through the night. I showed up for the first act, Jake Robison, a folk-country singer who curls his lip delivering a song. He strummed his acoustic, sang songs of growing up and being a father with touching melodies. He threw out a countrified take of The Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon. “A little White Album, for ya.”
As an aside, I’m not sure I saw Jake Robison. The dude I took a picture does not look anything like the Jake Robison I found googling, but that’s who the waitress says it was… so…
What I found more interesting was the thing where people drank Miller High Life out of mason jars. I’m so not hip.
Downtown Fort Worth, on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night allows for a little serendipity with patios, restaurants and horse drawn carriages. After two botched attempts to find live music, this combination led me to the Mercury Chophouse patio.
My first attempt to check out live music in the evening resulted in a total fail: the stage for the venue, 1919 Hemphill, was upstairs. It would be too much to ask for an elevator in the midst furniture salvaged from curbsides and graffiti covered walls. I left not at all disappointed that I’d miss 45 minutes of metal.
On the fly, I made a stop home, checked various venue calendars to figure out where to go for the evening. Also, I sought to get a feel for the next few days. Early evening shows would be hard to come by, and I wanted to take advantage of them as much as possible. Eventually, I settled to head downtown to Queen City for Luke Wade, leaving The Grotto and Magnolia Motor Lounge as future options for the week ahead.
As I strolled by Queen City at 9:45pm, the line stretched down the street to Barnes and Noble. I didn’t feel like standing in a line and then having to wait an hour for a show to start. Luckily, I heard music playing down the street at the Mercury Chophouse.
The Chophouse’s patio is nondescript, and I didn’t realize I was even at the Chophouse until I left, rolling by a chalkboard sign, “CHOPHOUSE LIVE MUSIC on PATIO –>>”.
The band playing on the patio, consisted of three guys, calling themselves River Trip. For the most part, they spirited their way through 60s and 70s era covers with an acoustic rock bent. Prior to “Heart of Gold”, they asked if there were any harmonica players in the house. No, there were not any harmonica players, thus, Neil Young’s harmonica solo would be missing for the night. At one point, they pulled out a deep track from the Beatles catalog, “Norwegian Wood”. Not too shabby.
[Note: this is part of my “concert a day” challenge]
Knowing I’d be busy early Friday evening at a scotch tasting, I needed a local show I could get to quickly. Thank goodness for living five blocks from Live Oak. I showed up still a little buzzy from sipping on 18 year old scotch for the better part of the evening. Paid my cover, received my wrist band and entered halfway into Monahans‘ set to a fairly packed house.
The main draw for this show were two indie rock legends: David Bazan and Will Johnson. Bazan made his name in the mid to late 90s as Pedro the Lion, and Will Johnson still puts out music with his Centro-Matic bandmates. The two joined with two other indie veterans to form Overseas.
Overseas‘ sound is interesting, combining what Bazan does best, downtempo ballads that fit his limited baritone range, and Johnson’s low fi rock with frenetic hooks. One song, the bass would lead a pop-like dirge, and in the next, the distorted electric would crank to 10. Early in the set, a short, honey blonde woman made her way to the front. Her eyes, facial expressions and catcall of “welcome back, Dave,” made it clear she was a Bazan fan.
I wish I had arrived earlier to catch more of Monahans’ set. Their sound of rock uses atmosphere, reverb and harmonies over a driving tempo, made for some cool arrangements.
For my first show, I scanned the listings on fortlive.com searching for something free. In the West Fort Worth section, I spotted a gig at Chubby’s Burger Shack. A little Googling checked out that Terry Rasor is a veteran Texas singer song writer with a standing gig on Chubby’s patio, called “Raz and Friendz”.
Patio shows are typically free, but waitstaff get grumpy if you’re not buying food or drink. Seeing that Chubby’s was a contender in the 2013 DFW Burger Battle (they lost in the first round), and I’d never been there, it seemed like a good pick.
A buddy met up with me a little before 7pm and the patio remained empty. And the outside temperature held fast at 100 degrees. We opted to enjoy our burgers with air conditioning and then venture to the patio. We finished and ventured outside, and it appeared Terry “Raz” and his partner for the night, Michael Hearne, had yet to play a song. (Sidenote, a waitress stopped by our table, asked if we were going to order anything, and we said no. She ignored me for the remainder of my 45 minute stay.)
Within a few minutes, the duo took to the front of the patio and Terry began to play while Michael sat, leaned forward with his guitar and listened. Terry’s sound, with his voice and a guitar, reminded me of John Prine or late era Merle Haggard–an earnest guy who’s played hundreds of shows and enjoys strumming his guitar and delivering life truths with a grizzled voice. Michael Hearne complimented Terry, with Hearne’s songs more Americana and country. One song, (I found to be called Evergreen) reminded me of Nick Drake, a light melody that floats up with the chorus, made the entire patio stop talking as if this was a moment to truly take in.
Terry Raz Rasor and Michael Hearne at Chubby’s Burger Shack
Sometimes we need projects to challenge us. Make a thing a day. Learn a word a day. Appreciate an aspect of life a day. The point is to do something and be persistent. For the month of August, I’m going to see a concert a day.
That’s 31 live music experiences during summer’s hottest month. I’ll be doing more work than 535 congress people.
To clarify, for a show to count, it has to be a group or performer putting on a show. Thus, church choirs, curbside troubadors and collective drum circles won’t count. And I have to be there for at least 45 minutes or one set. This is to give an act time to play, especially if it’s an opening act, and also, gives me an out if the music does not move me. Lastly, I can only go to the same venue once a week. I live five blocks from Live Oak, and could hang out there four to five nights a week. This will force me to venture to other venues that I may not typically go to. If I can, I’ll try to meet the acts, and will post a writeup a day to keep track of where I go and who I see. Pictures will be included. If you’re on Twitter, I’ll probably post live commentary.
Already, there will be challenges. I work a day job with long days and I’ll need to plan shows around currently planned engagements. I won’t be jammin’ at 11:30pm on a Tuesday, and during the weekends I’ll be looking for day time gigs to attend. And my wallet will demand free shows, too.
For shows, I do intend to seek out an assortment of genres. Amongst the blends of country and rock, Fort Worth has a rap/hip hop scene, as well as a dedicated core of metal heads that rock out. DFW.com, fortlive.com, Fort Worth Weekly and Google will be my main planning tools.
Through the month of September, I designed a tie a day. A day early, below are the results. Click to enlarge and check out some of the details. I prefer minimalist designs, solid colors and a contemporary look. Some designs could have any sort of color variation, so I only did a few and then moved to a different concept. Day 1 is in the top left, then Day 2 through 6 in the top row, etc.
For the month of June, I gave myself the silly challenge of doing a Baskin Robbins: eating 31 flavors of ice cream. To count, I had to eat at least three spoonfuls of the flavor. I couldn’t cheat by standing at a counter in an ice cream shop and ask for a taste test. Plus, the person behind the counter would get annoyed. They get annoyed if you ask for two taste tests.
I learned quite a bit in my pursuit of testing my tastes in ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s, on the whole, sits heavily in stomach. Häagen-Dazs slides smoothly across the taste buds. Perhaps it’s the bias of my Texas childhood, but Blue Bell brings about a comforting feeling with a spoonful. Flavors of ice cream have gone corporate sponsored, combining other popular products or even famous brand names. Oreos, Butterfingers, Stephen Colbert, Starbucks. Jumping food mediums seems to be the norm, causing an exponential assortment of choices in a frozen food aisle. Also, conveniently, where the pint used to be the guilty pleasure size for all midnight snack runs, serving containers can be carried away by the armful at three ounces. A pint of ice cream in a Texas summer inside a car can increase unsafe driving speeds.
Godspeed, I ate ice cream for all three meals one day. I threw a mini ice cream party for snack day at work. The sales clerks at various Walgreens knew me as I rolled in, heading towards the frozen food section. I could have continued this dessert trip for a long time, perhaps six months or more with all the unique flavors of ice cream, and that’s not including the overlap of basic chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, etc. flavors or the assorted vanilla flavors that Blue Bell alone sells. And, potentially, with the advent of Coldstone or Marble Slab, where you can add mix-ins, you can up your flavor count considerably with the permutations and combinations of Heath crunch and a dozen flavors.
Stats:
7 Ben and Jerry’s
8 Blue Bell
1 Braums
2 Coldstone
1 Dryers
5 Haagen Dazs
1 Marble Slab
1 Starbucks
1 purchased at Trader Joes
4 from restaurants
The full list is below, and I made note if there was anything interesting related to it, be it by flavor or experiential.
Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia: overrated, flavors too subtle.
Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup: like a lead weight in my stomach.
Ben and Jerry’s Stephen Colbert Americone Crunch
Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough: the flavor to kick off the month.
Ben and Jerry’s Envision World Peace
Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey: Surprisingly good.
Blue Bell Cookies and Cream.
Blue Bell Red Velvet: Surprisingly good; enjoyed outside while 4 Fort Worth PD officers arrested someone across the street from Sweet Sammie’s.
Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate: Mini ice cream party flavor number one.
Blue Bell Cotton Candy: frozen torture that didn’t even taste like cotton candy.
Blue Bell Crazy Cookie Dough
Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla: Mini ice cream party flavor number two.
Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip: a classic.
Blue Bell Moo-lineum Crunch: interesting mix of flavor.
Blue Sushi Green Tea: heavy on the green tea; I’ve had better.
Blue Sushi Raspberry Vanilla
Braums Peppermint Ice Cream: for a birthday.
Coldstone Pine-berry: like a gelato; ate in the company of a 31 year old and a 3 year old.
Coldstone Cheesecake: definitely needed a mix in, which I did not do.
Dryers Butterfinger
Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche: delightful; Walgreen’s sales clerk was impressed I knew how to pronounce it.
Haagen Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Haagen Dazs Butter Pecan
Haagen Dazs Rum Raisin: I’m not a rum fan, so why I picked this horrible choice is beyond me. Pirate, maybe?
Haagen Dazs Blueberry Crunch: Amazing.
Lanny’s Brown Butter: eaten in the company of an engagement celebration and a graduation celebration; also, the last flavor for the month.
Marble Slab Coffee
Shinjuku Station Red Bean: I love Shinjuku Station. Enjoyed with a swizzle stick and Yamazaki whisky.
Starbucks Java Chip Chiller
Strawberry mochi: a Japanese style of ice cream I picked up from my first trek to Trader Joe’s.
