Air Review might be the best band in town, but there’s a reason you haven’t heard of them. They’ve only played one show.
Last Friday night, Air Review took their place in a short line of Britpop-inspired Dallas bands as they played in front of a full room at the Curtain Club. I had forgotten that the balconies were lined with Cabe Booth’s brilliant paintings of Dallas’ top bands over the past few decades, which created the perfect atmosphere for Air Review’s first concert. This showcase was an opportunity to prove that they are already just as good as any band up on that wall, and that’s exactly what they did.
As the first few notes were played, it was obvious, these guys aren’t joking around. Each member of the band is a seasoned player, every note was deliberate, and everything down to the lights went according to plan. The arrangements resembled Radiohead’s darker side, while lead singer Doug Hale summoned the energy and drama of Muse’s Matthew Bellamy. This is the first time I have ever seen a band’s first show when every part was so calculated but they still maintained a sense of spontaneity and energy.
There were a few lulls, however. More than once the chatter from the audience was loud enough to match the band during mellow moments like on the intro to “All Because.” But the band always managed to fight back with huge hooks and choruses, often with all five guys shouting their guts out into the microphones, like on “Chasing Corperate,” which is an obvious choice for the first single.
With their next show on June 5 at the House of Blues, and an album release set for sometime this summer, Air Review is already generating a lot of buzz around here.
Hey Dan. Jeff told me about your blog. I like the review (of course -- i am a little biased). Sorry I didn't get to say "hi" to you at the show.
ReplyDeletehope you and the wife are well!
Sara Taylor
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ReplyDeleteHey wow! I got some love thrown my way just for doing my do
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments. Now...goto Palladium Ballroom and Nokia Theater's backstage areas and see the 500 other portraits I painted for the last 7 years. All I had to do was stay in one spot painting for 361 days of every year so that the "powers that be" can get them autographed and then hang them up away in areas the general public, my friends and relatives will only be if they have a gig as a roadie, are incessant backstage fenaglers, date/marry famous musicians often or wear one of them fedoras equipped with those old timey white cards that says "PRESS" on it.
If Curtain Club had closed like the rest of Deep Ellum a few years back my art careeer efforts would be visually limited to Carter's tribute/memorial portrait at Barley House.
Seriously....there's a fucking shitload of portraits in the backstages of those 2 large rooms.
Thank god Curtain Club has theirs arranged to where they are kinda hard to miss or folks would think my art degree/career was limited just doodling on bar napkins for the last 13 years
until someone gets a camera back there at Nokia and Palladium I will just have too tell the mythical stories of long hallways with large oil portraits that have signatures from Ringo, The Eagles, Bill Clinton, the White Stripes and Tom Waits among a slight fraction of what's probably the largest collection of oil portraits...oh I dunno...in the whole Grand Prairie amd S Side on Lamar area hahaha
ah well, thanks for the mention/props...I gotta go paint Earth Wind and Fire
-Cabe