The Darts! Snakes! A Birthday!
This was one of those nights with a few music options, but I was looking forward to seeing The Darts in full form. I discovered them through Rikki Styx’s, of the Two Tens and Darts, post on her Instagram. I’d seen the Love Me Nots and Two Tens a couple times just last year, so it seemed a great pairing of music talents. Let’s not forget I had the Two Tens’ last full LP on my favorites of 2016 national list and the Darts’ first EP on the local list. To say I was stoked to see them play with Sunlaand and Snake! Snake! Snakes! would be an understatement.
At the top I will say, I do apologize for missing Sunlaand. A downside of being one person doing coverage of local music is that I can only be in one place at a time, and unfortunately had plans that overlapped. Regardless, these young guys and gal I saw open for Doll Skin and are awesome. I will be catching them tonight too. If you’re reading this before Sunday night, be sure to try and make it out early to Rebel Lounge to do the same.
I did, however, make it out in time for The Darts. This high energy, all-girl band is phenomenal on the stage. Tonight there was a fifth member up there too, doing percussion and back-up vocals. Most of it is fast paced, punk rock, with a few slower songs mixed in. A cool surprise was Harper, of Harper and the Moths, up there doing backup vocals on song that he does the same on their new EP. A lot of great things coming from this band, so be sure to make it out to one of their next shows and pick up the new EP here soon.
It’s been a couple months since I last saw Snake! Snake! Snakes! Thinking back, it was most likely at the old Trunk Space. Not due to quality, because these guys are awesome. They are laughing and having a blast up there when they play. It sometimes looked like Snake! Snake! Snakes! were creating their own little mosh pit at times on the stage. I really enjoyed their set closing out this early to end show.
That early end made it easy to make it over to help celebrate Tom Nicklin’s birthday over at Pho Cao. Most people probably know him as one of the local scene’s biggest supporter’s, Jason Nicklin, father. I got to his birthday show in time to catch two bands, first Hermanos Cabrones. These dudes are like a rock anthem on stage, covering Rush right before I got there. Hermanos Cabrones have a mix of English and Spanish vocals to their songs. Their head banging hair the perfect tribute to the genre of music they write their songs in. A great set from what I managed to catch last night.
Finally we came to the awesome guys from Painting Fences on stage. They lead us in Happy Birthday to Tom once midnight hit for his official day of birth too. Seth and Johnny are all over that stage during their set. Seth moved to the stair case, to the corner, to his mic stand the entire time. Plus, Johnny sat slightly off stage to open up one of their last songs. This isn’t including the funny banter between all three of them, including their drummer and vocalist Nick. I enjoyed Painting Fences’ set, and a high energy band like theirs is exactly the best way to keep people near the end of the night.
