Man, what year is it? In the past couple of weeks some of the biggest & brightest from Dallas’ 90’s heyday were back in some capacity. Some never left.
The Toadies – December 30th – Billy Bob’s Texas – Fort Worth, TX
And annual local tradition now in it’s 7th year of Texas Treasures The Toadies playing their hometown landmark Billy Bob’s the day before NYE.
A tradition that I haven’t been available to partake in the last few years & happy to be back. This show is always unique as it straddles a very fine line as they are not the normal demographic of Billy Bob’s clientele nor is their audience whom the majority of have probably only seen the inside of this tourist institution thanks to the Toadies.
Though it’s not NYE, it definitely has that year end vibe & is always the last show of the year (at least these last 7 years) for the band so their’s this kinda mean “fuck it” vibe. It’s also interesting to note that this is that only Toadies shows I see that are littered with fights in the crowd, sometimes so severe & so often that singer/guitarist Todd Lewis has had to stop the show on multiple occasions. Thankfully that wasn’t the case this time but I still saw several fights, a sea of uptight security & just a general vibe that wasn’t entirely welcoming.
Still the band delivered with a long set spanning their entire career that now stretches almost 30 years which is unbelievable as I was there at the very beginning.
Setlist
Quitter
Push the Hand
No Deliverance
Polly Jean
Mexican Hairless
I Come From the Water
When I Die
Little Sin
Song I Hate
Rattler’s Revival
Take Me Alive
You’ll Come Down
Tyler
Summer of the Strange
Mama Take Me Home
Backslider
You Know the Words
Possum Kingdom
Hell in High Water
Encore:
The Appeal
Paper Dress
Away
I Burn
The Toadies – October 11th – Southside Ballroom – Dallas, TX
Long time friends of mine, that I still see a few times a year still kicking ass. They are so beloved in this town, it’s always a treat to hear the hometown crowd sing back every lyric.
Tonight was somewhat special as they were celebrating 25 years of their breakthrough LP Rubberneck, many of whose tracks are still in regular rotation on Texas radio. Just like with their 20th Anniversary of the LP 5 years ago, long time fans know basically what this means is that their gonna add the songs Mister Love & Velvet to the set as they usually play most of Rubberneck minus those two songs as they both require quite a bit of screaming that might be a bit to reconcile every night after a quarter century.
Setlist:
Got a Heart
Little Sin
Polly Jean
No Deliverance
In the Belly of a Whale
You’ll Come Down
Rubberneck Set
Mexican Hairless
Mister Love
Backslider
Possum Kingdom
Quitter
Away
I Come From the Water
Tyler
Happy Face
Velvet
I Burn
Encore:
Stop It (Pylon cover)
Run-in With Dad
When I Die
Song I Hate
I Put a Spell on You (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover)
Baboon – October 18th – The Kessler Theatre – Dallas, TX
Another great Dallas band, also closely associated with the Toadies is Denton’s Baboon. Holy shit how much do I love these guys and this band!
IMO one of the strongest & most unique not only in Texas but just some of the most entertaining & impactful shows I’ve ever seen by anyone.
To my knowledge this was their first show (at least locally) in about 5 years and certainly the last time that I saw them.
There was a time when you had to get to their Deep Ellum shows early or risk not getting in due to it selling out. They could easily pack 400+ at Trees on a weekend night. I don’t know if they under promoted the show or there was a lot going on this evening but their were less than 50 here.
Didn’t seem to matter to the band, as they all seemed genuinely thrilled to be performing again and this was to our benefit.
I love this venue and local stalwart Jeffrey Liles does an amazing job booking this place, but even I feel like I never know about shows here as well and often forget that this place exists. It’s not in Deep Ellum or even downtown, I never see ads or flyers & it’s only when I go “Oh yeah THAT PLACE, I wonder what’s coming up?” and I’ll see something on the horizon. That’s probably why I’ve only been here like maybe a dozen or less times all these years but when I am, I’m always happy to be, it’s such a neat room, it always feels like a “special” night when I’m here. And the perfect room for Baboon to bring back their brand of weirdness for a fun night.
Festival at the Switchyard w/ the Old 97’s, Tripping Daisy & more – November 2nd – Historic Downtown – Carrolton, TX
Two more Dallas based bands that had the most success in their careers in the 90’s, Tripping Daisy & Old 97’s headlined the 10th annual Festival at the Switchyard. In celebration of it’s 10th anniversary, both bands serve as a throwback to the inaugural festival in 2010 when Old 97’s and The Polyphonic Spree, which features Tripping Daisy lead singer Tim DeLaughter and other bandmates, headlined the show.
In addition to free concerts, the award-winning Festival at the Switchyard features free live children’s entertainment, free rides and games, free face painting and balloon art, a beer garden, and an array of food vendors and festival booths to shop from.
Old 97’s
Band was in fine form, never really went away and still kicking ass.
Setlist:
Jagged
A State of Texas
Salome
Victoria
Mama Tried (Merle Haggard cover)
Lonely Holiday
Big Brown Eyes
Good With God
Question
Valentine
Barrier Reef
The Other Shoe
Champaign, Illinois
Four Leaf Clover
Timebomb
Up next was Tripping Daisy, who’ve had a big year of getting the old band back together. First was 3 shows in one weekend back in April with the first 2 being warmup gigs at Deep Ellum staple Club Dada & frontman Tim Delaughter’s own vinyl shop Good Records that culminated with another local festival Homegrown,(along with The Toadies). After 18 years, the surviving members of Tripping Daisy reunited to headline the Homegrown Festival in 2017 and returned to perform again at the festival this year.
Tripping Daisy
The crowd as you can imagine was ravenous for this one-two punch of old local heroes & especially for TD as they’ve been away for so long and it seemed this was a chance for a younger demographic to see what their elders had long talked about as almost mythical.
Setlist –
PirANhA
On the Ground
New Plains Medicine
One Through Four
Waited a Light Year
SAme DREss neW dAy
RAINdrOP
Geeareohdoubleyou
ROCketPop
Mechanical Breakdown
I Got a Girl
Field Day Jitters
PriCK
High
Encore:
Brown-Eyed Pickle Boy
My Umbrella
Creature
I Don’t Know (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
Pre-Party for Scott Beggs’ Birthday with Surprise Show from Tripping Daisy – November 3rd – Three Links – Dallas, TX
Ok so like deja vu right? So I had just been across the street at Trees for a marathon show from Helmet and I’m leaving as the show ended around 11pm, when I look across the street to see something chaotic & familiar happening. Three Links is owned by our long time friend & Deep Ellum stalwart Scott Beggs (who recently joined us for our Clutch episode on TrickyKid Radio). It being a Sunday I had thought they might be wrapping up the evening as well went I take a second look and see that holy shit, that’s Tripping Daisy inside!
I knew it was Scott’s birthday in a few days & had already planned to attend the Roast they were having the next night for his 50th birthday but I guess he wanted to get things cooking earlier and did they ever. Tripping Daisy was billed as “Soothing Jubilee” to help keep the secret, but heard later they revealed the surprise just an hour before the show.
And this wasn’t a quick abbreviated set either, in fact it was even longer than last night’s show in Carrollton to over 30K people, lasting well over 2 hours featured tracks from all four of Tripping Daisy’s albums. Performing as a six-piece with Dylan Silvers as multi-instrumentalist, the band played a terrific set as projectors filled two large screens with psychedelic imagery. DeLaughter dragged his microphone into the crowd a few times, wished Beggs a happy birthday, and took a moment to remember Tim Berggren who passed away almost 20 years ago to the day and the initial reason TD broke up.
Indeed, the band really seemed to be having fun, and an enthusiastic crowd packed the small venue but then things got weird. DeLaughter playfully chastised the crowd for requesting lesser-known tracks from a quarter-century ago. But then the band dug deep into its catalog even though DeLaughter struggled to remember some of the lyrics.
Then DeLaughter left the stage for a few moments before returning for Trip Along After that, Tripping Daisy actually performed the Ozzy Osbourne cover again. It was near 1 a.m., and about half of the crowd, who presumably had to go to work in the morning, started leaving. DeLaughter wanted to play another song, but by then the band had had enough after playing 24 songs.
Setlist:
Same as above the day before but added two songs at the very beginning & at the end:
Tragiverse
Kids Are Calling
+ an Encore of
Blown Away
Washing Machine
Trip Along
Dallas rock is alive & well!
Photos –
Roy Turner
Jason Janik
