Though it is tempting to continue calling ST 37 a national treasure, that would be giving the nation far too much credit. What has this country ever done to deserve a band as dedicated and daring? For 26+ years, ST 37 have either wedded psychedelia to experimentalism (or vice versa) or rendered genre considerations DEADER THAN MOOT. If you wanna say they’re part of a great Texas tradition, go right ahead, but there’s bands from New York, Berlin or Prague who’d struggle to go toe to toe with this bunch.
With minimal fanfare (ie. none) from the city’s dunderheaded gatekeepers, THE DEAD SPACE have honed their craft to such a degree, if you’ve not seen them in the past several months, you pretty much have no idea what’s going on. (don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of company). This trio is ridiculously locked in these days, and even those who cannot tell the difference between artifice and ARTY FACE should probably start taking notes.
Houston’s COOL PISS have a lineage that includes White Crime, the Cutters and Key Bumpz, but their bulldozery brand of songcraft will win over even those with no time for punk rock genealogy (ie. most of you). Their prior 2 Austin appearances were all kinds of awesome and this time you’ll be able to see them in the cheapest of getting-drunk-environments.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS have not played a show since May. Ordinarily, this might be used as an excuse to debut new material, a new musical direction, perhaps a new way of addressing the performer/audience divide.
None of those things are going to occur, however. We’re simply going to pretend the last 5 months didn’t happen (it worked for “Dallas”, right?) and continue on the single-minded, monotonous path that’s made us the go-to band any time some dipshit club promoter is looking for someone to open for Zorch. That’s not to say we can’t be stopped. Someone stopped Dimebag Darryl. Someone stopped Eddie Waitkus.