Music with Jameson & Lone Star: Paris Falls @ Sigs / Tody Castillo & Wild Moccasins @ Rudyards 08 August 2024
posted by Ramon Medina - LP4 @ 12:01 AM
Paris Falls may have gotten a late start at Sig's Lagoon and had to leave their patented light show in the van but none of that mattered once they hit the first notes of Shelter from the newest album. Damn they kicked it with some emotion and the room sounded great - intimate and with some unexpectedly great acoustics. You'd think that a long rectangular room like that would sound like crap but the high ceilings probably made up for any rectangle issues because Michael Deleon's drums sounded massive - even when compared to the albums. Mind you, the albums sound great but Friday it was like hearing the albums with a bigger and fatter sound. You start with a great room mix then throw-in some solid tunes and the rest is gravy. The audience's enthusiasm on Friday night was surely a testament to that. For the uninitiated, Paris Falls are a band whose harmonies, guitars, and that crazy organ/electric piano sound evoke the more rough and tumble side of late Let It Be Beatles but that description is much too simplistic. After all, the important thing isn't the point of reference but where they take it and Paris Falls shouldn't be accused of mere mimicry. Like Gold Sounds, Paris Falls seems to have gone back and looked at some classic rock, torn it apart, and rebuilt it to make their own statement. Go and listen to Shelter off the new album or the exceptional pop gem Lucky from their last album and see if you don't pick a moon dog and radiate everything you are.
From there it was off to see the Wild Moccasins and Tody Castillo over at Rudyard's. I know what you are going to say, "The Wild Moccasins - AGAIN?" Yeah yeah, I actually was thinking the same thing. That is, until I walked in and heard them playing. Sure I've seen them a lot lately but this is music that breaks any clouds hanging over your head. Feeling down? Leave the pills and your psychoanalyst behind and just catch the Moccasins live. Everything - Andrew Ortiz and Nick Cody's enthusiastic rhythm section, Andrew Lee's sharp guitar work, and Zahira Gutierrez and Cody Swann's sweet harmonies - builds into live shows that follows in the fine Houston pop tradition of bands like De Schmog and The Dimes who combine writing, musicianship, and performance into something that is joyous and fun. Friday was no different with the band hitting all the right notes and hoppin' so much that my low-rent camera could barely keep up. But that's typical. Look folks, if you want to know where the party is, it's where the Wild Moccasins are playing on a given week.
The evening closed with Tody Castillo who may not have jumped up and down like The Moccasins but, if you were able to downshift a bit and listen, you got a good dose of straight-up melodic rock. Now having heard them play their originals live, his covering Tom Petty at the Hootenanny a few week's back makes a hell of a lot of sense. Castillo and his band just dropped hook-riddled no-apologies rock and roll. Perhaps because of the Moccasins, Castillo's rockers were a hell of a lot more fun. For better or worse, songs like Brainwashed simply sound better live than on his eponymous album. That's because, on stage, Castillo and his band discard the studio glitter and just rip the songs through their raggedly overdriven Silvertones. Hey, with a whiskey in one hand and a Lone Star in the other, that's all you need.
From there it was off to see the Wild Moccasins and Tody Castillo over at Rudyard's. I know what you are going to say, "The Wild Moccasins - AGAIN?" Yeah yeah, I actually was thinking the same thing. That is, until I walked in and heard them playing. Sure I've seen them a lot lately but this is music that breaks any clouds hanging over your head. Feeling down? Leave the pills and your psychoanalyst behind and just catch the Moccasins live. Everything - Andrew Ortiz and Nick Cody's enthusiastic rhythm section, Andrew Lee's sharp guitar work, and Zahira Gutierrez and Cody Swann's sweet harmonies - builds into live shows that follows in the fine Houston pop tradition of bands like De Schmog and The Dimes who combine writing, musicianship, and performance into something that is joyous and fun. Friday was no different with the band hitting all the right notes and hoppin' so much that my low-rent camera could barely keep up. But that's typical. Look folks, if you want to know where the party is, it's where the Wild Moccasins are playing on a given week.
The evening closed with Tody Castillo who may not have jumped up and down like The Moccasins but, if you were able to downshift a bit and listen, you got a good dose of straight-up melodic rock. Now having heard them play their originals live, his covering Tom Petty at the Hootenanny a few week's back makes a hell of a lot of sense. Castillo and his band just dropped hook-riddled no-apologies rock and roll. Perhaps because of the Moccasins, Castillo's rockers were a hell of a lot more fun. For better or worse, songs like Brainwashed simply sound better live than on his eponymous album. That's because, on stage, Castillo and his band discard the studio glitter and just rip the songs through their raggedly overdriven Silvertones. Hey, with a whiskey in one hand and a Lone Star in the other, that's all you need.
Paris Falls - no light show but lots of rock!
ADD band Jen and Ray -
Keyboards, Bass, Guitar...
I think the only thing that they didn't play was a viola.
Oh no wait Jen plays that as well!
Keyboards, Bass, Guitar...
I think the only thing that they didn't play was a viola.
Oh no wait Jen plays that as well!
There is no better reason to overcome
the pull of the couch on a Friday evening
than The Wild Moccasins.
Just think of them as
Houston's super ninja party attack force
Andrew lays down some
sweet reverbed tremolo goodness.
sweet reverbed tremolo goodness.
Tody Castillo the perfect musical
accompaniment to a Jameson and Lone Star
accompaniment to a Jameson and Lone Star
Tody Castillo and band takes the audience down.
And we leave you this week with bathroom art by Joe Mathlete:
If you didn't have any Problems - Joe Mathlete
If you didn't have any Problems - Joe Mathlete
Links:
More pics on MyFlickr (Sigs Lagoon and Rudyards)
Paris Falls (Link)
The Wild Moccasins (Link)
Tody Castillo (Link)
Joe Mathlete (Link)
Labels: "Paris Falls", "Tody Castillo", "Wild Moccasins"
6 Comments:
what, no Airon Paul Dugas? lame!
I remember recently seeing Tara Jane O'Neil (whose work I adore) and Charlie Naked was bored saying he wasn't in the mood for a singer sonwriter; he wanted to hear instruments interacting. My thought at the time was that it was the silliest thing ever because (sarcasm) of course, if I am really into something, then everyone has to be into it. (/sarcasm)
Anyhow, that's is exactly how I felt watching Dugas. I just wasn't in the mood for a singer songwriter especially given the late start. That's not saying his work is good or bad but it certainly suggests that I have no business writing anything about his performance given my mood.
Also including a photo as I did in the draft but not writing anything about it seemed to me as if it could be taken as a dismissal - so I even nixed that. Though I did post his pictures on my flickr.
I hope that explains the omission. I just think it's important to at least try not talk out of my ass.
i'll spread some word on the Dugas. I've known that bloke for 17 years and have known his talent since i sat around with him trying to learn misfit and sabbath songs with one finger on the guitar. Its great to see a guy so full of emotion and talent finaly expressing himself. And the thunderstorm going on behind him was quite eerie given how quiet that place was while he was playing. all that was missing was some mccartney foot tappin' and some strings or organ on a couple of songs.
Yeah, Clearly he had a lot of fans i the audience from the response.
... I don't mean here on this blog but at Sigs that night.
AIRON PAUL DUGAS brings the mothafuckin' flavor back!
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