Concert Review: 2007 Crowdus Street Music Festival

by Kenneth Smith of 2K7 Photography

Boasting over 20 local bands on 3 stages, The Crowdus Street Music Festival was held in Deep Ellum on Saturday. Starting at 3:00pm and running straight until 2:00am it showcased all of Dallas's biggest and best known bands. Despite the rain during parts of the show, it went on without a hitch and ended up being what I would call a complete success.

Fair To Midland

After a hot day full of music from multiple bands, the sun went down and the rain stopped for some of the bigger acts of the day. The setup included barricades that sealed off Crowdus street from Commerce to Main. The Main Stage was on the Commerce end and the crowd backed up all the way to the patio between Curtain Club and Liquid Lounge. Both clubs were also open and had bands playing inside as well. Following The Feds, Miser took the Main Stage at around 8:00 as festival attendees packed the street. Everyone could be heard singing along as the band performed their highly popular cover of the Cranberries "Zombie".

The Main Stage Headliners and hugely popular local favorite Fair To Midland were next. Taking the stage at 9:00 the band immediately began running around on stage and working the huge crowd. At one point vocalist Darroh Sudderth climbed to the 2nd story balcony of a nearby building and ripped down a banner that ran along the top front of the stage before leaping from the massive speaker stacks down to the stage. After performing their hit song, "Dance of the Manatee", they closed the main stage with 3 more songs and most of the crowd could be found making their way into either Curtain Club or Liquid Lounge to continue the party.

At 10:55, up-and-coming self-proclaimed "Heart Rock" group (and my personal favorites) Bless the Broken opened what was rumored to be their last show. Apparently, the band was to break up after that performance. Having said this, I have to say that although it seems to be the truth (as it was announced via bulletins on the bands Myspace), I really hope that somehow this will turn out to be false. I have said in previous reviews that this band has something special and can definitely make it. The guys gave it their all and certainly put every amount of energy and musicianship they had into this show. Vocalist Bucky ran from side to side belting out his powerful vocals and jumped into the crowd multiple times. Guitarist Robbie at one point even did some sort of rock-n-roll cartwheel using his guitar neck, and also jumped into the crowd. watching this set from right up front, I could feel the energy from the crowd pushing from behind me. I can only describe this farewell performance as amazing. I can only hope that somehow, this is not the last we have seen of Bless The Broken.

With 2 more bands still to go, the bar had definitely been raised and as the remaining folks outside were herded inside to the clubs, System Overload and Neverset capped off the night. Having not seen a local festival with this many great local bands come off so wonderfully, I have to give Kudos to the event organizers. I truly hope this festival only gets bigger and better every year and judging by the turnout of the debut, I'm sure it will.

Update on status of Bless the Broken, via myspace bulletin:

Ok, the past few weeks have been extremely crazy for us. Alot of emotions were going back and forth...and by the end of it we were ready to throw in the towel. Last nights show was an eye opening experience and a true reminder of why we do what we do. We all had a long discussion after the show and decided we have something special here and nothing that had gone on recently was worth losing this. We are stronger than that and we are not going to break up this band. Us announcing that we were disbanding was by no means a stunt or ploy to try and get more people out to last nights show or to get any extra attention. Up until the moment we went on stage it was in our minds that this was the last time all of us were going to be on stage together as Bless The Broken. The love and intensity that you guys showed us is reason enough to keep this going. We have been together going on 5 years...and pretty much with no real break. I guess after all that some of us were just wearing thin. Right now we are just going to take a short break to collect ourselves and work out things within the band that need to be worked out....but we are by no means going to stop. Thanks to all you guys who love and support what we do....because without that last night really would have been the end of it. Just keep checking the site for new shows, videos, and songs. This may have been just what we needed....and this is only going to make us all stronger. Thanks for understanding.

See you very soon,

BTB

This review was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.