(Not so) Brief musings on Quick’s “Big Thing”

by Erin Rice

For a night dedicated to locally bred and mostly locally known artists and bands, Quick DFW pulled out an impressive crowd for their "Big Thing" showcase and awards. Fighting a town that is reluctant to support local music, there was a decent amount of love in the Palladium Ballroom Thursday night.

BTD took home the big cash prize. Wait, I mean prize. Just prize. Recognition if you will. As you can plainly see, they already have cash.

Doug Burr and Eleven Hundred Springs left the night with two big awards each, as Black Tie Dynasty (or Destiny, according to presenter Bobby Patterson and his trio of ladies) came away with the title prize, "Big Group" of the year. One guess who grabbed the Big Online Presence trophy. You got it, P.P.T., thanks largely to Pikahsso, whose body bleeds microchips and is powered by Google.

From my vantage point, the night wasn't about the awards, though majestically disco-ball-shaped and shiny as they were. It was about the performances, each no longer than a half hour, enough to showcase some local talent on the rise.

Though the show was running around 45 minutes late, we still managed to miss who I had most hoped to see, Ghosthustler. We did, however, arrive in time to catch a rap battle between Playdough and Headcrack. Rhyming (or attempting as such) to The Party's spinning, the two faced off against each other covering topics like old video game, sex, famous MCs, and my hands down favorite of the match from Playdough, a rant on the Dallas Mavericks' chances this season.

Quick's trophies, in the shape of a disco ball, were nice and all, but they're hardly as prestigious as the Peggies will someday be.

Record Hop took the stage and filled the room with their discordant anti-rhythms the penetrating, cat-like wail from lead singer Ashley Cromeens. While I have seen them before on outdoor stages, the reverberations of an indoor venue are far better suited for this group. Steve Albini is right on in his assessment.

P.P.T. delighted with their usual excitement and energy, managing to get the subdued crowd to dance a little here and there. At one point pulling material from Tres Monos in Love, the majority of their set was dedicated to the British-inspired hip-hop from their latest album Denglish. Accompanied on stage by a violinist, this trio continues to transcend the destructive trend of testosterone-juiced rap.

The penultimate musical arrangement was The King Bucks. Made up of members from various other local acts, after an opening song they yielded the mic to other local talent including Doug Burr, Salim Nourallah, Sarah Jaffe and Johnny Lloyd Rollins. Of special note in this set was Jaffe. Hardly even needing a backing band, she covered Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2." Beautiful and sobering, her rendition was the single best performance of the night.

Looking less like a Spree and more like a man hunt.

Then the act that most in the crowd came to see, The Polyphonic Spree, set up hidden behind a red band of fabric that stretched across the entire face of the stage. After a long break (it takes a while to get 20+/- band members ready to go), frontman Tim DeLaughter cut a heart shape into the fabric and peeked through before bisecting the entire band to reveal the rock chorus set in front of their Fragile Army backdrop. Though the Palladium's sound system ached under the wall of sound trying to penetrate it, the set was as successful as any other Spree set and the crowd vacated their previous locations to fill the lower level of the ballroom.

Hats off to Quick for not letting the expansive Palladium Ballroom dwarf their local show.