Concert review: Wavves, Ganglians, and El Paso Hot Button at The Lounge in Dallas (October 9)

by Nick of The Indie-verse

DALLAS — Bill: Wavves / Ganglians / El Paso Hot Button

Venue: The Lounge in Dallas

Date: Friday, October 9

Ah, Friday in Deep Ellum. Wavves are late and it’s BYOB. Skull tattoos, neck piercings and Jay Reatard’s on the stereo. The girls look good and the dudes look dirty.

El Paso Hot Button started the gig at about 9:30. I hadn’t seen EPHB before and I must say I’m quite impressed. I’d like to mention I don’t remember the last one man band I’ve seen; I’ll also mention that this certainly was the first baby blue Jag-stang that I’ve seen since 1995. EPHB had a great sound and can be summed up by great vocals and coordination. Real coordination -- I bet he can text and drive like no other. You think you can multi task? Come check out EPHB.

I’ve been playing drums since I was in the fifth grade, and I cannot for the life of me drum and sing at the same time. Meanwhile, EPHB is singing fantastically, working four foot pedals -- one for the bass drum, one for the snare, one for a cymbal, and one for a tambourine, all while playing guitar at the same time. Read this article out loud, tap one foot and move a hand independently to a different beat than your foot. This is hard and that is only a quarter of what EPHB is doing on stage and in front of an audience. Could EPHB be better with a band backing him up? Maybe, but I don’t ever want to find out.

Ganglians were up next and started playing at about 11:15ish, and I was impressed. Sweet, tall guy dance moves and plenty of reverb can sum it all up, really. Not too noisy and a driving beat certainly makes for a performance that I will go check out anytime its in town. What I’m sayin’ is, you like Ganglians whether you know it or not.

Wavves finally took the stage at about 11:45 and I was excited. Am I excited to see Wavves or am I excited to see Wavves with Zach Hill, who happens to be my favorite drummer alive? Sorry, Max Weinberg, Danny Carey, and Greg from Deerhoof. Zach Hill stole your lunch money and made out with your girlfriend. The man’s a walking IED. So much fun to watch.

I feel like a 13-year-old Jonas Brothers fan every time I see him play. I overheard him telling some kids that he knows what the structure of the song is and then plays whatever he wants over it, making it different every time. STREAM OF CONCIOUSNESS!

Most drummers get so bored of playing the same thing over and over, but Zach plays faster, tighter, and louder than you and he never knows what’s gonna happen until its all over. Can I express how excited I get when I watch Hill play drums? No, but obviously all this fan boy foaming at the mouth is an indication of how much I appreciate this guy’s presence on the face of this planet.

Nate still has a brace on his strumming hand from when he broke his wrist skateboarding, and did this affect his playing? No, of course not, if anything it probably made it sound better. The set was somewhat short but satisfying nonetheless. I believe that these two were made for each other.

Lo-fi guitar with the most blindingly fast, technical drummer playing today? It goes together like pants and pockets. The somewhat small crowd loved it all. Beers were flung, pictures taken, and the kids danced like they had been plugged into a light socket. The set ended when Nate said, “Sorry Kyle, I broke all your strings.”

If there aren’t more people at the next Wavves gig, Dallas concert goers are only doing themselves a disservice.