Concert review: Har Mar Superstar at The Lounge in Dallas (October 16)

by Nick of The Indie-verse

“HAR MAR will not disappoint ... This will be the most fun you will have at a show this month ... especially with Best Fwends on the bill.” -- ParadeOfFlesh.com

Couldn’t have said it better myself. I had never seen Har Mar Superstar until Friday night at The Lounge in Dallas and the show was as much fun as I’ve had at a show in a long time. Were Best Fwends hilarious and awesome??? Yes. Did Har Mar Superstar disappoint in any way??? No. Am I disappointed that there only maybe a hundred people there??? Not really, although I am confused by it -- but that discussion is for a different time.

My Jerusalem, which features members of Polyphonic Spree, Twilight Singers, and Vietnam, opened up the show, but I was late and only caught their last song, which I liked. The stage looked crowded and the crowd that was there did seem to enjoy it. There was one girl who watched their set, bought a CD, and left with her boyfriend. He seemed to relieved that he didn’t have to hang out around the weirdos anymore -- which has to be a good sign right? Way to go My Jersualem! I support this.

After they were done, “the Mark Sanford” of C60 showed up and we watched Best Fwends together, agreeing wholeheartedly on their awesomeness. Let's run this down, real fast: Best Fwends started the show sitting on stools wearing matching shirts as a prerecorded piece is pumped out over the stereo that describes what is going to happen over the course of the night -- funny. After this, a beat kicks in and they start screaming and jumping; inflated gigantic demons that were about 1/4 duct tape and looked like Zool the Gatekeeper and Vinz Clortho the Keymaster from Ghostbusters and dropped into a background that features the art that you can find on their website -- great.

Highlights of their set included sound effects from Riccola commercials and Tim Allen’s wonderful sitcom Home Improvement, an amazing cover of the Toadies’ “I Come From the Water,” which was perfect. This did make me think that a verse-for-verse cover of a Toadies song couldn’t be that funny to people that aren’t from Dallas, but I must say it had me rolling. Best Fwends, ladies and gentlemen … tell your friends (fwends).

Finally Har Mar took the stage with his backing band and it was better than I expected. His backing band sounded great playing with and over his prerecorded beats, which is not always easy and Har Mar absolutely blew it out. He started off the show with a flowing red jump suit a la late '70s Ozzy and chrome running shoes -- oh, and golden, sequined gauntlets … GOLD GAUNTLETS! He then stripped down to jeans and an excellent Prince - World Tour 84-85 t-shirt that had no sleeves, which of course led to him only wearing his trademark briefs.

He got sweaty, as did the crowd from all the dancing and drinking. The best acts (especially the goofy ones) can make everyone in the room forget their coolness for 45 minutes and just have fun ... this did happen. Big girls danced and felt svelte, uptight girls got molested and loved it, and the rest of us laughed and loved every minute of it.

The set was a little short but it did include the excellent “DUI” and other Har Mar classics as well as tracks from his new album, Dark Touches, including “Tallboy” (reportedly written for and rejected by Britney Spears) and “Girls Only.” Oh, did I mention at one point in the show he pulled out some pubes and blew them into the audience like a star-crossed lover blows a dandelion’s seed head?

After the show, we drank with the band at a bar across the street and had a good time. Where the Wild Things Are, butt tattoos, guitarist “Catfish’s” chihuahuas named after Simpsons characters, as well as Har Mar’s mystery drink (whose name will not be mentioned here) were all discussed. Also a girl fight was witnessed ... it was great. (Tip for those that want to drink with bands after a show ... bring at least two pretty girls.)

In summation, specific female body parts were serenaded and there was not one portion of the room that Har Mar didn’t make a point of rocking. H-A-R-M-A-R-SUPERSTAR. Dallas, next time bring your friends.