Cory Graves
New Fort Worth Venue Queen City Music Hall Plans On Competing With The Granada.
For the past couple of months, we’ve covered the whole Eisley's recent Kickstarter debacle fairly extensively.
First, they controversially launched a fundraising campaign to pay for a fancy touring vehicle. Then they were criticized for seemingly asking for fans to fund their lifestyle choices over their actual art. The band then had to respond with a long diatribe attempting to justify why they simply couldn't continue to tour without such an exorbitant amount of donations.
This, of course, only led the media to criticize the band further until, ultimately, the band failed to reach their $100,000 goal before the deadline.
So, by connecting the dots, it would only seem logical to assume that no Kickstarter dollars for Eisley equals no tour. After all, the band pretty much insinuated as much in their project's summary section. Except, well, maybe not.
Last week, the band released one final statement on the matter explaining that they are, in fact, still planning on touring on their newly-released Currents album. Here's an excerpt from that statement:
We've been asked, 'if you're still going to find a way to tour, then was this project really necessary?' The simple truth is, yes. But we will face these challenges and absolutely find a way to tour as much as we possibly can. Nothing has changed. Our motivation is to continue being a band, writing songs, recording records and touring.
On that note, this tour is happening. We're excited about it and hope you guys are too. Just to be transparent, to insure it could happen we ended up having to borrow $ from family for a good chunk of it and our label is lending us money against future royalties for the rest. Both are painful. That's the reality of Eisley doing support tours.
We can only assume that Eisley would have been more successful with their fundraising endeavors had they taken themselves less seriously and not attempted to convince their fans that it kind of sucks to be a member of Eisley. Case in point: Fort Worth joke rappers Rivercrest Yacht Club ended their successful Kickstarter campaign over the weekend, raising funds to record their sophomore album by offering up facetious prizes such as having the members of the band tattoo their names on your butt.
Granted, there are probably much better ways to spend one's hard-earned cash. Immediately, the idea of donating money to aid tornado victims seems much more practical. And, through a new Dallas for Moore benefit album, 25 local singer-songwriters have made it possible to quickly and easily contribute to the Moore, Oklahoma relief fund. You can grab a digital download of the album — featuring songs from such area musicians as Becky Middleton, Kirk Thurmond, and Cameron Ernst — right here.
And, hey, some times in this column we even mention non-Kickstarter-related music news and notes! OK, just some times. Here's an example of that, though: It seems Pantera drummer Vinny Paul Abbott is part of the team of folks currently in the midst of project that will bring a new set of venues to Fort Worth's Sundance Square. Along with Hyena's Comedy Clubs owners Jim and Randy Butler, and comedians Steve McGrew and JR Brow, the group has been working to re-open the old City Streets space as a five-venue complex called Lone Star Live. Aside from relocating Hyena's to the complex, the venue's other cornerstone will be Queen City Music Hall, a room that boasts a 1,000-person capacity. Black Box Entertainment, who will have primary booking rights on the place, says their goal for the place is to attract bands to Fort Worth that otherwise would be play Granada Theater or other similarly-sized Dallas venues when coming through town. The venue will host a soft opening on June 21 with The Burning Hotels, Ishi, and Black Taxi.
Lastly, we'll leave you this week with a couple of quick hits:
• Dallas dance-pop act Darktown Strutters were looked upon with favor by noted Dallas-based tastemaking site Gorilla vs. Bear yesterday.
• Former Smile Smile guitarist Ryan Hamilton has been quick to pick up the pieces since his band's split last month. Tomorrow night at Denton's Rockin’ Rodeo, he'll be performing his first solo show with a full backing band. Later in the evening, the show's headliners, Bowling For Soup, will film portions of their performance for an upcoming music video.
• Speaking of Smile Smile, Hamilton's ex-bandmate in that venture, Jencey Keaton, tells us that she too working on an as-yet-untitled project of her own that is set to debut later this summer.
• Lastly, we now have word of an upcoming film screening near and dear to the hearts of many a local music fan: Next Tuesday at the Deep Ellum Foundation building (located at 2630 Commerce St.), Exposition Park film director Jonathan Buchner's documentary on the vibrant run and tragic end of area punk outfit Spector 45 — appropriately titled 45, simply enough — will debut with separate, free and open-to-the-public screenings at 8 and 10 p.m.
Cover photo via Queen City Music Hall's Facebook page. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
