Cory Graves
This Week, Spooky Folk Leaves Town On A High Note.
Each week, we take a survey of the local music scene and try to determine which acts in town are really putting in work and seeing it pay off. Which bands have the most intriguing shows coming up? Which bands are getting the most press around town? Which bands have accomplished the most notable feats of late? Based off these criteria, three of our music writers submit a list to be weighted and compiled into a master list revealed each week in this here space. We like to think it's fairly revealing. Check out our previous Buzz Rankings here.
It had been a long time coming.
After months of buildup — and, on some level, denial that it was actually ever going to happen at all — Spooky Folk finally followed through with their “Farewell For Now” show on Monday night at Dan's Silverleaf.
The reason for this departure? In less than two weeks time, Kaleo Kaualoku, the band's frontman and mastermind, will be getting hitched and relocating to Denver. And though the band has been adamant about the fact that this will not be the last time they'll perform in Denton — you can most definitely expect Kaualoku to return for an album release show later on in the year when the band eventually wraps work on their long-awaited sophomore effort — one gets the feeling that Spooky Folk will never really be a quote-unquote local band again.
In that sense, Monday night's showing definitely felt like the end of an era. That sentiment was palpable during that concert, as the band's members and fans visibly fought back tears at different points during their set.
For their part, the band delivered one hell of a final exit in front of the fellow musicians, friends and fans who helped sell out Dan's for two sets from the band, during which the five-piece played every song it knew, plus a couple of covers. And, by the time the band reached its last two numbers — a cover of Garth Brooks' “Friends in Low Places” and its biggest song of all, “Bible Belt” — every person in that crowded bar wasn't just singing along, but full-on shouting out lyrics at the top of their lungs.
All told, it was one of those special kinds of nights that only come along a couple times a year. So, of course Spooky Folk lands in this week's top spot. And, interestingly enough, Satans of Soft Rock, who opened that show, bookends this week's rankings.
Farther down on the list, The Relatives, The Polyphonic Spree, J. Charles & The Trainrobbers, The O's, Larry g(EE), A.Dd+ and Zhora each earned their respective spots on the list this week thanks to their participation in last weekend's fourth annual Homegrown Music and Arts Fest. Glowing accounts of the fest from The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Observer, Pegasus News and every other half-credible outlet in town celebrated the fact that the fest has fully blossomed in its fourth year. And, hey, when factor in the level of talent on the bill, the gorgeous downtown setting and all those adorable pups in attendance, that's a sentiment with which we wholeheartedly agree.
But Homegrown is far from the only festival game in town. This weekend alone, The Longshots, The Will Callers, Calhoun, The Southern Renaissance, Old 97's, The Hanna Barbarians, The Orbans, Air Review, The Unlikely Candidates and Mariachi Quetzal will all be performing at this year's Fort Worth Music Fest, and People on Vacation, Nervous Curtains, Eleven Hundred Springs, Reverend Horton Heat, Toadies, Spookeasy, Dead Flowers, Missile, Party Static, The Venetian Sailors, The Treelines and The Boxcar Bandits are among the locals performing at this weekend's Wildflower! Festival inRichardson.
Elsewhere, members of Pantera reunited for a one-off performance, Amber Carrington continued to advance on The Voice and The Baptist Generals began streaming their first new album in ten years on American Songwriter Magazine's website.
(Also receiving votes this week: Kelly Clarkson, Sarah Jaffe, The Longshots, The Orbans, The Will Callers, Jenny Robinson, Killtron, Rigor Mortis, Erykah Badu, Ice Eater, Fungi Girls, Joey Kendall, Ronnie Heart, Pinkish Black, Taylor Effin Cleveland, Booty Fade, Soviet, The Venetian Sailors, Blackstone Rangers, Fox and the Bird, DJ Sober, Cutter, Glen Reynolds, Missing Sibling, The Hanna Barbarians, Terminator 2, Nervous Curtains.)
