The best thing about the show at the City Tavern this Friday night, was the fact that it was in fact this Friday and not last Friday. Now don’t get me wrong; the bill for the night was pretty fantastic, featuring two bands with beautiful leading ladies, and a third band with talent on tap. That alone is pretty fantastic, but for some reason I thought the show was last weekend when I was stranded out of town and unable to attend. Sometimes being easily confused has it’s benefits. 
The lineup for the evening: The Charming Gardeners, Cricket Taylor and the Electromagnetics, and The Slack.
The night proved to be a great night for some live rockn’ live music The Charming Gardeners started off the night with leading lady Amy Curnow on lead vocals. If Amy looks familiar, she and Jack have become the face/icons of Lee Harevy’s, and there are some great pics of her at Lee Harvey’s floating around. I digress. Their set was great, with a good mix of tempo and vocal range. I really need to get my hands on some of their recordings. On another note, they dealt well with the drunk (high?…both?) guy screaming, stomping, singing(?), spilling beer, and asking for “love” repeatedly. How does one get that messed up by 9PM?
Next was Cricket Taylor and the Electromagnetics. These guys are a jammn’ three piece band that even supplied their own dancers (sweet!). If there is ever a Pulp Fiction 2, I am convinced they will be on the sound track, and probably make an appearance in the movie. The songs were mostly upbeat, with heavy blues/soul influences. Their look… imagine the Boxmasters, but swap out Billy Bob Thorton’s crazy, for Cricket Taylor’s “dayyyyyyyum!”. At one point I counted 10 photographers taking her photo on the front row; clearly she is as lovely as she is talented. They put on a great performance, and had the Tavern jamming along with them.
The last show of the night was another great Dallas local band: The Slack. These guys had a big challenge to over come when they took the stage. Both bands before them had beautiful, blond, tattooed lead singers….and The Slack…well, they didn’t have the necessary equipment in that department. Fear not; they adapted and overcame with their secret sauce. One word comes to mind when I think of these guys, and that word is: Talent. Chris Holt heads up the lead vocals and lead guitar, and he takes lead guitar to a whole new level. It shouldn’t be possible to do what he does with just one guitar in the band, but somehow he does it. Add another one of the most talented musicians in the city, Eric Neal, on bass guitar, along with keys and some drums and you have the components for a badass show.
Overall the night was a great one, and the music was superb. If you are at the Tavern, I highly recommend Nachos. Random food suggestion, brought to you by zlew.net!
