Without the use of a time machine, I was about to find my very own ass placed in a seat in the front row of Opening Bell Coffee Friday night. I know what you, my reading audience are thinking: Zach, what did you find when you got there? Funny you guys should ask! First of all I found a rock star working at the front counter that night. I got a beer and a coffee from none other than Kristy Kruger. Pascale, if you are reading this you need to put the coffee drink Kristy made up on your main board! I’m not sure what it was, but MAN it was good. As usual, I find myself rambling. FOCUS Zach, Focus!!
I’ve been to several shows where Taylor Davis would be playing later that night, and for one reason or another I had to leave early. After about a year of near misses, I finally got to see Taylor play. I was actually surprised by his style based on some very inaccurate assumptions I made with no real base. Taylor was a little bit on the rocky side and had a really strong voice. Accompanying him was a guitar/keyboard player and a drummer. Taylor broke or damaged the mic stand pretty early in the show; this would prove to provide plenty of comic relief as the night went on. At one point the mic slipped all the way to it’s lowest possible point forcing Taylor to get out of his stool and bend/squat down as far as he could to make sure the show would go on and his voice would be heard. I almost thought he would go Ian Moore style and lose the microphone and let his voice fill the small venue. Fortunately for Taylor a good Samaritan in the audience came forward and fixed the mic mid song for him (see pic below). Speaking of Ian Moore, there were some elements of Taylors show that reminded me of Ian. Their styles are pretty different, but there was a specific vocal trick(queue?) that Ian uses often where his voice pitches way up and gets softer at the same time. Taylor also implemented this well at several points during the show. I wonder if Taylor has ever had Kiristy Kruger’s special coffee before…
Focus Zach… FOCUS!!!
About this time Blake and Miss Keni came to join me, and Matt the Electrician and Southpaw Jones took the stage. Matt and Southpaw reminded me a lot of some of the fun bar bands that I used to watch in Denton and in Lubbock( hell, it may have been them, and I just didn’t know). There was a lot of satire and humor. Many of the songs were outragous and very funny. It’s difficult to accurately describe this show, so allow me a few lines to see if I can put the pieces together. I almost felt like there were 3 shows. The duo would trade off who sang almost after every song, so you had Matt, and you had Southpaw for the first two parts. The third could be found in some of the songs where they were playing off of each other to really set up the satire/humor.
Most of Southpaw’s songs reminded me very much of some bands you might be familiar with like They Might Be Giants and Bare Naked Ladies. The rhyme scheme, rhythm and of course the lyrics were very reminiscent of some of these older satire bands. Southpaw has a pretty good voice and played his guitar southpaw style (upside down/left handed) very well. The audience really seemed to enjoy the songs and laughter was the audiences addition to the music. When you think of Southpaw, think of satire. Think of songs about the man on the moon, and his hooker. Think of woman’s rights songs that start off talking about traditional feminist woman’s rights such as fair pay, and ends up truing into a song that paints a picture of a well lathered woman tracing circles in the suds in the shower. I wonder if Kristy made him a coffee.
When Mr. Southpaw wasn’t singing, Matt the Electrician took over the microphone. Some of Matt’s songs were similar in their humor and satire to Southpaw’s, but some of them were more traditional acoustic/folk/rock. Matt has a really raspy, yet refined voice and style that I really enjoyed listening to. The songs that were not pure humor were songs that would be respected by even the most serious musician, artist, or amateur photographer/blogger 
. They were lyrically well written and musically sound and well enjoyed by this amateur photographer and blogger.
The rest of the music was a good combination of the two artists playing off of each other. These were the songs that really reminded me of some of the bands I used to see in Denton/Lubbock that were great bar music. They were fun and light and really played off of the other very well. There was an arsenal of instruments that were used from guitars, children’s xylophones, kazoos, harmonicas,banjos, and even a euphonium. My personal favorite was the box that Matt was sitting on that had about an 8 inch hole drilled in it that doubled as a great foot and hand drum.
The verdict for this show was the same as Kruger’s coffee: Good!!! Even though the music was “Zach Style” I think Blake and Keni had a good time along with me and the rest of the audience at the coolest little coffee shop south of downtown Dallas. Matt, Taylor, and Southpaw play all around Dallas and Austin, so if you they come anywhere around where you might be, I would recommend checking them out. And of course, if you find yourself in the downtown Dallas area and find your self in need of a nice place to enojoy a beer or coffee, check out Opening Bell at Southside on Lamar.
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