It’s Cooler Out – You’re Welcome, Shows to See, Stuff to Read

When I was in college in the Northeast of the US, I used to get so frustrated with the cold weather that by mid-March I would start to dress as if temperatures were actually shooting up. Instead of wearing a thick winter coat appropriate to protect me from the cold spring weather, I’d just throw on a sweater and freeze to death as I walked around campus. I call it wishful thinking, but there’s probably some clinical diagnosis for that type of behavior. Anyhoo, it seems to be working better this year than it did in those days; I painted my nails orange to celebrate the arrival of the fall season, and consequently we’ve had some kind of front — not quite a cold front, the Sun-Sentinel tells us — come through to suck the stifling heat out of the air. So, you’re welcome, suckers.

It’s nice to hear that The Pretty Faces are actually going to play a Broward show this weekend — I thought the band forsaken us for Miami venues, which these good-looking kids have been playing like madmen for the last month or so.

The show will be at the Poor House on Saturday night. It’s the first time that The Pretty Faces has played that venue. The band will be joined by the ever-delightful, R-rated Carver Estates band The Freakin’ Hott. How can you find out more about this show? I don’t know. That’s pretty much all that you need to know — you just show up at like 10:30 and then you grab a beer and look at the stage. It’s pretty simple. But, if you want to read another of Maggie’s brilliant blog posts — in this one, she eviscerates a dating article from Yahoo — in which she tags her upcoming shows at the end, check out The Freakin’ Hott’s most recent blog post. Her running commentary on the article is kind of like a ruthlessly cynical print version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 — she terrifies me!

It’s not every day that City Link editor Jake Cline pens a feature story for the weekly newspaper, but then again it’s not every day that two local musicians write a rock opera about another long-time South Florida musician and producer. Jake Cline interviews Rob Elba from The Holy Terrors and solo musician Brian Franklin about their rock opera tribute to Rat Bastard called Hearing Damage, previews musical selections from the show that will be performed this Saturday at Churchills in Miami at 10:30 p.m. and relays stories about the dramatic reactions people have had to Rat Bastard’s noise making over the years. The piece is called “It Will Get Loud”, and it’s a fun one.

I gotta go and do other stuff with my day now. It’s hard to figure out where to begin when you come out of one of those bad colds. Hope y’all enjoy the weather.

Moodvane shares content with Intown 411, Fort Lauderdale city guide and website.

Waking Up From a Long Dreamy Week of Sleep – What I Remember, What I Forget

I guess I got whatever’s been going around because I haven’t been as sick as I was last weekend in a long time. From cold sweats (that cleanse) and bouts of unconsciousness that left me waking and dozing as sunny skies turned to rainstorms and back again, unaware of when it was day or night, I’d say that the experience was positively Gothic. At first, my mind strained against my body’s insistence that it not be moved because I wanted to go to Propaganda on Friday and join my work buddies at Blue Martini on Saturday and go to Poor House on Saturday, but that cold knocked me flat out, leaving me just enough mental energy for four days of reverie. It was long overdue. I’ve been running from place to place to place for the last six months with little concern about the wear and tear on numero uno here. I might have to slow it down a little and be even more selective about what I do and recommend here on Moodvane. Cough. Cough.

That being said, a lot of the things that I do, places that I go and people that I meet get thrown under the bus as Moodvane chugs along toward the next awesome local rock show. It’s not because they’re not worthwhile and interesting local events, places and people; it’s just that I don’t think it makes sense to pay attention to everything here– only local bands with promise that entertain and fun local things to do and a little bit of local history because it’s so fun to piece it all together.

Two weekends ago, I went to check out Stage 84, a new music venue in Davie, for City Link Magazine. I think that review will come out in this week’s paper. Though this venue is sort of out of the way for those of us who live on the east side of town, it’s a pleasant and inviting place with very nice owners and original music, mostly by acoustic singer-songwriters. I had a decent time there chatting up Robert Gordash, owner of Holy Mackerel, local brewer and, randomly, cousin to Hannah Thorslund of The Pretty Faces.

He was nice. I asked him if I could try his pomegranate-flavored dark beer, but he didn’t have it with him. He gave me a sample of the Special Golden Ale, which was very sweet, but good.

Also, that night, I saw an acoustic set by an unestablished duo called Slow Fast Mad Hats, two youngish chicks with fashionable hats and better-than-decent songwriting skills and truly remarkable vocal abilities.

Violin/vocalist Stefanie Osorio and guitarist/vocalist Kris Harrison need to play acoustic shows together more often. The bigger band that they’re a part of is called Lest She Speaks, and it plays every other Thursday at Mickey Byrne’s in Hollywood.

Commercial Break — Moodvane is Sick

Haha, “Fluffy Soft” is a fake commercial from The State comedy show.

This Weekend: Don’t Even Bother To Wear Socks B/C They Will Be Rocked Off

The weekend approacheth with enough rad rock shows to generate conflict within the hearts and minds of people in search of something rad to do. On Friday night there will be a fundraiser rock show at Area 7 to benefit a local lady who’s fighting cancer. The show offers a unique line-up and there’s only a $5 cover for a very good cause. The Craven (TIMB), Stonefox, and Viva Le Vox will join three bands that I’m not familiar with — Loxahatchee’s own Fall of Olympus (metal), Deathmatch (metal) and Leading the Heroes (“hollow hearts and broken screams”)– to rock out and raise bucks.

Propaganda has an interesting show on Friday night as well. Three bands, representing three different regions of South/Central Florida, will come together to raise the sonic equivalent of tall glasses of orange juice to the hot marshy land that people hate to love almost as much as they love to hate it. Miami’s King Bee (blues playing dudes with beards, anyone? yes, please, I’ll take three), West Palm Beaches’ Noble Rocket (Sweet Bronco is dragging me to see this band, but I’m not exactly kicking and screaming) and Tampa’s The Beauvilles.

Saturday should be awesome too. My crystal ball is telling me that my Saturday night holds in store a short bus and a trip to Blue Martini’s 5th Anniversary party — it’s tough to explain. After that, I’m thinking about heading to one of a few shows. It’s a tough call to make.

IWAN hosts Florida Yeah! at Poor House. The Shakers (you might want to follow the link to the band’s web page for a good laugh. You’ll know what I mean when you get there!), Matilda Lights, Boise Bob and His Backyard Band and Dooms De Pop. That’s an interesting mix. I need to see this Boise Bob group. It’s supposed to be up my alley.

At Alligator Alley, the long-time local band The Psycho Daisies will play with Stonefox and Angry Pudding and The Dirty Boxes (yeesh!). That show might be well worth a visit.

Radioactive Records’ own Richard will play with his shoegaze group The Gray Girls. Kenny Millions plays too. This show is happening at Radioactive Records in Gateway Plaza.

Of course, there is always the option of watching Pride & Prejudice for the third time this week! Noooo! Darcy!

Moodvane’s sarcastic engine is driven by Intown 411.

Last Saturday: IWAN Help! Gallery The Flees, Dooms De Pop, Alex Nelson, Sweet Bronco

I don’t know about everyone else, but I had a blast at The Bubble last Saturday night. Between both of the venues that I visited on Saturday (I went to a new place called Stage 84 earlier in the day), I saw more live local music in one day than I’ve seen in the last few weeks. While at The Bubble, I heard the last screaming guitars of Lazer Beast inside of the warehouse, and then turned my attention to my friends, who were outside near the keg (big surprise), and The Flees as they prepared to go onstage. When I saw Flees/Tongues drummer Fausto, I thought Tongues of the Heartworm might be playing, and I was very excited, but then he snapped on a black collar and Elyse Perez took the stage in this little black dress with a tutu-style bottom. The Flees are Fausto’s other band, and frontwoman Elyse is a terrifying little slice of femininity, especially when she starts bossing everyone around and squats down at the front of the stage to cast intimidating stares at the audience. After jumping around like a maniac for a little while to The Flees, I settled down out with some cool peeps to watch Dooms De Pop in its new incarnation — they are finishing up an album — and Alex Nelson perform some of his acoustic, mostly love, songs. Then, we heckled Sweet Bronco for a while and headed over to The Pirate Republic’s New River location to wind the evening (morning) down. Pictures from the hang out can be accessed by clicking on the photo below.

This Moodvane content produced in conjuction with Intown 411

Last Friday: Well, That Was Unexpected — Good Times with The Methodaires

I didn’t even know the band was playing this weekend until I got dragged to Magoos on Friday night to see them, but after seeing them for the third time I have to declare that The Methodaires are just the radness.

I don’t know anything about this new hottie vocalist that they recently acquired except for her name, which is Nia Devine(hmm…is that a real last name?), but I know that she’s got just the right pipes to render irresistible the band’s original songs and covers of Bob Marley songs and of Alicia Keys’ “No One”, all while making you feel like dancing, singing and randomly holding hands with and hugging people whom you do not know. This band has a pretty big following too, which adds to the energy of the room. Also, I must say that I enjoy the trend of Magoos adding lots of quality acts to its its live music roster.

The Methodaires played Culture Room on Saturday night with The Supervillains — heard it was pretty rad from one person who went. I had other things to do on Saturday, which is a different story…
PS. Sorry Moodvane was not so hawt last week. Sweet Bronco was out of town, so as you might imagine I was paralyzed. I just don’t know what to do when he’s not around to tell me that there are better places to leave my eyeglasses than under the couch, for example.

This Weekend: Some Shows, But Mostly Just Chillin’

I know that there are probably five things that I planned to do this weekend that I’ve forgotten about, but I don’t care. I’m pretty sure that I can only handle one rock show this weekend and I’m definitely going to the Help! show at Iwan warehouse. That means that I won’t be heading down to PS14 to watch Stonefox and Astari Nite play together.

I’m sure that will be rad. Also, Mike Mineo is playing at Dada on Saturday night. He’s kinda hot looking and his songs don’t sound too bad either, but you won’t see me there. I’ve got to relax this weekend, and I want to go somewhere with a strong South Florida vibe. I just want to go to Cap’s Place in Lighthouse Point to try its hearts of palm salad. I hear that it’s divine. I had the most amazing hearts of palm salad at Nobu in South Beach this week, and it only fanned the fire of my obsession with this garnish food. I think that it cost like $28 or something ridiculous like that at Nobu. As I was leaving South Beach, I saw some dude doing sit-ups in the reclined driver seat of his car. I have never seen that in Broward, which I’m happy about because 6-pack abs are lame. Anyway, the salad at Cap’s is only $10 and I’m sure that there won’t be any idiots doing calisthenics in their automobiles, just a bunch of fat suckers like me.

Next weekend, The Craven, Stonefox, Viva Le Vox and other bands will play a cancer benefit show at Area 7 in Oakland Park.

Help! Big Plans Have Big Overhead – The Bubble

Erica Landau, Assistant Entertainment Editor of New Times BPP, wrote a calendar piece about this Saturday’s fundraiser for the IWAN The Bubble warehouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale (810 N.E. 4th Ave.) that alerted me to the fact that the local arts promotion group is struggling in its attempt to deal with a lot of overhead. The event is called Help! , and you should go. Seriously. If you haven’t been to an event at the warehouse space yet, then you just don’t know what a special gathering place The Bubble is for the local arts community. This is happening Saturday evening at 6 p.m.Sloane Peterson, Alex Nelson, Flees, (style mavericks) Lazer Beast, Dooms De Pop and — my boyfriend, your boyfriend, boyfriend to the world — Sweet Bronco will take the stage.

Modest Bombshell posted the promo pic for Rocktoberfest on her facebook page. This show isn’t happening until Friday, October 16th (at Riverfront), but I’m putting this shot up anyway cause it’s a great picture.

Mother/Son at Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale — You Don’t Have to Pay A Lot For This Coming Out Story

We live in such a hetero presumptuous culture that announcing one’s preference for the same sex can be a traumatizing experience, creating enough drama to fuel one-man plays about this soul-trying process. This is all just a long way of saying that writer/actor Jeffrey Solomon’s one-man show about coming out Mother/Son will be at William & Norma Horvitz Auditorium at the Museum of Art this weekend.  Your trusty MOAFL (Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale) marketing guru Roberto Santiago passed along the message that those who want to get the nice price on these tickets (half off) should use the code MOA when they call 954-462-0222 for tix. The show opens tonight and runs through Sunday afternoon. See the Broward Center event page for showtimes — I’m not going to write them all down for you! Take your closeted offspring!

Zombies Organize and The Freakin’ Hott at Dada, Saturday at 11 p.m.

The Freakin’ Hott and Zombies Organize will play at Dada in Delray Beach this Saturday night. If you’ve never been to Dada or if you’ve never seen these two bands, you probably aren’t reading this blog, but if it’s been a long time since you’ve participated in either of these delightful activities, you might want to consider heading up/down around 10-11 p.m.

The place has great (though somewhat pricey) food and a lovely atmosphere. If you want to know more about the show, Freakin’ Hott Maggie, a chick zine and gossip rag addict, plugs the event in her most recent two-part blog post about Cosmo’s recommendations for foods that arouse this week. It’s pretty amusing!

Why, you might ask, does a Zombies and Freakin’ show merit a separate post from all of the other stuff that’s happening this weekend? Because they take 100% care of all of the entertainment at their shows. There’s nothing to think about when you go to see them perform; their brilliance is right up in your face. If you go to this show, you will have a good time. All that you have to do is dance, party, listen and have fun. That’s why.

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