Flickerstick's crowded Friday night gig was the band's last with drummer Dominic Weir. The band and Weir are splitting after about six years because of "artistic differences." In Weir's place will be one of only a dozen or so area stickmen of his caliber -- Todd Harwell, drummer for the recently defunct Doosu. Weir will continue working with the rapidly rising Mermaid Purse, a band led by former Doosu frontman Eric Shutt and with which Weir has been playing since the Purse's creation a few months ago. Flickerstick's next local gig is Saturday, April 10, with Radiant and The Broadcast, at Trees (2709 Elm St., Dallas; 214-748-5009). ... Boy, it was really nice of New York Times rock critic Jon Pareles to mention how great South San Gabriel's SXSW gig was in his event wrap-up last week. Too bad Pareles got the name of the band's town wrong -- it's Denton, not St. Louis. But that's the New York "How Many" Times "Can We Fuck Up?" for ya. ... Funny little sidenote: South San Gabriel is actually a side project of Centro-matic, and Will Johnson's nom de guerre was one of a couple of Metroplex bands that likely had an impact on the hordes of us SXSW regulars who live for freebies. That's right, Centro made the goodie bag (a glorified duffel bag stuffed with magazines, happy hour passes, c.d.'s, and other rock 'n' roll minutiae that is given away to registrants every year). The band was profiled in one particular goodie bag glossy mag. The other Metroplex bag representative was Fort Worthian John Price -- two of his songs were included on a goodie-giveaway compilation c.d. Now, as any bag junkie knows, true love can be found in the form of a goodie bag comp. If it weren't for a "Japan Nite" disc in HearSay's bag a couple of years ago, your columnist's passionate affair with Thee Michelle Gun Elephant would probably have never caught flame. Cop more info on Price and his forthcoming c.d. (which is really a re-release of last year's debut, Little Pieces of a Little Piece of Something Small) at www.aezra.com.

Fort Worth mourns the loss of another supremely talented local musician. The classically trained Chris Forrest played clarinet and electronics in Ohm (with Nathan Brown and the deceased Doug Ferguson, a.k.a. Frankie Teardrop), Dog Bite Hand (with guitar virtuoso Bill Pohl and drummer Eddie Dunlap), and Life Space Death (with two musicians of the powerful prog-ish act 99 Names of God). Forrest, according to friend Pohl, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor about two years ago and was undergoing chemotherapy, but the cancer was extremely aggressive and very advanced by the time it was noticed. In recent months, doctors had been upping the chemo dosages, wearing Forrest down pretty badly. A couple of weeks ago, a new CAT scan revealed that the growth was out of control, and Forrest, who friends said was about 30 years old, elected to discontinue treatments.

A former music student at the University of Texas at Arlington and all-around good person, Forrest will be greatly missed.