1) Panic Volcanic frontwoman Ansley Dougherty has a weekly Wednesday night residency at the Grotto (517 University) called Wild & Wicked & Whiskey, that features her performing her solo material (and, I assume, other’s material) along with a rotating cast of special guests. It’s 21+, free, and starts at 10pm. Special guests make me think of network TV series crossover episodes, so here’s Blanche from Golden Girls turning up on Empty Nest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0PEmwRXME
2) Division Brewing (506 E Main St, Arlingfun) has a varied bill on Friday night; I am not a huge fan of the word “eclectic,” but this place tends to put on shows that are heavy on one genre (and often, that genre itself can be classified as “heavy”), so having a three-band bill of comparatively unrelated sounds is pretty cool. The night starts out with the sweeping, operatic space rock of Earthchild Imperius, the layered, electro-pop of opera-trained, Dallas-based solo artist Sudie, and the how-do-you-describe-this-because-I’m-at-a-loss experimental psyche rock of the Mammal Virus. Not sure what the cover is, but the show starts at 8pm. Check out this Sudie video for “TBH, written and directed by herself”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAYxwNqoed4
3) MASS’s (1002 S Main) show on Friday night will satisfy your yearning for beats, beeps, and other electronic, sonic emanations: the slow-boil, cinematic dub duo Tidals hits the headlining spot, with Starbass Laboratories, Squanto, and DJs Sam Ramirez and Ricky Simpson in the preceding spots. The DJs are all night and in between bands, and the 18+ show starts with Squanto at 9:30. Cover is $7. Here’s a Squanto video, filmed at Dreamy Life Records and Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPC6L5j2c8&t=5s
4) Oh heck, why not one more MASS listing? On Saturday night, Austin-by-way-of-New-Jersey’s Transit Method joins local garage-a-delic rockers Huffer in riff-aranging your faces. 18+, $7. Transit Method has a video for a song called “Roach.” Very popular with the bugs who live in my apartment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbonZakWQo
5) Team to Beat Show of the Week Alert: this Sunday at Lola’s (2736 6th St), Pinkish Black headlines a massively heavy bill celebrating Index Skateboards new deck series featuring art by the late, great Nevada Hill. Hill, known as much for the intensity of his artwork as the intensity of his music, tragically died of cancer in February of 2016, but his legacy continues to inspire everyone who knew him; skateboard decks with his art on it are a particularly fitting tribute, as is the lineup for this show: besides Pinkish Black, there’s New Fumes, Drug Mountain, Vaults of Zin, Big Hand/Big Knife, Def Rain, Same Brain, Chris Plavidal, Aaron Gonzalez, Tim Delaughter, and other surprise guests. Hill would be stoked about this bill, seeing as how it’s overflowing its Lovecraftian gills with heavy, noisy, challenging music, scary-as-fuck music. The show’s kid-friendly, and it also features a skate jam, so bring your board. It’s also free, but donations are accepted. The celebration starts at noon on Sunday! Nevada Hill’s band, Bludded Head, was unlike any other. He’s the shirtless guy on guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DUaaGp-LKI
FULL DISCLOSURE/WRITER BIO ALERT: per editorial suggestion, in addition to writing about music and other shit for the FW Weekly, I am an investor in a venue/bar called Main at Southside, colloquially known as MASS. I also bartend there, as well as the Boiled Owl Tavern, a bar that also hosts shows a few times a month. And, since we’re on the subject of warning you against what may be perceived as my own icky, unseemly self-promotion and/or conflicts of interest, I play bass in the following bands: Oil Boom, Son of Stan, Darth Vato. Sometimes I talk about one or more of those entities in this space, but I assure you that it has very little to do with my own vested interests; it just happens that the aforementioned venues and bands are part of the Fort Worth music scene, and this music scene is something I care very passionately about, as I have been part of it since 2002.