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At least these three writers tried to stall the decline of concertgoing this year. B Y P A T R I C K H I G G I N S , S T E V E S T E W A R D , A N D J U A N R . G O V E A
EATS & DRINKS On the North Side, Taqueria Temo specializes in al pastor in myriad, mouthwatering ways. BY EDWARD BROWN
FEATURE Looking back on ’23 offers a scary roadmap for ’24. BY S TAT I C
SCREEN Peek inside for our chief film critic’s Top 10. BY KRISTIAN LIN
SCREEN Iron Claw is as powerful as the Von Ehrichs in the ring. BY KRISTIAN LIN
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December 27, 2023 - January 2, 2024 FREE fwweekly.com
Vo lum e 19
Nu mber 36
D ecember 27, 2023 - J anuar y 2, 2024
INSIDE Based on the recent past, Fort Worth’s future is gonna be rocky. By Static
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Best Onscreen
Our chief film critic counts down his Top 10. By Kristian Lin
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Lee Newquist, Publisher Bob Niehoff, General Manager Ryan Burger, Art Director Jim Erickson, Circulation Director Emmy Smith, Proofreader
Big and Juicy
Al pastor reigns supreme at Taqueria Temo on the North Side. By Edward Brown
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Our Fave Shows
Spring Palace, Abbreviations, LABELS, Metallica — just a soupcon of North Texas’ stage offerings this year.
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By Weekly Music Staff
DISTRIBUTION Fort Worth Weekly is available free of charge in the Metroplex, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of Fort Worth Weekly may be purchased for $1.00 each, payable at the Fort Worth Weekly office in advance. Fort Worth Weekly may be distributed only by Fort Worth Weekly’s authorized independent contractors or Fort Worth Weekly’s authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Fort Worth Weekly, take more than one copy of any Fort Worth Weekly issue. If you’re interested in being a distribution point for Fort Worth Weekly, please contact Will Turner at 817-321-9788.
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Anthony Mariani, Editor
Edward Brown
Yet to Come
STAFF
COPYRIGHT The entire contents of Fort Worth Weekly are Copyright 2023 by Ft. Worth Weekly, LP.
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CONTRIBUTORS Christina Berger, Edward Brown, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Steve Steward, Teri Webster, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Cole Williams
EDITORIAL BOARD Anthony Mariani, Edward Brown, Emmy Smith
Cover photo by Juan R. Govea Fort Worth Weekly mailing address: 300 Bailey, Ste 205, Fort Worth TX 76107
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In A Christmas Carol, ol’ Ebby Scrooge is warned to change his ways or suffer eternal damnation. In local terms, Fort Worth is Scrooge, and we’re the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and if this town and its leaders do not soon start thinking of everyone instead of just the wealthy or the vocal majority, links and links and yards and yards of chains around our ankles — and wrists — will be the bleak house we keep. The gaping divide between the haves and have-nots and between Tyrant County’s right-leaning bureaucracy and our ever-more-diverse populace will shape Fort Worth’s civil and social life over the next few years, so it’s well worth one last glance back before we step forward into the New Year.
Favored Nations
A handful of recent studies project North Texas to surpass both New York City and Greater Los Angeles in population by the end of the century. Outwardly, the Stockyards and Cultural District perhaps show the greatest signs of that growth. Those areas are home to several new developments, each valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the health of a city should not be measured in terms of how well rich people are dined, boarded, and entertained. Construction is currently underway on the Fort Worth Juneteenth Museum, and the 76104 location for the massive public center celebrating the liberation of formerly enslaved men, women, and children is purposeful. The predominantly Black and brown community has long been neglected by city officials and is devoid of new development. Based on a 2019 UT-Southwestern study, 76104 residents have the lowest life expectancy in the state, averaging only 67 years. There are quite a few reasons: This stretch of the Southside is a food desert, health care is almost nonexistent, and just about everyone is poor. Southside Community Garden, a new nonprofit created to address food apartheid in the area, is a reminder of our grassroots communities’ resilience in the face of uneven growth, the kind that continues to largely favor the economically robust parts of town at the expense of the weak. As we look back on the year that was, many locals worry that Fort Worth’s aspirations for economic power and national recognition will come at the cost of our identity. Our mix of “culture and cowboys,” as the new saying goes, should lean more toward the former since there are probably 10 times more artists living and working
More than 400 souls packed Ridglea Theater last weekend to support local music as part of our 23rd Annual Music Awards.
in Fort Worth than occupational cowboys, which is mostly why the situation with the Fort Worth Community Arts Center is such a downer. City leaders recently placed the Cultural District institution on the public-private altar (“Debating the future of the Arts Center, city leaders and developers once again see only dollar signs,” Oct. 14). Critics of the city’s plans say the arts center is wholly owned by Fort Worth and therefore should not be the object of corporate profiteering.
‘Not Giving Up Yet’
Just over the past few weeks, three music venues of various degrees — Lola’s, Twilite Lounge, and Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theater — recently closed, highlighting the need for us to get up off our butts and go see some live, local, original music, because there’s certainly more than enough of us here to keep more than a handful of indie venues afloat. The local scene isn’t broken, just in flux, and sometimes change is painful. At least that was our take a couple of months ago (“Come Together,” Oct. 11) and earlier this month (“Not Waitin’ Around to Die,” Dec. 13). The reasons why a lot of us aren’t going out as much as we used to are myriad (rent, old age, inflation, DUIs, no bandwidth). To change our mindset, we all need to execute action with intention, so let the Weekly be your guide. We write about original, mostly Fort Worth-local music every week if not more often than that. Have been since 1995. Venues aren’t the only places suffering. Bars, restaurants, and theaters are also seeing a dip in post-COVID attendance, and most of their owners and managers think the necessary nationwide lockdown was a contributing factor. Circle Theatre Artistic Director Ashley White said that, beyond curating shows and putting them on, part of her job involves engaging the public, especially those of us the lockdown may have conditioned to stay home. “My friend and fellow producer Rebecca Lowrey says it takes nine months to build a habit,” White said. “We had two to three years to build the habit of staying home.” Many of those all-important twentysomethings, who represent the next
generation of art lovers and patrons, prefer to socialize beneath their own roofs. The Entertainment Software Association recently found that America’s favorite pastime isn’t sports. It’s video games. The trade group says that we Americans regularly play hundreds of millions of hours of online games per day. Just over a quarter of that group is 18 and under, while 35% of gamers are between 18 and 34. Four out of five sampled enjoy multiplayer games, meaning the people holding the consoles and wearing the headsets technically are socializing. Earlier this month, nearly 1 million users logged on to watch The Weeknd and others play Fortnight Festival, an annual online concert with live avatar performers in the Fortnight universe. Fort Worth’s bars and restaurants continue to see slow but uneven growth. Some establishments bustle, while others falter or close, even amid a population boom. Some exceptional spots that closed this year include the Near Southside’s Beast and Co., the Foundry District’s Thirty Eight & Vine, Arlington Heights’ Boozies, and South Main’s Tre Mogli. “Restaurants and their patrons have found themselves in a ‘new normal,’ ” said the National Restaurant Association last year. “Given emergent technology, changing consumer behavior and dining preferences, and the extraordinary challenges of the last two years, the industry is unlikely to ever completely return to its pre-pandemic state.” In our look into the local food-service industry via the opening of Jackie O’s on the Near Southside (“Food, Service,” June 21), we learned some hard truths. “Through private conversations,” we wrote, “the folks who tend bar and wait tables say there’s a small but significant percentage of potential customers who haven’t returned to dining in, whether that’s due to public safety concerns or a preference to eat at home.” The Texas Restaurant Association says inflation, staffing shortages, and lower occupancy rates are still the leading challenges for bar/restaurant owners. “An estimated 67% of Texas restaurant operators do not have enough employees to meet existing demand,” the group
Just the Good Ol’ Boys
With one swipe of his demonic claw, our horrible governor effectively made nearly 2 million undocumented Texas residents potential felons. Signed about a week before Christmas — a time when some people here and there reflect on peace, love, and mercy — SB 4 makes crossing the U.S./ Mexico border between ports of entry a misdemeanor and, for repeat offenders, a potential felony. Under the new law that will undoubtedly terrorize communities across the state, all Texas peace officers have the newfound authority to stop, arrest, and jail suspected undocumented migrants. “Inhumane” is how Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described SB 4. Gov. Greg Abbott, Obrador said publicly, “wants to win popularity with these measures, but he’s not going to win anything. He’ll lose favor, because in Texas, there are so many Mexicans and migrants.” Yet even our xenophobic man in Austin can’t stop our state’s steady march toward tolerance and a collective desire to live in peace with one another. Every year, Texas becomes browner and less tethered to Fox Nation brainwashing. Based on recent census data, Hispanics now account for just over 40% of the state population, while Caucasians are a little less. And most of these newcomers overwhelmingly vote against racist Republicans. Bill Waybourn probably let out a giddy “yeehaw!” when he saw SB 4 passed. Our Trumpanzee sheriff ’s fearmongering over the alleged dangers of immigrants is public
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S T A T I C Juan R. Govea
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With 2023 on the way out, we take a look back to see where the Fort is headed.
continued. “This shortage, coupled with an 11.5% increase in wholesale food prices, creates a real challenge for even the busiest restaurants.” Hao Tran said that teens and other young, able-bodied potential employees are mostly unwilling to work at Hao’s Grocery & Cafe for $10 to $15 an hour — the only wage she can afford to pay to stay profitable. “They want more,” she said. “Before COVID, our salary was $10 an hour. The student I had was happy to have it. The job is not hard. It is a small local foods market. During COVID, those kids went out and had to work to sustain the family. Now that these kids have been in the workforce, they are used to making more money. Jobs offering $12 and $15 an hour are not enough for them.” Even with massive apartments coming online nearby and all the attractions the Near Southside has to offer, Funky Picnic Brewery & Cafe struggles to stay even half occupied on some weekends, said co-owner Samantha Jo Glenn. “We’re not giving up yet,” she recently posted on social media, “but it is getting harder and harder to keep our doors open. We need your help to keep Funky Picnic alive.” The post led to a sizable but temporary surge. Like a lot of Fort Worth bar/restaurant owners, Glenn is continually experimenting with new events and promotions to find a sweet spot for customers whose buying habits and interests are increasingly difficult to predict.
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Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023 / 6 pm to 1 am / Free to the Public Sundance Square / Fort Worth,TX
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Food Trucks / Plaza Bars / Live Music / Street Performers New Year’s Countdown / Fireworks
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conservative leaders just stupid, or are they stupid and evil? Or are they really smart because they know they can just say utter bullshit and their voters will still believe it? Tarrant County may have a savior of sorts. In the November 2024 general election, Waybourn will face off against Democrat Rev. Patrick Moses. Current head of First Missionary Baptist Church in Fort
grants him judicial authority. Under the Texas Constitution, Oaths of Office are not valid until filed with the requisite governmental group. Maybe Wallace was hoping no one would notice. Neglecting to file his oath, or even take his oath as required, may have allowed him to double dip, earning pay from his judicial work while also collecting his pension. Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns also botched his Oath of Office. He took it while the previous ME, Nizam Peerwani, was still in office (“Cutting In,” July 2022). Crawford v. Saunders, the 1894 ruling by the Texas Court of Civil Appeals, established the precedent that elected officials in Texas cannot appoint a judicial officer if there is no vacancy. Even after our reporting on Crowns’ faulty oath, county leaders have refused to correct the error, and he remains the county’s possibly constitutionally unqualified ME to this day. This year, we wrote a lot about rightwing meddling in school board elections, starting with Patriot Mobile. After flipping a few North Texas boards far-right, including Southlake’s Carroll ISD, the Christian Nationalist PAC masquerading as a cell phone company has not fared as well since then, possibly because of our reporting. We were the first to question why the company’s $376,000 PPP loan was forgiven in 2021 when at the same time millions of Patriot Mobile monies were going toward school board candidates (“Mobile Patriots,” Feb. 9). The horrible telecom outfit was also the center of one of our most widely shared
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Mercy Culture/Roots Market followers lubed up Magnolia Avenue this summer. Why? We have no earthly idea.
Worth, the Real Deal Rev has three decades of federal law enforcement experience and is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, among other things. Moses has said he would find and address the causes of in-custody deaths at the county jail and end the politicization of the sheriff ’s office. Waybourn may go down in history as Buffalo Bill. Over his two terms in office, he has allowed more than 50 inmate deaths at his jail. Suffering a mental health crisis or simply being unhoused can spell doom. In previously unreleased audio obtained only by us, several sheriff ’s deputies discussed falsifying records with supervisor approval on jail cell checkups (“Checking Out,” Nov. 29), the kind that could have saved dozens of inmates, including Javonte Myers (who died from a seizure while in custody in 2020) and Zenorah (the newborn who died shortly after birth in a cell in 2020). The county recently settled a wrongful death lawsuit by Myers’ family for $1 million and is being sued by Zenorah’s mother and grandmother. In a county where judges falsify government documents, dodge constitutional requirements to take the Oath of Office, and deprive defendants and parents of due process with alarming regularity, it’s no wonder that leaders at every level of county government act and rule with impunity. Some crooked judges are scrambling to cover up for their wayward deeds, like visiting retired Judge R.H. Wallace. Based on Secretary of State records, Wallace filed his oath of office in October — meaning he filed his oath three years after signing the oath which
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record, and it’s no surprise that his jail remains understaffed because few of us want to work for a racist who regularly darkens already dark Mercy Culture Church to vampirically power up on all that evil Christian Nationalist energy. When Waybourn spoke at the White House in 2019, togging his signature black cowboy hat, he used the national spotlight to say that undocumented Mexicans will drive over “your” children. By “your,” we assume he meant snowflake Southlakers, who all undoubtedly coughed up their chardonnay at the news. For six years, Big Hat Bill has overseen a program that allows his department to buddy up with easily the most despised federal agency in the country — ICE. 287(g) is bad news for everyone here, not just the targeted Hispanics: tearing apart families, tearing apart schools, tearing about businesses. The goal is simple. Purely evil. But simple. Make Hispanics suffer because helping them would be “socialism,” another Fox Nation-birthed bogeyman. There’s also the insane belief among some conservatives that encouraging illegal immigration is some Dem ploy to build the blue voting base here. In the words of Sam Anderson, singer-songwriter extraordinaire and co-frontman of the Quaker City Night Hawks: “Imagine someone saying to their family, ‘This could be extremely dangerous, but I need you to grab your things. We gotta flip Texas.’ ” Are
Cour tesy Instagram
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Experience the light and color of France Closing January 28
The exhibition is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum and The Phillips Collection. It is supported in part by Frost, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Fort Worth Tourism Public Improvement District, and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Promotional support provided by Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Country (detail), 1913, oil on canvas. Lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The John R. Van Derlip Fund. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
You Can Print It
Between 2010 and, oh, around 2020, one of our favorite quips from our loyal trolls was “Print is dead!” Then and now, many publications were trying online-only models, clearly forgetting that competing in cyberspace places them in the same playing field as literally every blogger, troll, and pink-slime website out there. Don’t worry. Print is here to stay, and we’re often reminded of the benefits of existing in the real world. Just a few weeks ago, a Fakebook post linking to our annual Turkey Awards (“The 2023 Turkey Awards,” Nov. 22) was flagged as inappropriate, meaning no one could access the story. Whether it was a Mercy Cult operative or someone who took offense at our radically honest descriptions of corrupt local officials, we’ll never know. It was fine, though. We were able to create a new link and bypass the flagging, but the incident drove home the fact that no single person can mess with the tens of thousands of copies of the Weekly that hit the streets every week, so this traditional print magazine trudges on, sleuthing where
Hao Tran: “Now that these kids have been in the workforce, they are used to making more money.”
the corporate oligarchs and powers-that-be don’t want us to and unapologetically taking our First Amendment mandate to hold the powerful accountable seriously. Even influencers and YouTubers give us shoutouts — or steal our work: both signs that our approach to reporting remains as relevant as ever. One YouTuber with 866,000 subscribers essentially read
Weekly contributor Jonny Auping’s 2020 true-crime piece (“Portrait of a True Crime Character,” Dec. 2020) word for word over the air earlier this year without providing proper attribution. Auping has asked her for credit. We’ve asked her for credit. Stephanie Harlowe continues to ignore us. Not that we needed it, but now we can almost imagine how everyone in Stop Six, Las Vegas Trail, and Como feels: unheard. Next year, our fair city will see more of the same: the number of have-nots growing in proportion to the slice of the pie belonging to the same number of haves as ever, over-policing of poor neighborhoods, bar/ restaurants opening and unceremoniously closing, jail deaths, and, yes, population growth. We also suspect Mercy Culture will try some other proselytizing stunt and that O’Hare, Waybourn, and District Attorney Phil Sorrells — Tyrant County’s Unholy Trinity — will be behind it if not out in front of it. You see, you can get away with a lot of Christian Nationalist bullsh when over half the town is full of Christian Nationalists. Whatever happens, if it’s consequential to civic life in Fort Worth, you’ll be able to grab a copy of yours truly at your favorite local watering hole to read all about it in print. And, yes, we’ll also be available online and via social media. It is 2024, after all. l This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
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stories, this one about a young employee allegedly impregnated by Patriot Mobile’s CTO (“Shut Out,” Mar. 15). The closing of 2023 also marks the abysmal first year of Tim O’Hare as county judge. The reptile whose political career is based solely on peddling conspiracy theories and sowing hate has proven to be — just like his idol, Donald J. Trump — simply an incredibly incompetent administrator. County employees have told us they’re frustrated that O’Hare reduced the county’s weekly meetings to biweekly because, well, work is hard. And even though O’Hare clearly has no idea what’s going on at meetings, he tries to make up for his obvious lack of preparation by bullying everyone around him. Watch the videos. They’re on YouTube. See for yourself. Apparently, $200,000 a year (!) isn’t enough for the ambulance chaser to even pretend he wants to do anything to help non-Southlakers (“Southlaking Fort Worth,” June 2023). But Tiny Tim sure is a big hit among the Mercy Culture set. Assuredly with his blessing, that unholiest of megachurches continued its encroachment across Fort Worth, and Mercy Cultists, you know, for belonging to an outwardly homophobic place of worship, sure love our city’s gayborhoods. It took just a few weeks for Near Southsiders to sniff out Roots Market this summer (“Culture Vultures,” June 28), which led to
peaceful protests by progressives and bizarre antics by Roots’ supporters. We still aren’t quite sure why they spooged olive oil around parts of the pop-up event, and we probably don’t want to read too much into their kinky, warped minds. (Or do we?) By late summer, Roots Market got the message, packed up their Stained by Encounters merch (not a joke), and hightailed it to presumably friendlier swaths of the city. Southlake maybe? Good riddance.
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Jaune Quick-to-See Smith:
MEMORY MAP
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October 15, 2023–January 21, 2024
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MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH 3200 Darnell Street • Fort Worth, Texas 76107 • 817.738.9215
themodern.org
This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Pictured: Jaune Quick-toSee Smith, The Rancher, 2002. Acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 72 ¹/₄ × 48 ¹/₈ inches (183.5 × 122.2 cm). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; purchased through the William S. Rubin Fund 2005.13. © Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith. Photograph courtesy the Artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Countdown to the new year in Sundance Square this Sunday
Promotional Feature
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Along with a spectacular fireworks show, the area’s largest countdown celebration will also feature live music and other entertainment. Street performances will include aerialists, jugglers, mimes, stilt walkers, and a western trick roper.
As last year’s celebration was attended by more than 15,000 people, you are encouraged to arrive well in advance of the midnight countdown. Weekend parking in downtown Fort Worth includes both paid and free parking options, including the Sundance Square Garage #3 at 345 West 3rd Street, where you can park for free until 3am Monday morning. For more info, visit DFWI.org/Get-Around/Parking.
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Enjoy the NYE fireworks this Sunday.
Cour tesy Facebook
Given all of the above, there will be lots of picture-taking, and “photo opps” will be all around. As a tip-of-the-hat to the new year, Sundance Square will unveil a photo-selfie cowboy hat station that you won’t want to miss.
Cour tesy iStock
Live music performances will run throughout the night with some of North Texas’most exciting and energy-infused bands. Local Latin/Cumbia fusion band Quimikoz plays from 6pm to 8:45pm, followed by Ice House at 9:15pm. DJ Danny West will spin tunes during band breaks and from 11:15pm to 1am.
Hear Latin/Cumbia fusion band Quimikoz at the celebration this Sunday.
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Celebrate the new year with Cowtown Countdown to 2024, a New Year’s Eve celebration with fireworks that is open to the public this Sunday, December 31, from 6pm to 1am. Food and drinks will be available at several beverage bars and food trucks. Please bring cash, as all purchases will be cashless.
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Cowtown Countdown to 2024 in Sundance Square
Juan Govea
LIVING LOCAL
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Hot Deals At Cool Prices
Stock your Kitchen at Mission! Small wares, pots & pans, and all kitchen essentials available to the public. Come see our showrooms! MON-FRI 8am-5:30pm
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2524 White Settlement Road Fort Worth • 817-265-3973
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SCREEN The Top 10
I haven’t reviewed a lot of the movies on this annual feature of mine because they didn’t see the inside of a Tarrant County theater. Don’t worry. I’ll make up some ground one way or another. It’s understandable that the distributors are somewhat gun-shy after the pandemic, but they’re still depriving us of the chance to see some great stuff. Netflix in particular could bring some of their titles to our side of the county line, but they’re not the only ones who can do better by us. As always, watch this space for a separate list of the year’s best documentaries. 1.) Think of her performances in Easy A and La La Land, and you can see the more conventional path that Emma Stone’s career could have taken. But, no, she wants to challenge herself as an actor (and possibly get naked onscreen), and so she stars in this sex-positive tale of a woman charting her own course in Victorian England, of all places to do that. This past year saw a lot of raunchy comedies about women getting themselves some. Poor Things was the best and weirdest of the lot. 2.) Netflix’s Fair Play got more publicity, but the gendered corporate thriller Sanctuary is the better movie. Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley (they’re both in Poor Things, too) play a CEO-in-waiting and the dominatrix he tries to fire when he’s set to inherit his father’s company. She proves she’s not going to be shed so easily, and the power games they play during this highstakes business negotiation are as compelling as any car chase or shootout, thanks to the peerless acting and writing. 3.) Am I ranking it this high because it supposedly saved movie theaters (y’know, before the Taylor Swift concert film did the same thing a few months later)? Maybe just a little bit. Mostly, though, I’m putting Barbie here because Greta Gerwig took a project that could have been a cynical cash grab and turned it into a thoughtful disquisition on womanhood that your 7-year-old niece could enjoy. Now we’re going to get a ton of copycats based on corporate IP that won’t be as good, but that’s OK. This movie raised the bar in every possible way.
Emma Stone dances to celebrate Poor Things as the Weekly’s best movie of 2023.
4.) What kind of Black movie have we not had yet? A literary satire! With American Fiction, Cord Jefferson is the first to breach this territory, and his comedy about a struggling Black novelist who finds success by pandering to the worst stereotypes held by white people is expansive, incisive, and funny as hell, and it leaves nobody unscathed, least of all its pathetic antihero. Jeffrey Wright gives another great performance in a role that feels particularly him. 5.) Why does Martin Scorsese make the white guys into the main characters of Killers of the Flower Moon? Because he’s trying to figure out what the 1920s genocide of Osage natives means to him as a man who grew up the son of Italian immigrants on the East Coast. If only more old white men thought about American history as scrupulously as he does, our politics wouldn’t be a mess, and we’d have more movies like this deluxe Oklahoma crime thriller about a tribe that survived despite white people’s best efforts. 6.) For some reason, this year had a lot of good movies about schoolteachers and their students. Some of them are in the honorable mention section (see: below), but The Holdovers is the best one. Paul Giamatti proves he gives his best performances for Alexander Payne in this indelible Christmas story about the people who have no choice but to stay at school over the holiday. David Hemingson’s script is as tasty and well-written as anybody else’s, and the way his three protagonists work through their issues is subtly and movingly handled. 7.) Just in case you were wondering whether Bradley Cooper was a one-hit wonder as a director, he comes up with this intelligent, sharp-looking appreciation of Leonard
Bernstein, who was as much a pop-culture polymath in his day as Cooper is now. He and Carey Mulligan are in top form fleshing out this open marriage where the husband’s all-encompassing celebrity is the bigger threat to marital happiness than his homosexual affairs. Maestro adds up to a portrait of love, loss, and finding purpose in one’s old age. 8.) Japan had a banner year in 2023, with a couple of items in the honorable mention list plus Suzume, The Boy and the Heron, and even the Godzilla reboot. None of them had the delicacy and power of Wim Wenders’ meditation on the life of a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. The German filmmaker makes Perfect Days seem as ennobled as that of the angels flying over Berlin, and Kōji Yakusho gives the performance of a career as a man who finds meaning and beauty in his existence and his city. 9.) Who says romantic comedies are dead? Like a British version of Love Jones, Rye Lane finds two educated, creative Black people navigating familiar romantic misadventures through multicultural London. First-time director Raine Allen Miller breaks out the postmodern devices for comedy’s sake, while screenwriters Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia craft some exquisitely funny conversation for the characters to express themselves. And Colin Firth shows up. 10.) The Cannes Film Festival doesn’t always pick the best movies, but they were right to award Justine Triet’s courtroom thriller acted out in English with French prosecutors accusing a German author of murdering her husband. Without ever straining for effect, Anatomy of a Fall tracks the ripple effects of this celebrity murder trial on her
protagonist and the people around her, and we still don’t know whether she did it or not. Hollywood would be proud to put out a middlebrow entertainment like this. Honorable Mention Nicole Holofcener’s comic white lie fest, You Hurt My Feelings … Hlynur Pálmason’s fiercely beautiful Icelandic church-building drama, Godland … Lila Avilés’ carefully observed Mexican drama at a kid’s birthday party, Tótem … Ira Sachs’ scabrous, sexually explicit relationship drama, Passengers … Pablo Larraín’s Chilean history-cum-vampire film, El Conde … William Oldroyd’s taut, homoerotically charged crime thriller, Eileen … Emma Seligman’s uproarious, face-punching Bottoms … Daniel Goldhaber’s slow-rolling ecoterrorism thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline … Gerard Johnstone’s superlative creepy doll horror movie M3GAN … Hirokazu Koreeda’s disquieting fable of bullied schoolkids, Monster … Carl Joseph Papa’s Filipino animated story of abuse, The Missing … Takehiko Inoue’s Japanese anime basketball drama, The First Slam Dunk … Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s epic about an inept Turkish schoolteacher, About Dry Grasses … Goran Stolevski’s reflective, sun-baked Australian gay romance, Of an Age … Sean Durkin’s wrestling drama as epic domestic tragedy, The Iron Claw … Christian Petzold’s writer’s vacation from hell, Afire … Andrew Haigh’s audacious time-traveling gay romance, All of Us Strangers … Joaquim dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson’s endlessly inventive SpiderMan: Across the Spider-Verse … Emerald Fennell’s murderous tale of the class war, Saltburn … Blitz Bazawule’s exuberant and visually dazzling The Color Purple. l
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L I N
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Our chief film critic offers his favorites of ’23.
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EATS & drinks King Trompo
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Rarefied among meat options is al pastor. Alternately known as taco trompo (“spinning top”), the orange pork shouts citrus, salt, and sweet flavors for a complex and
three local brick-and-mortar locations, including a brand-new spot on the North Side. The inside is painted bright orange, likely a reference to the color of al pastor. Of the several protein options, the lengua and trompo — both served on warm, perfectly chewy corn tortillas — stood out. The beefy lengua was mildly oily while the pineapple/chile seasoning of the al pastor blended sweet and spicy for an out-of-body dining experience. A counter with diced
white onions and cilantro lets customers gussy up their orders, and the two hot sauces, red and green, are flavorful without being incendiary. A lot of the items on the entree-heavy menu are massive, including the barbacoa burrito. Thin but sturdy charred flour tortillas held generous portions of tender and juicy barbacoa, diced cabbage, cilantro, and melted queso fresco. The bold, smoky, and continued on page 17
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S T O R Y A N D P H O T O S E D W A R D B R O W N
pleasing experience that eschews hot sauce or any other toppings (save for a bit of cilantro and maybe a pinch of diced onions). Sure, you can fast track the process by marinating and slow cooking the meat in the oven, but the traditional means of preparation — on a slow-spinning vertical rotisserie — deliver the best balance of juiciness and lightly charred edges. Taqueria Temo started as a Fort Worth food truck in 2007 and has expanded into
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Taqueria Temo, 121 NW 25th St, FW. 682-2243081. 10am-midnight Mon-Thu, 10am-3am Fri-Sat.
Half of this massive sammy is probably enough to fill most customers.
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Taqueria Temo’s new Northside location delivers delicious Mexican and unadorned, the street tacos favorites and masterfully Simple come with perfectly cooked meat ready for a light topping of cilantro and onions. done tacos al pastor.
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Lunch Special M–F 11am–2pm
Tuk Tuk Thai
Thai Street Food Food to go & Catering
BYOB
Free Delivery Limited Area & Minimum $20 3431 W 7th St • Fort Worth, TX 76107
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817.332.3339
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Though a bit salty, Taqueria Temo’s burger blended savory, sweet, and spicy for a delightful experience.
Soft, smoky meats form the centerpiece of this tortilla-wrapped treat.
Eats & Drinks
tomatoes, and diced jalapeños rounded out the ensemble. Offering lighter items like appetizers would be nice. The service that afternoon was prompt and polite outside of one odd moment when a staffer questioned me for taking photos of the menu. It was hard to get out of the conversation since she wouldn’t let it go, so I finally and grudgingly showed her my press pass and explained that I work for a local magazine. Unless customers have committed a crime or exhibited deliberately rude behavior, they shouldn’t be placed in
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awkward and off-putting situations. Other than that, the food was amazing, and my overall experience was enjoyable and certainly worth a repeat visit. l
Taqueria Temo Barbacoa burrito ........................................ $4.50 Lengua taco ................................................ $3.69 Taco trompo ................................................ $2.50 Hamburger a la Temo ................................. $8.09 Torta ............................................................ $8.59
I TA L I A N K I T C H E N
B O O K YO U R H O L I D AY R E S E R VAT I O N S C AT E R I N G AVA I L A B L E 5733 crowley rd • fort worth tx 76134
817.551.3713 | GIOVANNISFW.COM
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lightly spiced meat harmonized wonderfully with the fresh toppings. Another winner was the al pastor torta, a sandwich with the girth of a deflated football. The perfectly toasted baguette commendably comprehended the juicy
cuts of orange pork, warm avocado wedges, crispy red onions, salty queso fresco, and fiery sliced jalapeños until the entire thing disappeared. The Hamburger a la Temo, basically Taqueria Temo’s house burger piled high with mildly sweet, chile-kissed trompo and accompanied by fries, was dense and packed with beefy flavor. Somehow the combo of al pastor, beef patty, and a thick slice of ham was a bit heavy on the salt but not so much so to stop anyone from chowing it down. American cheese, onions, lettuce,
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3.) For a five-course gourmet dinner on New Year’s Eve, head to La Onda at Hotel Revel (1165 8th Ave, Fort Worth, 817-9283688) at 7pm. Tickets are $250 at Eventbrite. com and include dinner for two with wine pairings. Enjoy a first course of shaved yellow beet salad, homemade farmers’ cheese, pomegranate seeds, and Champagne vinaigrette; a second course of roasted heirloom pumpkin soup, garlic and thyme pistou, and charred mushrooms; a third course of scallop a la plancha, asparagus and cipollini onions, whipped crema agnolotti, and caviar butter with green onion; and a fourth course of grass-fed lamb T-bone chop, wilted greens, and white beans with a pinot noir reduction. The fifth course is a surprise dessert. 4.) Fort Worth’s Trinity River Ramblers will play a mix of originals and covers of American music from the 1950s to today at the NYE Party at The Londoner (5120 Hwy 121, Colleyville, 817-684-8810) 9pm-midnight. The pub opens at 11am and serves authentic British cuisine until 9pm, then late-night bites are available 9pm-11pm. Enjoy a complimentary Champagne toast at midnight. No cover. 5.) If you’re a fan of “cello” — the instrument or the 15%-ABV beer series from Martin House Brewing — then Cello Fest at, well, Martin House (220 S Sylvania Av, Ste 209, Fort Worth, 817-222-0177)
6.) Omni Hotel (1300 Houston St, Fort Worth, 817-535-6664) has some great options for NYE. For starters, you will be welcomed in the lobby upon arrival with Champagne starting at 4pm. Both hotel restaurants, Bob’s Steak & Chop House and Cast Iron, have dinner experiences planned. Then, enjoy a nightcap at the hotel bar Whiskey & Rye. Live music will be performed throughout the building, including James Guilliland in the lobby 4pm-8pm, a harpist at Bob’s 5pm-10pm, and the Barcus Brothers Band at Whiskey & Rye 9pm-1am. For menu details, pricing, and reservations, visit OmniHotels. com/Hotels/Fort-Worth/Dining. 7.) How about a snowy patio experience for your NYE? That’s what Rogers Roundhouse (1616 Rogers Rd, Fort Worth) has in store at its NYE Winter Wonderland 8pm-2am. All evening, there will be live music, photo opportunities, raffle prizes, and a complimentary Champagne toast at midnight. Indoor and covered heated patio seating will be available. Must be 21+ after 11pm. The kitchen is open until 1:30am, with the regular menu available thru 11:30pm, followed by a late-night menu afterward. Attending is free, but you must reserve a spot on Eventbrite.com. 8.) If a dive bar is more your speed, don’t forget about Yupp’s Night Club (4111 Wedgway Dr, Fort Worth, 817-346-2449). This former Best Of winner for best karaoke night is predictably hosting a New Year’s Eve Karaoke Through the Decades Party, with the singing starting at 9:17pm. There will be complimentary black-eyed peas and cornbread — hey, I found some black-eyed peas, after all! — and a Champagne toast at midnight. Admission is $10.
By Jennifer Bovee
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2.) Ring in 2024 at Fort Brewery (2737 Tillar St, Fort Worth, 817-923-8000) with an all-night dance party featuring DJ Con the Baptist 8pm-1am. Admission is $15 starting at 8pm Sun, and reservations are recommended for guaranteed seating. However, the Fort opens at 10am, so feel free to come early and pre-party for lunch or dinner. As for late-night food, the kitchen closes at 10pm. A complimentary toast with Luc Belaire Champagne and party favors will be at midnight.
noon-5pm Sun is the place to be. For this festival, Martin House has brewed eight cello varieties, including limoncello, peaches and cream, pina colada, and Sriracha cello (on draft and in cans), plus birthday cake, Dr. Hopper, oyster mushroom, and strawberry (draft only). $53-per-person tickets at MartinHouseBrewing.com include an MHBC Sriracha dragon logo stem glass, four cello draft pours, and four cello cans to take home (mix and match). And Panther Cello, billed as “classically trained and unchained,” will play everything from Bach to punk rock accompanied by a guitarist.
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1.) Music Awards nominees for best rock band and bassist, Freeze Sucka will play the Eighth Anniversary Show at Division Brewing (506 E Main St, Arlington, 682-2597011) 8pm Sat with Crushpoint and Darstar. For $25, you can enjoy three pours of your favorite Division beer and a souvenir pint glass. In honor of the night’s entertainment, a special batch of a new collaboration called Freeze Sucka Blonde will also be available. There is no cost to attend.
Get as crazy or fancy as you like with your food and booze this NYE.
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Be sure and eat some black-eyed peas on the first day of the New Year. Not for luck, although we could all use some, but because we live in the South and it’s kind of our thing. As for where to find them around town, you’re on your own, but I will give you my top picks for other food and booze ideas for the NYE weekend.
Cour tesy iStock
ATE DAY8 of New Year’s Eve
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CrossTown
Along with the Fort Worth shows we listed last week, here are some others from around North Texas worth checking out on and around New Year’s Eve (Sun, Dec 31). Decision time is here. What’s it gonna be?
NYE Shows Around North Texas Bourgeous plays at Texas Live! (1650 E Randol Mill Rd, Arlington, 817-852-6688) 8pm New Year’s Eve. Tickets include entry to the party, a Champagne toast, swag, and access to all the venues within the building, starting at $60 at AXS.com. A Music Awards nominee for best country, Cory Cross will perform at Mama Tried (340 W Las Colinas Blvd, Ste 120, Irving, 469351-0202) 10pm-midnight Sat, Dec 30. This newish honkytonk/sports bar (built in 2019) is situated on the Texas Lottery Plaza at Toyota Music Factory. There is no cost to attend.
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Follow the golden road to unlimited devotion to Granada Theater (3524 Greenville Av, Dallas, 214-824-9933), where Forgotten Space featuring Stu Allen will perform the music of the Grateful Dead 8pm New Year’s Eve. Tickets start at $35 at Prekindle.com. And on the next day (Mon, Jan 1, 2024), nurse your hangover at the New Year’s Day Brunch at neighboring Sundown at Granada (3520 Greenville Av, Dallas, 214-823-8305) 10am-4pm.
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Usually, our pals The Toadies do a big NYE show in Fort Worth. This year, they’re heading east and throwing down the day before. See them with Local H and Riverboat Gamblers at The Factory in Deep Ellum (2713 Canton St, Dallas, @TheFactoryDE) 8pm Sat, Dec 30. Tickets start at $39.99 at AXS.com. Make your last weekend of 2023 a trifecta with three solid shows at the Longhorn Ballroom (216 Corinth St, Dallas, 214-272-8346). Uncle Lucious and Shinyribs play 6:30pm Fri, Dec 29, followed by Kevin Fowler with Wynn Williams 6:30pm Sat, Dec 30, and Little Feat with Mico Marks 7:30pm New Year’s Eve. Tickets are 18-$30 at Prekindle.com. For New Year’s Eve shows right here in Fort Worth, check out last week’s Crosstown Sounds at FWWeekly.com.
Future Sounds in Early January
Early January is looking good for many of our Music Awards nominees with shows in the area. Here are a few of those dates to keep in mind. Wed, Jan 3 Folk nominees Tipps & Obermiller are starting a First Wednesday Residency at The Cicada (1002 S Main St, Fort Worth, @The_Cicada_FTW) at 8:30pm. Tonight’s guests include Ed Rogers, Chris Curtis (Sam the Lion), and Jayson Starkey (from Durant, Oklahoma). There is no cost to attend.
Cour tesy Facebook
Sounds Music Awards best country nominee Cory Cross will perform at Mama Tried in Irving Sat, Dec 30.
Thu-Sun, Jan 4-7 Some Funkytown folks will perform at the Live Music Revival at Six Springs Tavern (147 N Plano Rd, Richardson 469-917-3040) 4pm-11pm Thu-Fri, Jan 4-5; 1pm-11pm Sat, Jan 6; and 1pm-8pm Sun, Jan 7, to celebrate North Texas’ original live music scene. Song nominees Itchie Richie & The Burning Sensations play 7pm Fri, Jan 5, and Album nominees The Troumatics take the stage 6pm Sat, Jan 6. Admission is $10 per day. Sat, Jan 6 In celebration of their new album Ambrosia, Metal nominees One-Eyed Monsters are throwing a release party with Cleftin Twain and The Infamists at Martin House Brewing Company (220 S Sylvania Av, Ste 209, Fort Worth, 817-222-0177) at 6pm. This show is free, and all ages are welcome. Thu-Sat, Jan 11-13 It’s time for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, y’all! Along with cattle-buying and rodeo-watching, you can do some boot-scootin’ along to extra live music during opening weekend at Rodeo Exchange (221 W Exchange Av, Fort Worth, 817-626-0181), including a set by Tribute nominee Hazard County 9pm nightly. The cover is free. Sat, Jan 13 This evening kicks off a four-town tour of a song-swap-style show with Folk nominees Tipps & Obermiller plus Libby Koch. Tonight at 8pm they’re at The Post at River East (2925 Race St, Fort Worth, 817-9458890). And they’ve picked a good spot. The Post was nominated for both best open-mic night and best music club in our 2023 Music Awards. Admission is $15. Sun, Jan 14 Simone Nicole, we missed you at our Music Awards ceremony last weekend. We’ll hang on to your Panthies for best female vocalist and pop act. Or maybe we’ll bring them and some pals to Cafe Momentum (1510 Pacific Av, Dallas, 214303-1234), where you’re playing at 6pm with the Youngtones as part of the Sunday Supper Concert hosted by La Bell. Along with the live music, the evening includes a chef-prepared three-course dinner, beer or wine, and valet parking. Tickets are $98 on Eventbrite.com. To submit your events for future consideration, please email Jennifer@FWWeekly.com.
By Jennifer Bovee
B Y P A T R I C K H I G G I N S , S T E V E S T E W A R D , A N D J U A N R . G O V E A
Live music attendance (or lack thereof) has been a steady subject in these pages over the past few months. There weren’t a lot of venues relying on the live music model to begin with, but now with a few recent closures, we’ve all been talking about who still goes to shows — and, more importantly, who doesn’t. And why. While we sadly have no solutions to the seemingly dubious future of the industry, we can offer a tiny bit of insight into who you might bump into at the next concert: us! Or at least maybe, limited as the three of us are by the same constraints affecting all you other would-be crowd surfers, mosh pitters, expressive dancers, or head nodders as our collective numbers dwindle. In 2023, we found plenty of reasons to ignore the excuses not to go and actually planted our assess among the crowds and experienced music in live, three-dimensional reality. With North Texas stages graced by so many great artists — whether from afar or right here — the whys-to still outweigh the whys-not-to. Here are some of our favorites from the past year. We hope our faves — and the dozens more we couldn’t find room for — inspire you to join us down in front in ’24. — Patrick Higgins
Fort Worth minors LABELS were so cacophonous and awesome, the Boiled Owl may still be recovering.
Patrick’s Faves
I’ll admit it. I’m a larger part of the problem than I’d prefer to be. I’m old and broke, and I have a family. Between all of life’s myriad obligations, and while still trying to carve out a little time for actually playing music myself, I just can’t seem to find many opportunities to devote to the desire that has been amor primus for me since I was 15 years old: namely, watching people play instruments on a stage. Loudly. I wasn’t able to battle the decline in attendance in town as much as I would have liked this year because for the first time in a while (decades maybe), nearly every one of my favorite bands decided to go on tour — but not through Fort Worth. *gasps in obligatory anti-Dallas horror* Hey, I can’t help it if Unwound, Blonde Redhead, Flaming Lips, and The National all decided to play east of the mighty Trinity in less than a month. Still, I managed to catch a few glimpses of the odd local stage (or barroom floor) and, due to all the killer talent in town, was treated to greatness just about every time. I’ve been vocal about my love for Spring Palace to just about anyone who still has the patience to listen to me talk about music. I was able to enjoy the infectious F-dub indie trio’s sets a handful of times over the last 365, once at Arts Goggle and a few times at The Cicada, and have loved every experience. Not only does it seem that the chief songwriter, singer/guitarist Chase Johnson, shares much of the same musical DNA as I do — base pairs
Their set alone simply reaffirmed that the kids are alright and that the future of rock ’n’ roll should be secure for the next generation. — P.H.
Steve’s Faves
Here’s the thing: I still think that Lola’s closing on December 11 (“Goodbye, Lola’s,” Dec. 13) marks the end of an era in local music that stretched 17 years into the past, but what I didn’t really unpack in that piece is how this now-bygone time overlaps with the one growing in the present. We all loved Lola’s, and while it was undeniably the epicenter of Fort Worth music culture, it was also not the only club to shut its doors this year. We also earlier lost Twilite Lounge and The Rail (though, if we’re being honest, the Rail seems to have experienced death and resurrection more times than Jason Vorhees). We’re still sad about Lola’s, but several other venues — in particular, The Cicada, The Post at River East, Tulips FTW, and Haltom Theater — are still kicking, connecting the past to what’s next. I was reminded of this fact because in January, I attended Broke String Burnett’s album release at the Post, where I’d watched a few shows before, all of them either sold out or nearly so. While the Post’s vibe might seem more geared toward intimate, sitdown-and-listen-intently-type of concerts than loud-and-rowdy performances, Burnett and his band blasted through a raucous set of ominous, greased-lightning cowpunk. It was a hoot. And a hootenanny. From 2013 until the end of 2020, I lived in 76116. Though this ZIP code contains posh continued on page 22
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At least these three tried to stall the decline of concertgoing this year.
Malian singer/guitarist Vieux Farka Touré turned Tulips FTW into a big ol’ party.
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Fave Shows of ’23
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made up of Pavement, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, and the like — but I also appreciate being able to watch the development of a band from the very beginning. Not only has Spring Palace become tighter over the course of the year, but their sound has evolved along with a cleaner delivery of it. Dallas’ Abbreviations has to be one of the area’s most underappreciated groups. As is Def Rain, the electronic dream-pop side project of engrossing Abbreviation singer/ guitarist Ashley Lear, whose former rock band, Record Hop, remains one of my very favorite acts of its kind to ever come out of North Texas. ABBV seems to pick up where Record Hop left off with a highly quaffable mixture of simple punk riffs under spacious wall-of-sound guitar leads and Lear’s captivatingly nonchalant vocal delivery. Simply put: Abbreviations’ set at Grandma’s in February was incredible. October saw the return of blistering Western Swingers Convoy & The Cattlemen, whose show at The Cicada was their first since COVID. Though frontman Convoy Cabriolet, a.k.a. Tyler Morrison, has calmed a little, he and his bandmates still bring the noise. Like a Bob Wills platter on amphetamines, the band’s warp-speed C&W throwdown proved they’re still some of the baddest-ass instrumentalists in Texas. Keeping my concertgoing dollars in the 817, I did manage to check off a bucket-list show I’d been waiting since I was 13 to experience: the mighty Metallica. I made it to the second of their two-nights/two-sets absolute takedown of Jerry World in August and was not disappointed. I might not spin Master of Puppets on the reg anymore, but those riffs are forever seared into my brain, and seeing them live was a near religious experience. Arts Goggle was great for me in that I was able to check out several artists I’ve been wanting to see for years but, owing to the aforementioned complications, haven’t been able to. Each met or exceeded my expectations. Like a Thanos collecting local-band Infinity Stones, I caught the guitar theatrics of Denver Williams & The Gas Money, the simian surf of Go Go-Rillas, and the sweet slack rock of Cool Jacket. But my favorite catch of the event was by an unknown-to-me group of minors from Fort Worth. The four-piece psych-punk outfit LABELS was so fucking cacophonous, I thought the roof was going to fly off the standing-room-only Boiled Owl Tavern.
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RIDGLE A THE ATER SAT 1/6 PALE PRO WRESTLING SAT 4/27 CARVIN JONES SPECIAL 35TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW RIDGLE A ROOM SAT G I R L S N I G H T O U T 1/13 M A G I C H U N K S
FRI L I L 2 Z & P E S O P E S O 1/26 T E X A S TA K E D O W N SAT D A V I D R U S T 1/27 1ST TEXAS APPEARANCE!
RIDGLE A LOUNGE
FRI 12/29 LUCYLUVSFUR
ACOUSTIC SET
SAT 1/27 HOTEL BURGUNDY
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GORGEOUS JETSON & CROWE BOYS
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neighborhoods like Ridglea Hills and the nicer parts of Ridgmar, it also includes Camp Bowie West and Alta Mere, an area I’ve always lovingly referred to as “Juggalo Country.” The Rail sat in the 76116, and in May, my partner, her sister, and I went to the perpetually back-from-the-dead heavy metal haven to see the 3-Headed Monster Tour, a cavalcade of horror-core rappers headlined by the trio of Esham, Violent J, and Ouija Mac. This was actually my first brush with the Insane Clown Posse universe, and I immediately applied for resident alien status. Being part of this crowd was one of the most uplifting and entertaining experiences of my life. Another great time I had with a specific crowd was the night the Boiled Owl filled up with people in Western wear, thereby annihilating the notion that the Magnolia Avenue tavern is somehow “just for hipsters.” All the people in cowboy hats and Tecovas were there to see throwback C&W headliner Mark Lanky, but they arrived early enough to catch the openers, singer-songwriters Dusty Calcote and Christian Carvajal. Between those two and Lanky’s full-band performance, everyone had a great time, and I’d argue that they were able to see three stars up close before they blow up. In July, I saw Slightly Stoopid at Toyota Music Factory in Irving. I wouldn’t call my relationship with this band “complicated,” but I do acknowledge that their frozen-inthe-SoCal-of-’05 white-boy reggae is often cringey and arguably appropriative. I also admit that they are one of my biggest musical influences, a band that a friend and I drove all the way to Houston in 1998 to see, which caused him to fail the calculus test he had the next day. Seeing them 25 years later — as direct support for another one of my biggest, most problematic influences, Sublime — hit all the right spots in my brain, most notably (in order): nostalgia; West Coast reggae; noodly, tubby bass; weed; watching scary-looking Long Beach biker types with pit passes groove to songs about weed; and watching scary-looking Long Beach biker types with pit passes claim weed pens from middle-aged bros on the other side of the fence. A month later, I saw Metallica at Jerry World. Both bands were awesome, but I honestly think the Stoopid show was more fun. In April at Lola’s, I saw Hotel Satellite, the latest outfit fronted by veteran singer-songwriter Kevin Aldridge. This is a band of experienced rockers plying their collective prowess in the service of soaring choruses borne by multi-part harmonies and spine-tingling guitar leads, the sort of rock ’n’ roll that juices everyone brought up on AOR radio. Like Aldridge’s other projects, Hotel Satellite’s DNA encompasses equal parts Tom Petty and R.E.M., but this is his best effort yet. The most fun I had watching bands this year came in November, when Soviet Space reunited at Lola’s. Playing together for the first time in two decades, the TCU indie-rockers sent me back to the Aardvark circa 2002, before I started playing in bands, when I was just a clueless, enthusiastic
Fort Worth indie-rockers Spring Palace keep getting better, as their shows at Arts Goggle and The Cicada proved.
23-year-old drunk on Natty Light and Sex With an Alligator shots. I saw a lot of people from back then I hadn’t seen in forever, and I remembered every word. — S.S.
Juan’s Faves
I went to a good amount of shows this year, but the one I think was most important was the Weekly’s Music Awards last weekend. It was free, and it was the place to be to see a lot of artists from Fort Worth all at once. Nearly a dozen took to the stage, including Denver Williams, The Grae, Averi Burk, saxophonist Jason Davis (Bastards of Soul, The Nancys), who performed solo while we recognized several scene greats who died this year, and the house band, the Cowtown Dugouts led by James Hinkle. I like to go to shows that I know will be entertaining but also important, like September’s benefit for the family of Shannon Greer. The former Phorids guitarist died of a blood disorder earlier in the year, and to help his widowed wife, fellow punks and hard-rockers The Dangits, The Me-Thinks, Crucial Times, and Antirad demolished the Sunshine Bar and raised more than $1,400 in the process. Every January, I like to attend Tulips’ Not Stock Fest, an annual “alternative” to the Stock Show and Rodeo. Last year, True Widow’s heavy shoegaze and Cool Jacket’s crunchy riffage mesmerized me. Along with Denton’s Pearl Earl, Sunbuzzed, and Doomfall, Austin’s Hey Cowboy and Big Bill, and Dallas’ Sealion, Not Stock was wild, and I’m looking forward to next month’s. Tulips does a great job of bringing in out-of-town acts, and earlier this year there, I saw Malian singer/guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, joined by now-defunct Fort Worth duo Cotinga. Touré is best known for his amazing guitar playing and tribe-like vocals. He and his band had the crowd bouncing to his soulful, upbeat jams. It was magical. One my favorite indie-rock groups visited Tulips this year, too. New Zealand’s The Beths harked back to the ’90s grunge acts I loved so much growing up. I was front stage photographing the night from the pit, and the energy had me thinking, What in the world is in the water in New Zealand? The soldout night was probably one of my favorite national experiences of the year. — J.G. l
K R I S T I A N
L I N
They’re an essential part of moviegoing and pop music. We call them heartthrobs, those softly beautiful, feminine-looking young guys whom teenage girls (and the occasional boy) conceive their first crushes on. They’re easy to make fun of and shrug off, but you do so at your own peril. After all, people made fun of the Beatles once. Zac Efron was one of those in the middle of the 2000s, when he starred in the High School Musical movies. So he carved out an enviable career as a secondary funny man in Neighbors, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and even the Baywatch movie without people really taking him seriously. Of course, he did try to play a damaged ex-soldier in Charlie St. Cloud, and he wasn’t ready for a role like that. Now, though, he plays a North Texas pro wrestler dealing with unimaginable amounts of family tragedy in The Iron Claw, and now he’s ready for it.
Shawna has been caring for their own (and other people’s) fur kids for more than 14 years. Her Fort Wo r t h - b a s e d business offers doggie daycare, daily walks, overnight boarding, and wellness checks. Translation: She’s seen it all. On an ongoing basis, we will be publishing Shawna’s answers to your questions. (Think: Dear Abby.) To that end, here is our next Q&A. Question: With all the holiday lights to be seen this New Year’s Eve, I’ve begun to wonder…how do dogs eyes work? Can they see color or see in the dark? Do they get blinded by bright lights? Answer: I can SEE why you’d ask these questions (#DogMomHumor)! I had to consult with the experts on this one. Dogs possess only two types of cones and can only discern blue and yellow. This limited color perception is called dichromatic vision. Humans may have more cones, allowing us to see more colors and see them brighter than dogs do, but dogs have more rods, giving them the edge when it comes to seeing in low light or identifying moving objects. As for night vision, the answer is as clear as day (or, in terms of dog vision, as clear as night). Yes, dogs can definitely see at night, as the unique structure of their eyes makes it possible to see in settings with dim light or other low-light conditions. Dogs are actually better able to see in low light compared to their human owners. As for bright-light sensitivity, a certain degree of sunlight / bright light sensitivity is normal considering the intense amount of light emanating from the sun and or extra bright lights. Thank you FUR the great questions!
C o u r te s y A 24 F i l m s
Readers, do you have questions of your own? Please email CritterCorner@FWWeekly.com.
As most of the legendary Von Erich brothers, Harris Dickinson (center), Zac Efron (right), and Jeremy Allen White brilliantly convey the humanity at the center of what is often described as a “curse.”
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beating is not only funny but instructive, as a family who thinks wrestling is everything comes up against a guy to whom it clearly means nothing. Flair just wants to know, “Where do I go to get fucked up” in Dallas? The performances do even more work to keep this movie afloat. As the father Fritz, McCallany is a square-jawed, broad-shouldered actor who has turned up as tough guys in many an action thriller (Nightmare Alley, Wrath of Man, Sully), and he injects layers of sympathy to the role of a father who teaches his sons to be manly at all costs, never quite registering that there are situations in life where physical and mental toughness count for nothing. As brother David, Dickinson, too, shows yet more of his range. Just this year, this awfully pretty New York actor has played a Banksy-like outsider artist on TV’s A Murder at the End of the World and a working-class London single father in Scrapper, and you’d never guess from those performances that it’s him playing the most naturally talented member of this Texan wrestling family, too. Still, your eyes go to Efron, who goes numb as loss upon loss weighs on him. Kevin becomes afraid to be near his wife (Lily James) and kids because he doesn’t want the family curse to hit them. He is in wrenching form, too, in a late scene when he sees his young sons playing together on the family ranch and breaks down because all of his own brothers are gone. The Iron Claw will seize the heart of anyone who’s seen a brother go through a bad time, and its power lies in the way it captures those bonds that go on even after death. l
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Zac Efron shows his acting chops in this Von Erich family tragedy.
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Beyond the Ring
The Iron Claw Starring Zac Efron. Written and directed by Sean Durkin. Rated R.
C o u r t e s y Fa c e b o o k
SCREEN
He plays Kevin Von Erich, the oldest surviving son of Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), a villain in the Dallas-Fort Worth wrestling circuit. At his home in Denton, Fritz is determined that his sons become the champions that he never had the chance to be, so he pushes them relentlessly to not only develop their moves but also master the political and PR skills so audiences will embrace them. It works, but it takes an unthinkable toll during the 1980s, as Kevin’s brother David (Harris Dickinson) dies from a ruptured intestine while preparing for his title bout, Mike (Stanley Simons) suffers permanent brain damage during routine shoulder surgery, and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) loses a leg in a motorcycle accident shortly after bringing the title belt home. You’ve heard about the “Curse of the Von Erichs” if you’ve lived in North Texas long enough. (Indeed, this publication has covered it in the past.) The real story was even more crushing, as the family had five sons survive into adulthood and saw four of them die. The movie removes Chris Von Erich and gives his story to the other brothers for the sake of streamlining the drama, and it almost becomes too much anyway. Helping keep the film from becoming some endless slog of death is the visual precision that writer-director Sean Durkin brings to the project. He previously did Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest, and he knows how to concentrate the heartbreak in spots. He pulls off a great shot when Kevin learns of Mike’s suicide and responds by going to the gym. As Kevin hurls himself against the ropes of the ring, the camera focuses on one single rope as it vibrates madly under the strain. Then, too, there’s the scene when Kevin administers an actual beating to Ric Flair (Aaron Dean Eisenberg) during a match after the Nature Boy trash-talks the Von Erich family, including the dead members. Flair’s good-natured reaction to the
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