Eat Avery's Bones and Skybox at J&J's (by Defensive Listening)

If I could moonlight anywhere in DFW right now, it would be as a pizza cook at J&J's. Judging from the diversity of bands they've hosted there lately, it must stay pretty interesting on a nightly basis. From straight-ahead hardcore to straight-ahead pop music, and from free jazz influenced ensembles to the truly indescribable, this creaky pizza joint provides one of your best chances to witnessing something unique in the metroplex. The shows are set up by the bands most of the time, thus resulting in haphazardly organized and jumbled mixes of groups and people. The traditional kind of "Who are you here to see?" shit and the overemphasis on beer sales and head counts that you get at other places are nowhere to be found at J&Js. But let me be clear, this is not some cool D.I.Y. venue. They are there to sell you pizza, beer, and soft drinks. However, the place does SEEM like a cool D.I.Y. venue at least, and thats not an easy task when you're trying to pull an actual profit. Because of the looseness and variety of the place, there are bound to be some misses mixed in with the hits. Last night had both. It was our very own Eat Avery's Bones opening for Chicago's Skybox. Wasn't Skybox a baseball card manufacturer? Figures. I've always hated baseball cards, even as a child.

Why do local bands always open up for bands simply because they're from out of town? This is a mistake made by small time touring bands time and time again. If you're in a band and you're reading this, please take this advice: Touring bands should open. I know what you're thinking. "But, dude, you don't understand, they're my friends from Rhode Island and they drove alllll the way to Dallas and shouldn't have to open for anyone." If they want people to see them, they should open. All your local fans, friends, and family will have to suffer through them to wait for you to play. And if you touring bands don't take this advice, you will watch an army of the local bands coworkers and ex-girlfriends hi-fiving them on their way out the door. This will take place just about the time you're taping your shitty Bossdigital delay to the concrete. There are exceptions, of course, but you'll know it when you've reached true "National Act/We open for no one" status. My fingers are crossed for you. All I'm getting at is that Eat Avery's Bones definitely shouldn't have opened this show. They were the headliner in my world.

Eat Avery's Bones has it's roots in a Texas town called Rowlett, a lakeside community east of Dallas. When you drive through Rowlett, you pass this gigantic (800 ft. long I believe) mural as you cross Lake Ray Hubbard. It's this cheesy kind of lakeside landscape done up in primary pastels. Ever since I've heard Eat Avery's Bones, I always picture that mural dripping, smearing, and distorting it's pretty lakeside scene into the band's horrifically scribbled fliers and the magic marker mess featured on drummerMatt's bass drum. EAB's artwork is always instantly recognizable on the web or otherwise. It looks like a collaboration between a badly behaved six year old and a Meth addict, and the band applies this visual aesthetic towards everything else around them too. Last night they appeared with their faces smeared in paint. This was no professional new wave makeup job... it just looked insane. Clearly the band doesn't necessarily apply this same chaos to their music. To my ears they sound somewhere between Brix-era Fall and the obscure British band Rancid Hell Spawn. Bad name for a band, but their distorted keyboard attack made Jesus and Mary Chain sound like Iron and Wine. As out of control as Eat Avery's Bones initially sound, upon careful listening you'll hear a very calculated attack and approach to every song. Drummer Matt also sings, which is impressive since most drummers can't even really drum. The guitar and bass playing in this band is frighteningly precise, too, as Jason and Meggie sound like two machines stabbing away with every time change thrown their way. I wouldn't usually mention gender when discussing a band, but it was brought up on WSJR recently, so I'll just tell you this: Male bass players of DFW, Meggie of Eat Avery's Bones could chew you all up and spit you out. It's the truth. And in addition to her solid rhythmic low end, the band has another secret weapon, possessed by their keyboard player Robbie. It's... a Muppet Babies Keyboard. Sounds completely stupid right? Wrong. It's exactly what this local music scene needs. Just the right kind of artwork, instruments, and band to make it collectively say,"What. The. Fuck." When I see that look on a crowd's face, all I can think is that they must be doing something right.

Earlier I mentioned wanting to be a pizza cook atJ&J's. Actually, last night I should have worked security, because if I had seen Skybox trying to sneak in their assortment of contraband, I would have been all over them. If I had the chance to catch these guys with such rock no-no's as a wah-wah pedal,bongo drums, cowbell, and trombone (!), they wouldn't even have been allowed in J&J's. Skybox tortured me from the start, and I knew I was in trouble when only two songs in, I was reminded of Santana. They had a deep bag of instrument oriented tricks, and sitting here today, I can't remember a single song. For all of the indie rockers that worship Pet Sounds, Van DykeParks, Lambchop etc., please remember something: If most bands can't even come up with decent songs using three instruments, what makes you think you can do it with twenty? Remember, Brian Wilson was a genius. You, my friend, are not a genius. The band couldn't make up its mind between ragtimey pop, prog rock, riffrock, or a really bad mixture of the three. The lead singer's vocal antics bordered on novelty, with his voice plotted somewhere between Jack White and Joanna Newsom. Maybe that sounds good to you, but I thought it was a mix of the two most obnoxious vocalists in modern music. I'd like to say I enjoyed the group's obvious proficiency with their instruments, but unfortunately they played with all the smugness of Berklee dropouts, and I wanted to dropout of their unbelievably long set. Another rule for smaller touring bands should be that you can't play more minutes than twice the number of people in the crowd. So fifteen fans=no longer than a thirty minute set. Please hear me out. The other band's members don't count, and there is no reason that any band except pretentious neo proggers like Mogwai or Mono should ever play for over an hour.

Eat Avery's Bones smashed a guitar. I know they were probably buddies with Skybox, but I wish they had been down for smashing a bongo or two as well. It was still one of the cooler local shows I've seen in a while.