It List: Tuesday 4/3/07

Peter And The Wolf/Deep Snapper/Artless Fiction/Cory Derden (Club Dada): Tonight's show with headliner Peter and The Wolf find's singer-songwriter Red Hunter in the beginning stages of a six week tour. So he'll finally be living up to the "nomadic" image we've heard so much about. I was starting to think being a nomad just entailed hanging out in Austin. In that case, I know a lot of nomads. Expect a set with exotic instruments he may or may not know how to play. Cory Derden hails from Houston and I was surprised by the refreshing simplicity of some of the banjo and accordion on his sample tracks. Some of it was memorable and well written enough to not appear just tossed in for faux-rustic Americana accents that people usually throw at you to cover up the fact that they can't really write one damn song. The sped-up outro section to the track "On My Own" is especially good as is the song in general. The other two groups playing tonight couldn't be any more different from the rest of the bill, which is a concept I usually support but this might be pushing it. Artless Fiction is a screamy, tough-sounding group that's described themselves as experimental hardcore, though I don't know if that's the first thing I would blurt out upon hearing them. I won't blurt out the first thing I thought when I heard them because that would be unprofessional. Their screaming style and super-serious attitude might be a little too dude-rock for me, but maybe it's better live. Deep Snapper is a very tight, concise rock group with influences ranging from the articulate shout of Mike Watt to the cutting, distorted rudeness of Shooting At Unarmed Men. Very good.