I am a fan. Essentially.

I feel like I’m living in a time when so much integrity is lost in the music scene.  In this day and age you go to a show and would not be surprised to find a guy with a laptop or a drummer, a synth and a few pedals. Where’s the sweat? Where is the heart and the soul and the authenticity that makes your insides butterfly up in the presence of musical genius?

Where’s the show?

If you feel like I do, than The Theater Fire is the thing for you.

The first time I saw them was when I lived in Dallas.

I remember flipping through photos of all the bands being showcased by the Dallas Observer; there were the typical black and whites of guys playing the synth and keyboard, girls singing into microphones, and long haired, bearded men playing the guitar…and in one picture was Curtis Heath with his villainous mustache playing the accordion.

I had to see that.

So I found them in lower Greenville and haven’t been the same since.

OK…maybe I‘m exaggerating a little bit. It wasn’t like I got naked and had a walk with my Indian guru or anything, but it was quite enlightening. I had stepped in upon The Theater Fire playing their last song, Woo Hoo, and it left me with this inexplicable feeling.

I realized, at that moment, that I needed more banjo in my life. Really. Doesn’t everyone??

And so began my love affair with The Theater Fire.

Don, Curtis, Mark, Nick, Sean, Jesse, and James have been making music together, or in some form or another, for many many…many moons.

Their sound is so fundamental and real. They defy genre. But, it feels southern. It looks southern. Although, is anything but simply southern.  It’s like grassroots rock meets singer/songwriter on some lonely bayou near the Texas/Mexico border.

I’m not sure if that place exists, but I think these guys have been there. They combine blues, and soul  with each member’s unique modern twist on the classic sounds that have long influenced them. But, Don wouldn’t consider himself a writer. He is first a musician and then adds those lyrics I love, with their hauntingly religious innuendos.

It’s not all hauntingly religious, but some of my favorite songs are, for example Kicking up the Darkness, Woo Hoo, and maybe Hey Jimmy  off the2006 album ‘Everybody Has A Dark Side’. Don doesn’t do it alone though.  Curtis is the second mastermind behind the simple yet complex ideas portrayed in the lyrics. I don’t think simple is the right word…more like poignant.  To the point, but not said directly.

I miss those kinds of lyrics.

Deep.

Not like laying on your back while on shrooms staring into the stars questioning life deep, but intelligent. And most things that people encounter in life are addressed in at least one song. Love, life, death, war, peace… the ladies, the gents, the sleeping, and the shaving - they are just approached in a wonderfully creative way.

Creative lyrics and creative tunage.

I like that.

In light of all this, imagine my endless enthusiasm to see that they would be playing here in the wonderful little city of Austin. They’ve been here before. They’ve been around if you know what I mean.

Just kidding.

I can only hope that when I met up with the guys before the show, they couldn’t tell how freakishly nervous I was.  Like I said previously, I’m a fan first. My cheeks must have been about a thousand degrees with those six pairs of eyes staring me down at the corner of table just waiting for me to say something meaningful. Six pairs because Jesse isn’t there. Whom I particularly love because of his spoon and harmonica playing skills.

The other guys and I talked about everything from French music in the early twentieth century to Jesus Camp on YouTube, Hip Hop entrepreneurs and the bad shit that happens to little kids.  There was mention of a down right horrendous bicycle crash, growing up baptist (which are both so obviously connected),  and past bands they’ve been in.

Aside from this, what I did get out of meeting the guys, is number one, that they are down to earth regular dudes.  They work hard during the day to earn them dolla’ dolla’ bills, and at night they work hard in their craft to produce authentic true to themselves artwork. They are working on recording their next album which is being recorded at Don’s house using their own money, not money any entity gave them.

This gives them the total creative ability to build an album from scratch, start to finish, how they envision it. ‘Everybody Has A Dark Side’ isn’t  a straight edged, digitally perfectsd masterpiece. The songs are a little rough around the edges. It adds character, and it goes along with the whole idea of authenticity and being true to the form when it comes to the music these guys make.

Number two is that I believe they agree with me in that so much music today seems to have wandered far from home. There is no sense of pride or quality in music that doesn’t come from the heart. If you get paid to spit out an album of a certain appeal, or tailor your music to grab the attention of a particular audience, the sense of wonder is lost. To find music that speaks from its very roots and is so organic that it becomes a perfectly crafted piece of art is very rare these days.

And the scene today is so electronic and digital. Not just in the sense of the sound, but the way it is sent to the people. The internet is able to persuade feeble opinions. Just because someone writes about one song more than another, or a certain song has the most downloads on iTunes, it is the one that is deemed most popular. But you can’t experience the Theater Fire properly through these channels. All of the songs are great in their own way. Not just These Tears Could Rust a Train or Fiddleback Weaver.  All of them.

More importantly hearing them live is a completely different experience. The guys are talking to each other. Smiling at each other. Having fun. Between songs you could hear whispers of people talking about them. One guy said they were from Dallas and I turned around and said, “No, they from Fort Worth.”

“Well, they came from Dallas,” and I said, “Well being from Fort Worth is very different than being from Dallas.”

“Well I’m from Dallas,” so I said, “Then you should know better than me the difference between Fort Worth and Dallas.”

Either way, I decided just to listen to people after that.

Everyone was singing along to the songs they knew and then loving and dancing to the songs they may have not heard before. Their sound can be quite sultry at times and makes your hips move on their own. Every time Jesse and James would grab those horns and start playing the hips go moving a little bit more. It isn’t a sound that is just heard.

Oh no.

It is felt. Right down to the very core. Gives me the butterflies. Makes my soul smile.

There is so much anticipation when Curtis picks up the accordion or when Jesse puts on his washboard. Everyone prepares for the awesomeness that is - playing the accordion or the spoons. You have to see it, and hear it to feel it the way it deserves to be felt.

It makes me think of some nerdy little kid playing the accordion and the cool kids are always making fun of him. Then one day he becomes a fuckin’ rockstar with his little accordion and sends his entourage  of spoon playing minions to burn the cool kids house down.

Yeah, it makes me think of that.