Two Concerts in June

Instead of giving these two acts each their own post, I will instead cram June’s shows into one and act like I did not do my usual thing and forget about this blog for months on end. Usual excuse applies, I have been living people! But on a barely functioning level. I think this is what they call adulthood.

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In the beginning of June, I had what I feel is my LCD Soudsystem I-was-there moment, I went to my first CA7RIEL y Paco Amoroso show. I like to claim I don’t do the big acts (and forget about the times I went to see Lady Gaga with my family or was given New Kids on the Block tickets due to my love of their cartoon), cause you know that even the crowd of a small show gives me the heebie-jeebies, but this was the show that may change my mind. Price wise it was not killer because I took advantage of some Ticketmaster Summer Nights deal (this will also apply to the Franz Ferdinand show that I will end up writing about soon), although I was worried because it was for the lawn of the Moody Amphitheater. 

This was a new venue for me and it is downtown, so the idea of locating it and parking was making me nervous. Since it is downtown, I ended up making use of the parking garage right next to it, so pricing was not ideal. It was kind of worth it, to me at least, for the distance to the venue and the ease I had heading back to the car once the show was over. 

The venue itself is a weird location as it is adjacent the block that contains a major hospital. The block it is carved out of, seems to be an outdoor performance space and park, maybe like the less cool version of Red Rocks? The sound was amazing and did carry to the back lawn even though I couldn’t see shit, but what must that be like as a patient? Is it worth the hospital bill, depending on the show and your luck, or does it make the outrageousness of the American health care system that much worse if it is a show for a trash act that you hate? I have so many questions and very few answers for you this time around with this blog, don’t I?

Anyway the venue is massive and has some downsides, but it is better then the Circuit of Americas so if I had to pick between those two I would give my preference to Moody Amphitheater each time. Given the size of the act, this will be the poison I would prefer if I was trying to see a massive production. 

But what about the band? Amazing and could be my favorite of the year. 

This was a concert that had a theme and matches to the recent album, Free Spirits. It was a surreal show that both embraces and satirizes society’s current obsessions with fame, wellness, and cults. The set design reflects a high end clinic and before the show starts they included insane quotes taken in context from celebrities and famous people (Gandhi, Queen Goop, and Steve Jobs are cited). Their clothing choices also reflect the theme, both in the merch they were selling and what they were wearing on stage. You can see them playing with proportions between the two in the athleisure and health goth sets that they wore. 

Most of the songs played were from their new album, but they still incorporated fan favorites (which is any song they have released). These were peppered throughout, they were fit it in a way that still made sense to the narrative in their show. They had a full band, and moved across the stage in rehearsed coordination, dancing in a style mimicking the fitness crazes of the day. There was a smoothness as they moved between performing their music, incorporating different instruments, and putting on a show by doing tough as fuck exercises (like the battle ropes seen in Crossfit or the Warrior pose in a log flow - hey that can be tough for the unbalanced). It is astounding to think they were doing this throughout the world tour night after night, still hitting their mark and notes while making it looking easy and natural. 

And the lyrics. As someone who only speaks English, I have made the effort to find the English translations because their words have meaning and full of word play. This is an act that uses their entirety to make a song, and may be even why they reference Lady Gaga in their new album, because they are making pop art with their music.  

Not all crowds dance in Austin, damn youths, but this was one that you saw people moving. They make weird hiphop that people are still willing to throw their ass to, and without demanding it of the crowd. We joined in because we were moved too, they didn’t tell us to, our bodies did. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear, and ended it with two that might be an encore staple for them but still had us losing our collective minds. A Crazy Frog song was remixed into their song “Beto’s Horns.” I have the feeling they are really too young (they would have been 12) to have experienced how much that damn song was everywhere as a ringtone or ringback option, but the nostalgia for this old bitch was reallllllllll (those five extra years really make the difference).

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Starting and ending the month solid, let’s move onto the date night with a favorite band for my family, Lip Critic. My husband got me into them and mentioned how they are on the same label as some other bands he knows I dig (they are in the company of DJ Rashad, Idles, Interpol, Geese, and PJ Harvey). Our tastes do not always overlap, but when it comes to weird beats that could be described as abrasive in it’s danceability… well we are Venn Diagraming it up and meeting in the middle with those shared interests. 

It was at 29th Street Ballroom, and they are an even younger group of dudes touring with another young group of dudes who were dressed like the nineties was still happening even though their unlined faces lets me know that they probably weren’t even born yet. The crowd was young, my husband and I were the olds. 

This was a show that was moving, but that was because their acts were demanding it. Yelling out, “make a circle” or “throw ass” will not induce me to do it, I am a real rebel who bucks all authority even that of my idols, but hey to each their own. Maybe if I was younger and less like a bird, I too would be in the front thrashing around, but alas I enjoyed the show the only way I know how - from my perch in the back corner. 

From my view I could see the 4 performers without issue, this is a band with two drummers (one is a co-founder by the name of Danny Eberle), a singer (co-founder Bret Kaser), and another guy on a sampler adding electronic elements to the music (co-founder Connor Kleitz). The drummers are impressive, you can tell that they fucking love it and they were in beat together for music that is fast but also complex in how they switch it up. The lead singer sounded just as weird (but) melodic as he does on the albums. He has a vocal style that is equal parts singing and talking, it is a different form when compared to the talking style that he uses to work the crowd in between the tracks. And the other guy, he was a riot. One of those performers who may have been rolling or just really feels it every time he plays (basically he is a thruster, someone who is fucking the beat that is how much he feels it). 

Okay, but the merchandise was interesting for this tour around the record Theft World (quick side note, the album has a narrative even if the show didn’t really follow it like the first band that I mentioned. This album is about someone stealing Bret Kaser’s identity and fucking his shit up, something that really happened. His pain is our gain as they group used it for the inspiration for their latest release). They had a massive oversize black tote with red letting for the band’s name on one side and the album title on the other. I bought it and I love wearing it out with Theft World facing outward. I have already received a compliment on it when I was in the Dollar General (I bought The Long Walk for what feels like a steal at three dollars) from a women who probably never even heard of the band before and was more of a fan of the act. It fucking made my month.

Back to the merch booth, there was an oversized custom shirt that was over a hundred dollars. Fuck, right?! They also had their albums on vinyl, which was reasonable and something we did not have so we picked those up. Just to remind you again of my age and how much I hate it, I will end this with a story about my kid. Our four year old has been asking for us to put on Lip Critic several times a week since then, he likes the frantic energy and knows that we like it enough to indulge him. Doesn’t that show how much of a cool mom that I am, that I like a weird band so hip that even the toddlers can’t resist them?

Alice Longyu Gao at the 29th St Ballroom (05/10/2025)

I went to a show. I drove, at night, by myself to campus during graduation weekend and parked at the abandoned Trudy’s. The last time I was there, Trudy’s was maybe not abandoned and Spider House Cafe might still have been called that. The one time I ate at that Trudy’s, they had profiled my friend and refused to serve him alcohol with his paper ID. That had to been over ten years ago.

Because you know, I am old. 

I think I hit my post baby stride. It only took four years. Judging by this excursion, and the three other tickets I bought in less then a month for two upcoming concerts and a music festival, I want to get back to my youth. Be a cool hot mom who did not lose herself. Skanking it up in a monogamous way and through my love of music. 

That is why I thought my first solo show out should be Alice Longyu Gao at the 29th St Ballroom. I had fun, it was a success, and I am not here with any regrets. But like all my experiences I live in my head, so any distasteful or cunty tone to be found in this recollection is because the stress killed my fun and it is easier to judge then to be vulnerable, or some other justification an old cynic would say.

I claimed to my husband I had been to a show there before, but now that I think about it maybe I was morphing the unfinished space with any number of venues that benefit from their location within the live music capital of the world. Got an unfinished and sloping cement floor, an exposed ceiling that you can throw a grid up with random lights and speakers you gutted from another business? Then all you need is a rudimentary bar with the IPAs and hard seltzers that are popular with 20 years olds that is your target audience, two stall bathrooms if you are classy (single style shit-holes for the gents and gals if you are not), and a DJ booth that was pulled from a defunct strip club (that may have gone out of business because their set up was so outdated).

What makes 29th St Ballroom unique is that the women’s restroom has a wallpaper theme on the upper half of the walls. It is plastered with the pages from the book that is the plot device for the movie The Ninth Gate. It seemed random, but maybe I needed to wander around some more in order to see the other signs or references to the movie throughout the space.

Or shit, maybe me entering the venue was me entering the ninth gate?

If we go back to initial impressions, I was not into the opening act. So, a maybe on the hell thing.

The Dallas Cowboys is a duo of tall young masked batmen, who the headliner would later confirm is not actually from Dallas. 

I did not get nor like the opener. Like a short grumpy thumb in fishnet, I stood out towards the back, scowling at their earnest rendition of their hits. I came in late, so I did not have to hear the whole thing, but from what I could tell they were energetic crowd pleasers. Those up front to the “stage" bopped and thrashed about as the two jumped into a song from the album they wrote about the Bob’s Burgers movie. I think they were disappointed and channeled their frustration into an art concept album they named Louise. They explained themselves, but since I was being a curmudgeon this paragraph is half correct and something I should fact check.

I was stoked when they announced they were playing their last song, but then I stifled a groan when I heard the non-hoodie batman mention that it would be a throwback to their ska days. I am not a ska fan, and when I mentioned being a skank early I was describing my base sleazy nature, one that does not involve horns. Anyway, their crowd went wild and I kept my distance.

Once it was over, I shuffled my way closer to the stage. I felt more comfortable stretching and dancing to the mix of dance and rap that played between their sets and before Alice Longyu Gao performed, but as the crowd closed in that panic of being surrounded stiffened my movement. Now that a couple of days have passed, I can reflect on how nothing bad happened, the music was great, and being more free to jump around would still result in having fun, but I also mentioned in the beginning that I had no regrets and that is more true.

This was an intimate show, but not like that time the Ataris played at the White Rabbit in San Antonio (I was one of five in the audience and that my have been generous/me counting some staff). I was never good at guesstimating though, so around fifty? Her crowd seemed to double in size, a chemical reaction caused by the energy she brought, it helped the group grow as they pulsated to her beats.

Alice Longyu Gao came onto stage with a half size harp, her laptop, and controller and was ready to perform after a brief sound check. Her energy from the start to finish matches the genre she is known for, hyper pop, with quick songs that are fun, inappropriate, and relatable to the party kids of today. She is a weirdo in the coolest way, she uses her random thoughts as irreverent subject material worthy of a song that is as eclectic as the elements she incorporates into the music. All of which fits into the theme of the tour, and the feeling that she is branding herself successfully to a queer subculture that could appreciate her genius. 

This tour is about a debut trilogy (and her claiming that she is so badass that she gets three debuts at once). Not knowing the music industry, or what factors into how music is released, I feel that a lot of this is on the artist to market and set up. 

She selected different, but popular songs, from the three EPs she has released, with a visual artwork and screener playing in the background containing the song title and symbols important to the piece. Her EPs are a mix of metal and pop, and her lyrics and ability to hit the line begs for her audience to jump (except for me - my knees are wrecked from years of living and dropping it low). Before each song she would tell a story or give context, at one point apologizing for her voice giving out since The Dallas Cowboys were smokers who encourage the habit. She did not need to, it did not seem as bad as she may have thought and any rawness on her vocals works with her style of pop.

While she mentioned an achievement (that her song “Gnarly” was number one on Spotify under a pop artist group), she did not play the song other than to give some context to why she think things are gnarly. That is a fine song, but not the only one to show off her perception of American and California culture. A man singing about loving Korean girls, hearting lesbians, or being big in Brazil - questionable and not at all surprising when they are exposed for being a dirt bag, but when coming from Alice Longyu Gao…let me dance to it (and I would be shocked and asking where were the signs if she was ever canceled)!

The show was well paced and quick. I believe the only song that I missed hearing or was not played was “.Sex”. It makes sense if it wasn’t played, since it is an intimate track (that word again).

She prefaced the last song by warning us there would be no encore (and with no mention of ska). She kept to her word and ended the night by saying once again “no encore,” but also emphasized being safe when getting home. And I was, even when driving past someone rolling around campus with no lights, I was home by midnight.

If it was hell, I got to breathe in the youthful and pungent air and to leave unscathed. I was able to walk back out to my reality. So yeah, definitely worth it.