[Houston – I think?] Mango’s may be my favorite
club in Houston. They play the sort of music I like, they don’t charge much,
there’re shows most every night, and it’s got the good dirty dark feeling. Not
to mention, the staff is outstanding – by looks, they could get away with being
pretentious but instead they’re friendly & professional – the bartender did
throw a tiny bit of a fit when someone changed her ipod (which supplies the venue’s
between-bands sound) from Pentagram to Soundgarden. (Soundgarden! I knew the
90s were coming back…) On the downside, because they are a roots sort of
institution, booking no-name bands for the most part, their PR efforts fall to
the wayside on a regular basis, the crowd can be really young, and, on this
night, there felt to be no AC. There’s some talk of it being a vegan restaurant
as well, and it looks like a vegan restaurant from the outside, but other than
that, this myth makes no sense – I don’t know what it’s about – the place has a
long twisted history. Because of said lack of online communication, and because
I’m a Dara, I got there early. It was me and four lonely or scared boys
slouched in a row of seats along the bar. Determined to see this thing through,
I made good use of my time: organizing my day planner, filing my nails, and
making some personal phone calls. They were playing Black Sabbath over the
speakers in the meantime, and what with the 90 to 100 degree heat, it was all
somewhat meditative. I was there for the 2nd band but when this band
started, I was really excited – dark, menacing, hard. Psychedelic death metal
with elements of Tool or 90s industrial music. And then the 2nd song
started with creative bits of electronica or hip-hop. But the sad truth is that
both songs, and the whole set, degraded into a messy unorganized uninspired
mess of bleh. Then they turned into a scream or rap metal band. I really really
disliked the guy’s voice, whether screaming or not, and the synth just wasn’t
right. I thought the band was interesting because they had this multi-level
keyboard system with an Apple computer on top – DJ stuff, not rock stuff – but
the synth was this monotonic wall of dirge. I sincerely disliked this band. Eythey
ouldn’tway allowway isthay itshay inway austinway. In other interesting notes
on the Mango’s crowd…. A girl with a dorky haircut of short curls that I could
tell is some new hipster look (because she was far from the only one with it)
stuffed a cassette tape into her back pocket as she walked past me, oh the
follies of youthful faux-nostalgia… A young boy with great bone structure
introduced his friend as the one who is bringing techno to Houston. This band
has some interesting potential that they need to finesse. (Photo courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiAPbR0lHw4)
Comments
Post a Comment