Flanfire

Quatropaw Rides Again -- for Gloria!



Gloria and her buds; Beth with Matt; Jason jamming hard; Beth with Derek; David and Derek (no dominoes).
It has been at least four years since Quatropaw morphed into The Addictions and its members began their journey into the world of pop punk (or whatever it is called). Lots of fans of Jason and Beth Richard -- and of Derek Hatley and David Warren (drums and bass) -- have sorely missed the Quatropaw tunes and the joyful energy that the four-piece band brought to every one of its concerts.

The Addictions have made some noise -- getting a song or two performed on the Austin-based TV series Roller Girls, and airtime on lots of radio stations here and there -- but this band (despite having virtually identical membership at the start) plays to a wholly different audience than did Quatropaw. It was the Quatropaw audience, however, that came out to Scoot Inn on a Thursday night to see their heroes -- and it was all for the benefit of bigtime Q-Paw fan Gloria Fuentes, who is battling Graves Disease. [The People vs. De La Rosa and The Scary Mondelos also played, and there was an afterparty with a DJ -- but Flanfire was having a busy night, as will be revealed, and had to focus on what mattered most.]

Maybe it was, as Jason mentioned, the result of working so hard with The Addictions, or maybe it was just the euphoria of returning to a simpler, joyous time, but the band played with ENERGY SQUARED from the opening bars of "8" through an unrehearsed encore version of "Addiction" that rocked the house. Other old favorites (this for Q-Paw fans who could not be there) included "Complicated," "Passionate" (my personal favorite), "In My Lane" (another of Beth's anniversary celebration songs), Rachel's Dream," "Little Girl's World" (the bounciest of all bouncy songs), "Shameless," and "All I Ever Wanted Was Love" -- plus the regular set finale of "Last Night" with Matt Silaski joining on vocals.

I had earlier stopped by Hills Cafe to catch a set by Brent Allen, whose new CD (produced by Stephen Doster) is due out next month. Brent, who toiled for many years on behalf of the Austin Songwriters Guild (or whatever it is called), is targeting the country charts these days, and he surely has the voice for it. Later on, I stopped by the Hole in the Wall to catch up with returning traveler Bryce Clifford, who had just finished a three-week tour of Kansas City, Toronto, New York City, and somewhere in North Carolina.

Flanfire -- Bringing LIFE to Austin music.