Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > October > 19
Friday, October 19, 2007
Show review: The Donnas
- The A-List: The Donnas at the Parish
It wasn’t just high-school girls with fishnet stockings and multicolored hair sharing the elbow room Thursday night in the Parish. By the time the lights dimmed and the air raid siren started blaring, even the middle-aged men with shirts neatly tucked into khaki shorts were screaming fanatically for the Donnas.
As the female foursome leapt on stage one-by-one, the eruption from the moderate-sized crowd was replaced by a rock ‘n’ roll sound that was ballsy and sexy and fun. There was no elaborate light show or flamboyant costumes. There was just an empowering, super-charging, sucker-punch-you-in-the-gut kind of girl rawk that blasted from a single guitar with a huge sound and an energetic rhythm section as the band danced wildly and pumped up the crowd to frenzy.
After commanding everyone to let loose, singer Brett Anderson launched into the punchy chorus of “Girl Talk” off the band’s just-released seventh studio album, “Bitchin’.” A blaring guitar solo and some chugging riffs accompanied as Anderson bent down and sang into the front row, and the fans answered back by pumping their fists and singing along.
There were also the older tracks, like “Who Invited You” off the mainstream breakout disc “Spend the Night,” which were full of squealing guitar solos, short and catchy song structures and a good bit of cowbell. Donita Sparks, whom you may remember as co-founder of L7, and the Stellar Moments played a distortion-heavy rock set that felt like Sparks hadn’t quite gotten all the ’90s alternative and L7 out of her system. American Bang (formerly Bang Bang Bang) opened the show with big rock bravado while the guitarists soloed and tossed their manes about with looks of elation and wonder plastered on their faces.
(photo by David Weaver FOR AUSTIN360)
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ME TV goal: $2.6 million this year
Real estate mogul and best-selling author Gary Keller of Keller Williams is a new investor at Music & Entertainment Television, which airs locally on Time Warner Cable channel 15. The former Austin Music Network hopes to raise $2.6 million in the next year to fund expansion to other Texas markets, with East Texas next in their sights. ME Television, which hopes to become profitable by selling its programming to other cable systems, raised $1.6 million last year. Time Warner owns 15 percent of ME.
“We’re currently in negotiations with Sudden Link cable operators (which has 700,000 customers), as well as Grande and Comcast,” ME spokesperson Elaine Garza says. “Exciting things are happening. Stay tuned.”
The 50-year-old Keller, whose investment amount has not been officially released, had rock star dreams as a teen, but rejected the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for real estate. He collects Gibson ES-335 guitars favored by his idol Eric Clapton.
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Primich death ruled heroin overdose
Toxicology tests by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s office have determined that Austin blues musician Gary Primich died of “acute heroin intoxication” on Sept. 23.
The life of the harmonica wizard, who died at age 49, will be celebrated with a memorial service at Saengerrunde Hall (1607 San Jacinto Blvd.) on Sunday Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. To find out more info, go here.
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