Austinist Review: The Theater Fire's Everybody Has a Dark Side
Fort Worth's The Theater Fire started as Vena Cava in 1995, but as time progressed (and more musicians joined the fray) the band found itself moving in a different direction. In 2003, they renamed the adventure and released a self-titled album. Their new album, Everybody Has a Dark Side (out now in Texas and online, available in stores nationally August 29th), fuses folk, rock country and mariachi influences together to create a very Texas-sounding album.
Which isn't always a good thing.
If you're walking down 6th Street on any given night, chances are that you'll pass nearly every genre of music on your way from one end to the other; and when the road is blocked and people wander the streets looking for that one elusive ride home that isn't stained with their own vomit, all the bluegrass, country, soul, rock, latin and folk music becomes one big song. Listening to Everybody Has a Dark Side is sort of like listening to that one big song formed from all the nearby bars, only instead of being happy and drunk in the middle of 6th Street, you feel more like swigging gin in your bathtub and playing with a straight razor.
Some of this is intentional, as is to be expected from songs about isolation, grief, struggle and loss. The Theater Fire struggles with the challenge they've faced themselves with: playing slow, droning folk-rock without being boring and forgettable. When you're writing music in the same rough genre as Palace, Kozelek, and Iron & Wine, you need to be memorable. Unfortunately for Theater Fire, they succeed as musicians and fail as songwriters: the songs are well-executed and crisp, but they shuffle standing still, and leave you feeling confused and bored.
Everybody Has a Dark Side was recorded at home with all analog equipment, and at times sounds like it could be aspiring to Grizzly Bear or Silver Jews sensibilities in that respect, but things fall short. Each song drifts in and out of one of two tempos, and the vocals mutter what sound like Berman-inspired lyrics over the carnival of instruments. Horns, banjo, pedal steel, and accordian accompany guitar, bass and drums in almost every song, and though the compositions are easy on the ears -- and the talent for playing their instruments apparent -- there's just something missing.
Songs like "Fiddleback Weaver", "Barrell Riders," and "Valentwine" start off promising (and are better tracks off the album as a whole), but halfway through the song, we're still waiting for some kind of shift in tempo or rhythm, and it never happens. "These Tears Could Rust a Train" is without a doubt the strongest song on the album, primarily because it has several different parts, some vocal inflections and, gosh darnit, character. If the album as a complete whole sounded like "These Tears ...," this would be a fantastic record.
The low points of the album are songs like "Dark Side" and "Kicking Up Darkness", songs that are so repetetive and uninteresting, you're wishing you had a deaf side before they're over. One minute into "Civil Warrior", the repeating guitar chords are almost too much, tirelessly covering the same ground again and again, like a bad Kris Kristofferson record skipping in a jukebox.
To be fair, a lot of really great people with good taste really love this album. In its better moments, it does succeed in holding our attention with vocals reminiscent of Lou Reed, lyrics that remind us of early Berman, and melodies that sound like fond memories of great bands past. Everybody Has a Dark Side isn't one of those records that reveals more and more of itself to you with each listen; it's pretty straightforward and simple in most respects, but it doesn't offend. The closing minutes of the CD (the second half of "Members of Show 'Em How It's Done") winds down like a folk version of Rod Stewart's "Maggie Mae", and it feels like the acceptance of a longer track (it's nearly five minutes long, the longest on the album) gives them permission to come a little closer to jamming and experimenting. That's probably where Theater Fire shines brightest as a collection of truly talented musicians, live or putting out albums stuffed to the gills with ten minute songs.
[Theater Fire Official Site]
[Theater Fire MySpace]
[Dallas' Undeniable Records]
