| Black Arrow Project November, 1999
|  |
| Black Arrow Project November, 1999
| |
| Its Saturday night and I'm drivingfrom Dallas to Arlington to see a band at some college dive and I'm looking forward to some heavy stuff. After a nice ride I arrivedat the joint. I remember seeing the name Black Arrow Project on adoor at some rehearsal studio in Dallas and heard some heavy stuff comingfrom the room. I put two and two together and thought it was goingto be a heavy music night. I was excited. As I rolled intothe joint and bumped past a few guys clad in leather I thought, yup thismust be the place. I perchedat the back of this joint and ordered cheap whiskey and watched the bandmembers hurry to set up for the headline spot. I saw a few folkswith Black Arrow Project tee shirts on and thought cool, they got a following.After my first drink the house got pretty empty and 25 heads diminishedto maybe 10, I was two of them. Anyway, to make a long story short,I had another whiskey and set out to find the band members and talk tothem before they went on. I couldn't tell who was who, half the crowdhad on Black Arrow Project tee shirts and the other half didn't. I approached a few of the folks without the tee's on and found out theband is into self promotion. Ok, there were 5 of them when theytook stage. Two guitars, a vocalist, bass and drums. Four of themwere wearing Black Arrow Project tee shirts and the bass player was wearinga BRIGHT WHITE SHIRT. I move to the front of the house and I want to beright up in front to see the magik. I'm there, I'm ready, they play.I'm not sure how to describe these guys to ya'll but, I have decided touse one word to describe their sound. BASIC. The bass playerwas trying so hard to play the right parts and get his fingers in the rightplace while adjusting his volume to keep him hidden among the 3 chord BonJovi misery that I felt uncomfortable watching him. My initial reactionto this complete shock was a bit harsh. I stuck around to listento more and I decided a few things for sure. The Project is filled with oldermusicians stuck in a genre that has passed many moons ago (thank GOD). They had four or five hard-core fans; I assume wives and maybe work buds,rooting them on while they belted out hit after hit. These agingrock stars, beer bellies in full shed mode, were happy and having a goodtime. Although the music lacked depth, annoyed me and wasn't mixedwell, they were happy and that made me happy. John, Causa Sui |
BuyCD's at CD Now
through this link to help keep DallasMusic.comalive on the Web!