The Dime Store Poets

So on Saturday night Amy and I went to go see a band called The Dime Store Poets.  We went to see them at our favorite South Austin musical haunt, Strange Brew, and I believe that it was the band's first time to play there.  We didn't really know anything about the band before going to the show, except to take a peek at their web site.

Their show was good.  Billy Mutschler, their lead singer and sole guitar player for the evening, was beset by technical difficulties.  His sound kept cutting in and out on his guitar, and it took a while to get it sorted out.  Having played in bands myself, I felt bad for him.  Nothing worse than an equipment fail- especially when you're the only one really holding down the melodies and playing leads.

Anyway, they got through their equipment issues, and the Strange Brew audience handled them with good humor.

The Dime Store Poets are an interesting band.  They had three strong vocalists, with interesting harmonies and cool backing vocals.  It was kind of different to see a band with three talented singers, but only one guitar, a bass, and drums.  Good singers being hard to come by, it seems like you more frequently see instrumentalists outnumbering vocalists.
You often hear artists describing themselves as embracing a range of musical styles, but in practice, it's sometimes hard to hear the purported range of styles.  Not so with The Dime Store Poets.  Their music shifted from song to song- and sometimes within song- from styles ranging from pop to Texas swing to country to a bit of jazz.
It seems that lead singer Billy Mutschler is the chief songwriter for the band.  He described a collaborative process in which he brings material to the other members, and they help him sort through it and shape it into final arrangements.  Larisa Montanaro sang backing vocals, taking her turn at lead on a few songs.  They both had really good voices. 
I hate to admit that there was a third vocalist who's name I wasn't able to catch.  I think he must be newer to the band.  He seemed to be really strong on some songs (including singing lead a couple of times), but on others Mutschler told him to just "try to find a place to fit in", and he mostly laid out.  When he sang, though, he did a good job.  Nice sense of harmony.

I liked the band.  They had intelligent, engaging lyrics that were well sung, and the music was interesting.  Each of the singers and musicians on stage were very good at their respective instruments and/or vocals.
One thing that I noticed, and maybe I was just imagining this, is that the band didn't seem super confident or comfortable playing together as a unit.  They weren't bad by any means.  There were just a few stutters and false starts as people were trying to figure out where to some in during certain sections, and the band didn't always seem as though they were really comfortable just settling into a groove.  It's just one of those intanglibles, I guess, because, as I said, you could tell that all of the people in the group were very talented in their own right.  They just weren't quite as tight as some other groups.  Still, I mentioned this observation to Amy after the show, and she hadn't noticed it at all, so maybe I was just imagining things (or maybe they had a hard time settling down after the equipment issues).
The only other mild criticism that I might have would be that I thought that the band would have benefitted from having a second guitarist or some other secondary melodic instrumentalist.  Mutschler is a good guitar player, but it might have been nice to have another instrument taking turns on leads or holding down the rhythm while Mutschler played solos.  The band sounded good, and I'm not complaining about the musicianship at all, but it might have sounded a little bit more fleshed out with one more instrument.
In the end, though, their music sounded both interesting and smart without being difficult to listen to.  Their lyrics were clever without being pretentious.  The harmonies were great, and the songwriting was top notch.  The drumming and bass playing were both solid and energetic.

We had a really nice time at the show.  I hope that Strange Brew continues to bring the band back.  They sounded good.  Like I said, they had a few equipment issues on the night when we saw them, and it was their first time at Strange Brew.  I'd love to see them on another night when they're a little more familiar with their environment and, hopefully, glitch free on the technical end.

Here's a You Tube video featuring the band.  It's not the same show we saw, and not even the same lineup, but they played this song, and I like it.  Great example of their songwriting.