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Due to myriad of reasons, I found myself in a nightlife hiatus for over a month. It was a weird bubble to live in, coming home to a pooping machine puppy, hours of work, and no time to eat a suitable meal. But, I was finally able to break the silence with a wonderful show at Dan’s Silver Leaf last night.

Jeremy Buller, normally a supporting musician for several acts in town, took the spotlight and opened with night with some originals and a few covers. Armed with a Telecaster and an arsenal of pedals, he gave the night a slow and sincere start, filling Dan’s with mournful loops, echoes, and lyrics. Mara Lee Miller (Bosque Brown) joined him for his closer, a cover of Pedro the Lion’s “The Poison”.

The name Sam Robertson has been on my radar for awhile but admittedly, I had never even stopped by her myspace page for a listen. My bad. If Sam’s voice and songwriting isn’t enough, add two other angelic voices, a gem of a violin player, and a keys player that knew just when to add an accompanying note, and that was my first experience with Sam Robertson. Her live performance moved me to make my first music purchase of the year, her EP, and no doubt will I be saving money for her full-length which will hopefully drop this year.

The night took a slight turn when Western Giants took the stage as they brought a bit of rock to the night. It took awhile for my ears to become accustomed to the increase in sound and Kennon Talley’s voice seemed to get lost in the mix. I prefer the cleaner sound they achieve on their recordings but the rest of the crowd ate it up.

Bosque Brown closed the night as Mara Lee Miller took the stage, accompanied only by Jeremy Buller and his array of knobs, buttons, and pedals. It’s been an interesting journey to watch Bosque Brown decrease in numbers, at their peak, a 5-piece, and now, due to touring and logistics, a duo. I’ll be the first to admit that I miss the full sound they achieved with a piano player, pedal steel, bass, and drums, but thanks to Buller and the full use of every limb he has, Miller’s signature voice and deliberate picking are still in good company. Surprisingly (at least, to me!) a majority of their set consisted of unrecorded songs which, although I would have loved to hear some favorites, is very promising as new songs mean a new album, right? (Um, and ironically, I managed to record no new songs. I’ll try to remedy that soon!)

I woke up Saturday with no solid plans aside from signing a lease and the possibility of moving into my new place. A few text messages later, it was decided: Another trip down south for live music. Moving could wait. Seryn and Sarah Jaffe have never disappointed me so I figured it was going to be worth $10 and the commute.

Understatement.

The night began with Jonathan Clark who fronts the band, Comrade, and he had two of his bandmates accompany him during a few songs. Granada Theater was already starting to fill up so his slow, deliberate songs were a bit drowned out by the crowd. I was able to find Comrade’s music online and am now a little sad that the full band didn’t play. Seriously, check out “Sociao” on their Myspace page and imagine what that would have sounded like at the Granada.

Now, imagine going from one man and his guitar to five musicians and multiple instruments. The wall of sound that emerged from behind the curtain was Seryn, a Denton band that emerged last year out of thin air and into Dallas Observer’s music awards ballot in no time. The crowd met their multi-part harmonies and spirited folk with open arms as I overheard this conversation:

Girl 1: Wow, what’s this band’s name?
Girl 2: Seryn (sir-RIN). Or Seryn (SER-rin). Um, I don’t know.
Girl 1: We need to look them up. They’re good.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a fan of Seryn’s (it is pronounced “sir-RIN”) since they were featured on DC9 in Space last year. I’ve been to a majority of their shows in Denton, and this show was hands down their best. And that’s counting their intimate show at St. David’s. I’m not sure if it was because everyone brought their A-game, the energy of the crowd, or probably the magical combination of both, but their voices and various stringed instruments filled the theater in such a way that caused mouths to drop, demos to sell out, and mental notes to be taken that their full-length album will be released in November.

Even though Seryn’s performance was worth the ten dollar ticket price (thanks for the affordable show, Granada!) I would have also paid a separate ten dollars to have seen Sarah Jaffe’s show on its own. She was just that good. Much like Seryn, I fell in love with Sarah Jaffe two years ago and have made it to almost all of her shows in the DFW area, saw her at SXSW this year, and also witnessed her beautiful performance at St. David’s. I always thought she was best served simple as her voice and lyrics alone are captivating. She proved she can be so much more than that.

The full-capacity venue was treated to the debut of her music video for “Clementine”, a song she admitted wouldn’t have made it to her latest album, Suburban Nature, if her mom hadn’t insisted. The screen stayed put for a video of Jaffe and a friend, dancing and goofing off to a dance song, and those that were close enough could see Jaffe’s legs under the screen, dancing on stage. She was ready.

After an intense intro leading into “Under,” I knew we were in for a treat. The treat of all treats. Sarah Jaffe would be pulling out all the stops, letting go, and really giving her fans something to talk about on the ride home. She’s played with the absolutely talented lineup before that consists of Scott Danborn (keys), Becki Howard (violin, backup vocals), Robert Gomez (guitar, accordion), and Jeff Ryan (drums), but the new arrangements of the songs were perfect for this event. She looked comfortable in her skin, behind her guitar, the electric bass, and even, soley behind the mic. The most memorable moment for me was when she performed “Hooray for Love” (which may or may not be the title of the song since it is unreleased) in which she managed to be the most vulnerable and fearless at the same time. She showed everyone that she doesn’t have to be behind an instrument to bring it.

As this was the “treat of all treats,” we were treated to an encore in which Jaffe started out by putting on a homemade shirt someone threw onto the stage for her. Perhaps it was the champagne, perhaps it was her good nature, or perhaps it just seemed fitting for the moment, but she wore that small shirt over her own as she closed the night out with singalongs as she covered Radiohead’s “Creep” then finished with her own, “Summer Begs”. It was a show I know I’ll never forget, and I have a feeling the crowd nor Jaffe herself will either.

(Comrade / website / myspace / facebook // Seryn / website / myspace / twitter / facebook // Sarah Jaffe / website / myspace / facebook)

I promise this will be the last post in which I pimp out the wonderful, beautiful sounds that belong to Lalagray. Just kidding. I will make no such promises. Last.fm reported the fact that I listened to her at least ninety times at work last week. It’s true, I had her album on repeat and I have a feeling a lot of you will, too.

Saturday night started out late as I rushed to make it to LaGrange in time for dinner. Their kitchen switches to tacos-only at 10PM but luckily, I made it there with fifteen minutes to spare. Being my first time there, I was nervous that I arrived so close to tacos-only time that I would get a frown at my order of BLT sliders. Quite the contrary, as my order was received and delivered with a smile. As I scarfed down as many sweet potato fries I could manage, the cook looked at me with a questionable thumbs up. I gave him two. No doubt, I’m going back for more one day.

Sam Anderson started out the night with a bit of soulful blues which was met with mixed reactions. @nffcnnr noticed, “Wow. Dallas peeps: not down w/ Sam Anderson. He’s representin’ southern soul, Ft Worth style, y’all need to recognize!” while ButIJustLikeMusic.com reviewer simply stated, “See also: Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights lite.” Either way, I’ve had “Susie Q” stuck in my head for days, dangit.

Austin-based David Ramirez was such a treat aside from the chatty neighbors that decided to stand in front of me. No joke, this guy took one look at me and decided to stand in front of me along with his crew of gabbing gals. LaGrange was full but every other tall person made a note to stand to the side or behind me. Such is the life of a 5′ tall girl.

But back to David Ramirez whose soft howls and stripped down set made me a fan. I’m listening to his tunes off his Myspace page as I type which don’t have the same effect as a man, a guitar and mic, and his words of broken hearts and memories on a stage. Toward the end of his set, I finally gave up the table I was leaning against for a quieter spot, front and center, while David performed “Fires”. Luckily, ButIJustLikeMusic.com caught this beautiful solo on video so you can dig. Kudos to David for giving props to Deep Ellum’s rise from the ashes and playing through the crowd.

As soon as David’s set ended, a gang of musicians jumped on stage, dwarfing the space allotted. It was a fun game, playing “Guess which bands that musician is in!” including the talented violinists Becki Howard (The Crash That Took Me, Sarah Jaffe) and Petra Kelly (Spooky Folk, Fox and the Bird), and multi-instrumentalists Dan Bowman (Fox and the Bird, Dallas Family Band) and Daniel Hall (Fox and the Bird, The Beaten Sea). It wasn’t the originally planned lineup but the group provided the support to bring the album to life.

Which, finally, leads to the star of the evening, Lalagray. As soon as she energetically counted off with “Bag of Bones”, I was fully engaged with her set until the end. I wasn’t the only one as she stopped only twice to joke about her lack of monologues and to tell her simple story: Five years ago, a college dropout in pursuit of creating music, whose dad supplied the Roland and whose mom supplied the Franzia. Her family was supporting her at the show as well, as I witnessed a teary-eyed mother during “Devil’s Nest”, faithfully recording the entire show.

DC9 at Night (@DC9atNight) used the hash tag #SarahJaffeBetterWatchHerBack last week while linking to their preview of this show, and I might have to agree with that. Lalagray’s repertoire brings a mixed bag of fun, upbeat songs such as “Heartachin’” and “Big Brown Box” as well as soft, slow-dancin’ tunes like “In the Stars” and “Will Anybody Love Me” that should appeal to a larger audience than Jaffe’s Suburban Nature. And although she said it was her first time to perform with this lineup and through some of her songs, Lalagray handled the entire set with grace and maturity that brings such great hope that this album release show was only the beginning of something so much more.

The show came to an end with her “bringing down the house” with “Moved by Strings” which included some slick tickling of the ivories then “Hard Parts”, which left no face without a smile. As with all good shows, it ended all too soon but thanks to Junius Recording Co., you can pick up a copy of her debut album and keep the smiles alive. See you at her next show, folks.

(Lalagray / website / tumblr / myspace / twitter / facebook)