Jim Ward has been saying that "this" will be Sleepercar's last show in El Paso so much this year that even he has a little trouble believing himself.
He told the crowd Friday night at Take II that the original plan was to take the summer off and start working on a new album.
Well, it's late August, and they opened for Wilco in June and played the Plaza Classic Film Festival in August, among others. "We keep playing shows," he mock complained to a crowd of about 300 or so (I'm purely guessing) on Friday.
But Ward swore at Friday's 30th birthday party for T2 owner Chase Cardenas that this was the last local show for the year, and ended the hour-long set with the words: "We'll see you in 2010."
Well, there are four months left in the year, Ward's opening a new bar, Hope N Anchor, with ex-Percolator owner Bobby Smith and former Black Market bartender Chris Lewels, and anything's possible.
As last local shows of the year's go, this was one was pretty uneventful. Good but pretty straightforward. Workmanlike, precise, intense at times and very polished, the result of all that touring the group's been doing over the past year. Leaning heavily on its "West Texas" CD, Ward led the band through a tight, one-hour set.
Openers CD and the Reds have sound so much like what's on the Texas music scene these days, they could pass for an Austin country-rock band. Their sound's a bit generic but there's a lot of promise in their familiar sound.
Only one comment: Sleepercar is THE best band in the El Paso/Las Cruces area. period.
Posted by: Thea Hand | August 30, 2009 at 11:04 AM