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Vicious, vocal vixens take over Dallas
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By Grant V.Ziegler
Editor-in-Chief
The “Destroy to Create” tour featuring the poetic-metal act O...By Grant V.Ziegler
Editor-in-Chief
The “Destroy to Create” tour featuring the poetic-metal act Otep, the Butcher Babies and Austin, Texas’ One-Eyed Doll, stopped in Dallas Sept. 11.
The night should have been promoted as, “Ladies night on stage,” as four of the five bands on the roster featured female vocalists. These women could tear the roof off a building with their screams. Also on the bill that night was Dallas’ own premiere, all-female heavy metal act, Faded Grace and Phoenix, Ariz.’s Howitzer – the only band with a male lead singer.
Trees has been an amazing venue for music since its re-opening three years ago and continued that tradition by hosting more loud, ‘in your face’ and ear-destroying acts such as the ones scheduled that evening. Hundreds of metal-heads filled the pit and emphatically pumped their fists and banged their heads as five growling, heavy metal acts unleashed their fury on the Dallas crowd.
Faded Grace opened the show and played to a respectable local following. Nevertheless, after their set, more and more Faded Grace t-shirts appeared in the audience. Their intensity, in-sync headbanging and goddess-like guitar work won over a predominantly Otep based crowd.
Following Faded Grace was Howitzer. Personally, I did not enjoy their set. They had the least amount of personality and rhythm of any of the bands featured that evening. However, the night got back on track when One-Eyed Doll took the stage. Much like Faded Grace, One-Eyed Doll had a dedicated local following infiltrating the mass. Front woman Kimberly Freeman, who recently made Revolver Magazine’s “Hottest Women in Rock” issue, took the stage with drummer Jason “Junior” Sewell.
The twosome brought Trees back to life with Kimberly’s rip-roaring guitar and Jason’s thundering drums. Kimberly also brought with her various kooky hats to wear during different songs. This gimmick worked nicely with her storytelling and sing-a-long songs about murder.
Even though the duo only played six songs, the audience fell in love with Kimberly’s charm, personality, soul-piercing voice and guitar skills. And as she is known to end every show, she finished by jumping through Jason’s drum stand. Any self-proclaimed rock ‘n’ roller or headbanger must make it a point to see a One-Eyed Doll show.
After One-Eyed Doll came the Butcher Babies. Overall, the music was adrenaline-inducing, electric and powerfully loud. The male band members dawned sinister looking makeup and blood, and the female singers were unfortunately dressed (in this humble concert-goer’s opinion). They had their fake breasts hanging out and their nipples covered by electrical tape. The gimmick was distracting as it didn’t belong in the show and only detracted from their otherwise overwhelming talent. I came to hear music, not go to a strip club.
Finally, Otep wrapped up the night with an intense, head bashing performance. Personally, I’m not a fan of their music; however, Otep puts on one helluva show. And I don’t care what genre you are into, you always have to respect anyone who puts on a good show for their fans.
In the end, I left poor, covered in beer and almost deaf. And as far as I’m concerned, that equaled one successful and amazing night!
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CD Review LIT Magazine
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Dallas' top all-girl hard rock band has finally dropped their debut CD. Fans of Evanescence or In T...Dallas' top all-girl hard rock band has finally dropped their debut CD. Fans of Evanescence or In This Moment will find plenty to download here. The 7-track effort is a solid representation of the band, ranging from the melodic to the brutal. It may best serve, however, as sing-along practice to get ready for their awesome live set. As we mentioned in our previous feature, Faded Grace is not just an eye-candy novelty - they rip it up on stage (and at the bar!) with the best of the boys, delivering the vocal emotion and musical range in full force. Check out reverbnation.com/fadedgrace for more.
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Up and Coming (Feature) - Warped Magazine
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1.Tell us about where you are from and how you got to this position today.
Well I (Laura) am from...1.Tell us about where you are from and how you got to this position today.
Well I (Laura) am from Dallas Texas, born and raised. I grew up in the Dallas rock scene with my family who are also musicians. I showed an interest in the bass at the age of about fourteen, so my step-father (Phil, also a bass player) started showing me some cool grooves and how to look up tabs that I loved. After learning most of the basics I found myself in a band and learned that playing with other musicians on stage was what I wanted to do.
After feeling like I wanted to go further with learning my instrument as well as the writing aspect, I wanted to form a band. Tracy (singer) and I met through mutual friends in Dallas and decided to build an unstoppable all girl metal band. After looking all over the internet and searching for some serious ladies who wanted to be a part of this project, we began to write. The hardest part was finding a guitar player (seems odd right?). We quit a few before finding the wonderful Double D (Diana). Not only can she play but she has a knack for writing some really unique and catchy riffs.
As for Jessica, our newest member, we met at a show we were playing in Fort Worth. She was the front man of a bad ass band with deep screams and energetic stage presence, at which, was amazing to learn she can play a mean guitar too. Since we have become complete we have been writing with all of our influences and different tastes in music. Let the ride continue!
2.What do you have coming up? What are some of the new projects we can expect to see?
Right now we have been booking a lot of shows around Texas and Oklahoma, yet we are looking to expand as much as possible. Hopefully we will be getting in the studio again soon to put out a new EP or full length album. The biggest thing we are trying to accomplish is to expand our fan base as well as get on some major national shows and or tours
3.Tell us more about the current song you are promoting to everyone.
Tracy (singer): Taken Back is a song I wrote about mine and my boyfriend’s story. We have rekindled after years and years. It’s about losing someone, then picking up where you left off; Soul mates. How they never really leave each other and are meant to be together. How we went our separate ways for several years only to end up back together. It’s a good ‘ole fashioned love song.
4.How does your music separate yourself from other artists and bands out there?
It’s catchy and heavy. There aren’t many bands in our genre that you can say that about, especially an all female one. It gives us a leg up on other artists and groups solely because of that. That being said, when we or our fans are asked who we sound like, what influences we take and such, all we can muster up is “They/We sound like Faded Grace.” Simple as that, we have our own sound and it’s what our followers want. It’s guaranteed that the crowd goes home humming at least one of our songs.
5.Tell us about one of the hardest challenges you had to face in the industry?
It’s a tale as old as time: The money. Booking shows that will be worth the drive, with gas prices as high as they are, hotel rates being nearly insane, buying merchandise for the shows; it’s all financial. It costs money out of our pocket to start and making sure we can at least break even nowadays is definitely our toughest challenge. Sometimes we have been known to go play a show somewhere and at the end of the night we pretty much pay to play and then some.
It’s a speed bump that every band faces at least once in their career, but as long as we’re optimistic about it things should all play out in our favor eventually. Some would think that being all women would make it harder to succeed in a male-based industry, but it’s been shown that we hold our own. Every once in a while some club or bar will try to walk all over us, push us around or jip us, but we straighten them out pretty quick. We aren’t your normal run of the m
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Loud Life - LIT Magazine
Favorite Dallas Bands:
1. FADED GRACE
2. Powertrip
3. Crimson Veil
4. Kaliya
5. Hellgoat
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"Graceful Bad Girls" - Auditory Asylum
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For the most part, all girl rock bands are a novelty that gets mostly ignored when compared to other...For the most part, all girl rock bands are a novelty that gets mostly ignored when compared to other rock-n-roll acts. For a band to gain recognition beyond their initial novelty aspect, they need to have solid musical skills. Composition, vocal excellence and lyrical creativity are crucial to surviving and expanding beyond any local music scene.
Faded Grace is a band that has what it takes to create long-lasting music. On first listen they channel sounds that take a nod from classic hard rock. The longer you listen the more different aspects of musical individuality arise. Vocally the sound is very melodic with long note sustains and power movements between verses, Instrumentally each musician supports the rest without drowning out each other, which in a hard rock band, shows a great deal of control. All in all Faded Grace is a great band that stands to carve a significant beachhead in the Texas hard rock scene.
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Maxima Distorzion Music Awards
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FADED GRACE nominated for the following:
best hard rock act
best female vocal
best female guitar
...FADED GRACE nominated for the following:
best hard rock act
best female vocal
best female guitar
best female bass
best female drums
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Best of November Pick - Auditory Asylum
FADED GRACE
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Fishbowl Internet Radio
Interview, song review
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Metal Mafia Nationwide
honorable mention- Faded Grace
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ATIP Promotions
honorable mention - Faded Grace
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TX Grrrls NET
honorable mention - Faded Grace
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Themusicenthusiast Blog
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......There was one band I had wanted to see here at the Curtain, but from what I had seen they went.........There was one band I had wanted to see here at the Curtain, but from what I had seen they went on earlier in the night, around the time I was in the Liquid Lounge. Turns out, they were going on last, so I of course had to stick around to see the only all female hard rock band from Dallas, Faded Grace…
They got their 36 minute set going with “Unworthy”, and two things were clear in that one song. One was that they all seemed more in synch with each other than any other show of theirs I’ve seen. For example, the movements of Laura Paleczka, Jessica Bruns and Diane Contreras, the bassist and guitarists, respectively, were very precise and well calculated with the heavier beats Heather Hammonds churned out on the drums, as the three head banged to it. Second, was that there seemed to be a fire lit under them (and there probably was, knowing they only had a limited set time), as they plowed through these songs at a rapid pace. They powered through “Taken Back”, and then vocalist, Tracy Vibrock, announced the next song, “Go Alone”, which they promptly started. I think it was during that song that as she took a break from singing, you could hear Tracy let out a “Whew!”, as she walked back towards the drum kit, sounding a little more fatigued then she was letting on. The powerful, “Sister”, came next, and afterwards Laura began “Side to Side”, before they did something a little different from their other shows I’ve seen. “Every song we’ll do is on her EP back there.” stated Tracy, adding, “Except for one, and the one we’re about to do. We need permission before we can put this one on an album…”, then asked if there were any fans of the Deftones and one other band whom I don’t remember. That meant I had no clue what the song was, but it was interesting, as Jessica removed her guitar, grabbed her mic, and her and Tracy co-sang the song, which sounded quite great. They got back to their original material with “Self Ruin”, which a nice lyrical flow on the chorus, “…I’m screaming and reaching and cursing and preaching to no one…”. It really seemed like they had only just started, but already they were at their last song of the night, “Bad Bitch”, and each time she sang the chorus, “…You don’t know who you’re messing with tonight. Oh, we’ve got you by the balls.”, she made what I suppose is a universal hand sign, extending her hand and acting like she was cupping a pair. Also, that line is a perfect way to describe what Faded Grace does to their audience, and certainly did this night.
They rocked it, and this was the best show I’ve seen these ladies do thus far. They’re next show is slated for July 28th at The Ranch in Arlington, so go check ‘em out if you can.
They were a great way to cap of this night showcasing a lot of the female talent this area has, and I liked the entire concept of this night.
supersonic
