Tomorrowpeople

Missed these guys when they played Dada last night? OK, here's another shot--and the recently reunited Ye Olde 20th Century area powerhouse are the only ones on the bill [not true - ed]. But, seriously: I caught their first reunion show back at the Double Wide a few months back, and it was great. So if you haven't seen these guys and their newly reinvograted interest in performing, go for it. -- Pete Freeman - Dallas Observer Blogs

You could tell something was different at The Double-Wide on Saturday night. The crowd was better dressed. Older, too--that's true. Mostly, though, they were excited.

You could sense the anticipation in the air on the Double-Wide's patio. These people--The Angelus, be damned--were here to see Tomorrowpeople.

And the Tomorrowpeople were happy to have them. Their 45-minute or so set was filled with "thank you for being here" sentiments, and talk about how good it was to be back on stage. You could tell they meant it, too--guitarist Erich "Jody Powerchurch" Scholz was fighting back a giddy smile all night, trying to give off a rockstar air of "Yeah, we're playing a show. So what?" Right. That's why it was so packed in there.

"It was a lot of fun," Scholz reflects today, now having had a chance to let the night's set sink in. "We recorded it on the soundboard. It was super sloppy and hilarious, but it was fun."

A little different, too: Vocalist-guitarist Mike Gibson needed a stool to sit on so he could see the acoustic guitar he was playing with more ease. But Scholz says it felt good to be back on stage and that the rest of his bandmates agreed--even though he's a little hard on the way his act sounded according to the recording ("The guitar sounded horrible and my vocals were off").

Me? I enjoyed it. The crowd energy helped.

But the question remains: Where does this leave the band? Scholz reminds me about the iTunes catalog that'll be available soon, but isn't sure about a further future. He'd like one, he says, but a lot's up in the air.

"It's one of those things where it's like, 'How are you going to top that?" he says. "It's such a cliche, but it felt like we were on an amusement park ride up on that stage. If we walked away now and never did it again, I'd be satisfied."

OK, then.

But then there's this: Scholz says he's spoken with Spune Productions about a Fort Worth show some time down the road. And he says Tomorrowpeople may play Dallas again in the fall...

As of now, though, none of its set in stone. So we'll keep you posted.-- Pete Freedman
- Dallas Observer Blogs

Naw, bullshit—really? The Tomorrowpeople, live onstage after being left for dead somewhere 'twixt infamy and fortune eight long years ago? True enough, in the words of one Jody Powerchurch: "It won't be big, it won't be pretty."

Though, that's kind of the way we prefer it—baby steps, baby, back toward golden-energy yesterdays till it's tomorrow, people, and the youth are middle-aged but still in orbit nonethefuckingless. In other words: exciting.

Nice how guitarist-singer-keybs-master Trey "Powerchurch" Scholz put it in a misty-eyed missive recently, as those of us with hazy memories do so fondly recall "the days of yore, when the streets of Commerce, Elm and Main were paved with the stubs from the expense accounts of major-label talent scouts looking for the next Kurt Cobain." Still among my prized possessions: the shiny, catchy leftovers and seditious, captivating redos from the band's '97 bow on Last Beat (Golden Energy in Stereo) and its '99 bow-out Marijuana Beach, among them tracks most current bands would be proud to call "hit singles" ("Vacation Destination Earth," "Windows Wide," "Operation Dustoff"). The nine-song disc actually consists of tracks the band cut for Geffen Records, which gave the band the heave-ho during the late-'90s upheaval that found the label annihilated by Universal Music Group. Now, damned near a decade later, the band makes its entire catalog, including those discarded Geffen tracks, available via iTunes 'round about the time you read this.

"We're not trying to sell you anything," Scholz says of his band's reunion. "We don't have any T-shirts, we've got no stickers. It's all about playing, and it's a fluke we're even doing this."

Turns out the Double Wide's Chelsea Callahan told the boys to get with the digital marketplace pronto, so they did—"and she doesn't even like The Tomorrowpeople," says Scholz, who'll be joined on the 17th by Brutal Juicers Mike "Gordo" "Buzz" Gibson on falsetto lead and Ben Burt on the drums and some other extra 'people.

"And we might even do some new stuff" in the future, says Scholz, "but we won't play 'em on the 17th, because we're still re-learning the old stuff." Tomorrow can't get here soon enough, people. -- Robert Wilonsky
- Dallas Observer