The Shorthorn - Moon Fluid rocks Dallas

HOME

ENTERTAINMENT

PULSE

Moon Fluid rocks Dallas

Written by Jason Boyd, The Shorthorn scene editor

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 04:03 PM

The band Moon Fluid will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday at the Skillman Street Bar in Dallas. (Courtesy Photo: Moon Fluid)

East Dallas band Moon Fluid, which performs at 8 p.m. Friday at the Skillman Street Bar in Dallas, relies on its fans to describe its sound.

And it’s different every time the members hear someone’s interpretation.

“We don’t get the same — we sound like this, we sound like that band,” drummer Raul Zepeda said.

The members do have influences that help define, in part, the band’s sound.

Bassist Leo Reyna and guitarist and singer Jonathan Ramirez share Tool as an influence, and Zepeda counts Led Zeppelin and The Mars Volta among his favorite top bands.

The influences show in their driving rhythms and out-of-the-box song writing. One song featured on their MySpace, “Alkaloids,” starts with what sounds like a radio transmission in Spanish. It eventually breaks into a hard-hitting crescendo that continues at full-speed throughout, finally ending with the same radio transmission.

The band’s definition continues past what genre to pick for its MySpace page, which reads “Progressive/Alternative.”

“We’ve all had that argument — ‘what are we?’ ” Zepeda said.

But the band is intentionally trying to sound incomparable, Reyna said.

“We’re something different,” he said. “We’re not anything you hear on the radio or MySpace.”

When & Where

Where: Skillman Street Bar
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Cost: $10

But this feedback from fans, even if it isn’t consistent, helps.

“We do it one practice show at a time, one show at a time,” Zepeda said. “We get the feedback from the fans, we’ll tweak and start over.”

And the band tries to give back to the fans. Zepeda said around 50 fans are known on a first-name basis.

“If they come up to us, man, they’re our friends,” he said. “We’re playing for them.”

This applies to anyone who comes to any show, even first-timers. And it doesn’t stop at a casual greeting.

“After the show, let’s go grab a beer,” he said. “We’ll have a chat.”

The band has played around Texas and in parts of Mexico. The group is too strapped for cash for a proper demo, Zepeda said, but it makes up for it in other ways.

Moon Fluid streams many of its practices on blogtv.com and offers free posters at all shows.
And the shows are lively.

“Man, I love musicians to move around,” Zepeda said. “So you’re definitely going to see me go all animal on the drum kit.”

Views: 338 | E-mail

Be first to comment this article