Quick’s Big Thing: A Recap

Last night, Quick had its first music awards shindig at the Palladium. A few of the ladies on staff and I went to give it a gander. That’s right: girls’ night out. We’ll sort it all out after the jump.

— There was a sort of carnival/circus theme. You may have discerned this from the pre-show advertising. Mostly this consisted of a dude on stilts and, unless my mind is playing tricks on me, a juggler. The fact that I was wearing face paint was purely coincidental.

– Since the free hooch was limited to vodka and beer, I was forced to drink Shiner Black. I was not, however, forced to drink five of them. That happened naturally.

– No matter what you think the food situation will be at something like this, always eat before arriving. One day, I’ll remember that.

– Approximate number of people who came up to me to talk about the Burger King thing: everyone.

– Gordon Keith did a solid job of hosting, apart from a five-minute penalty kill near the end that I don’t think anyone could have salvaged. He did manage to keep his pants on.

– I thought Record Hop were really great. The girls did not share that opinion. If you haven’t seen them, rectify that, especially if you like Sonic Youth or Fugazi or several other less obvious reference points present in their sound but not in my head at the moment because I was up at 7 a.m. watching Tom & Jerry.

– PPT: also really good. The girls enjoyed their set quite a bit, waving their hands in the air as though they, in fact, did not care. I think some of their ambitious new record (Denglish) doesn’t quite hit the mark — the Dick-Van-Dyke-in-Mary-Poppins accents, mainly — but they are pretty bulletproof live.

– King Bucks, the honky-tonk band featuring a few familiar faces from the local rock scene, was solid, but I think their non-award-show sets are better. That said, it’s good to see people unironically wearing cowboy hats not covered in animal print again.

– The Polyphonic Spree closed the night with a pretty awesome set that featured a cover I can’t remember the name of, and you’re just going to have to be OK with that. Haven’t seen them in a bit, so it was good to see Tim DeLaughter tapping the brakes on his previous predilection for Jesus Christ poses.

– Quick music editor Hunter Hauk took us backstage during the Spree’s set. It was kind of depressing. And weird. After the girls had poured themselves each a glass of wine, a kind of dorky guy walked up. Since game recognizes game, I expected him to awkwardly hit on the ladies. That would have been better. Instead, he told us he had to be leaving and that he needed to take his now-half-empty bottle of wine with him. Seriously. I wasn’t aware we were at a house party.

– There was a good crowd, but we still had more people for Best of Big D. Scoreboard.

– Here’s a good idea at 2 a.m. after many drinks: let’s go to Steak & Shake. Here’s a bad idea: actually doing it.