Last Night: Tapes 'n Tapes At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker

Thursday night, music fans of Houston faced a tough decision: We had to decide between shows by two stellar bands that infiltrated our fare city on the very same night. While we headed to Fitzgerald's to see Minneapolis indie-rockers Tapes 'n Tapes, Canadian collective Broken Social Scene played across town at Warehouse Live. Our lives are so full of tough hipster decisions; we should always be this lucky.

Considering it's still dipping into frigid teen temperatures in the band's hometown of Minneapolis (that's called "winter" outside of Texas), we're sure the Minnesota quartet was pleased to be in Houston Thursday, as our balmy 70-degree temperature felt like anything but winter.

Tapes 'n Tapes, currently touring in support of their third album, this year's Outside, took the Fitz stage fashionably late, to a visibly enthused crowd.

"What's up, Houston?" singer/guitarist Josh Grier posed simply, before delving into opener, Outside's "On and On." Barely breaking for a collective breath, they continued straight into "Conquest," from 2008's Walk it Off.

Just a few songs into the set and two things were already clear: Tapes 'n Tapes were there with the sole purpose to deliver as many songs as they could cram into their set, and the crowd was there to contentedly soak them up. As each song concluded, another immediately started; T'nT delivered an array of tracks spanning their discography; while new material was most prominently featured, frequent revisits to their 2005 self-released debut The Loon, were made, including the obvious crowd-pleaser and venue-appropriate "In Houston."

"Everyone likes to come out on Thursday nights in Houston, I guess!" Grier appreciatively acknowledged to his lively crowd. The band, in a rare break from delivering their crammed set list, addressed the crowd as they recalled their last visit to Houston, at Super Happy Fun Land. "I remember that place had a ton of cats around," Grier reflected.

"Cats are great, but [keyboardist] Matt [Kretzman] is highly allergic to them! So, we like it here at Fitz."