Later, Babe
Doris Henson’s farewell show last Friday at the Record Bar sucked. It sucked because it was the band’s last show, and it was happening in 2006 with just two records and a couple of biggish tours under the belt and not in 2026 on the second of two sold-out nights at the Uptown Theater, a la the Get Up Kids, who were more influential but not as original and great as Doris, the fuckin’ heartbreaking bitch.
If you didn’t know Doris Henson by last Friday, then you’ll never never never know her, because you’ll never have seen the band live, and, unless you listen to the CDs really, really loud — no, not even then. (See the video link for more.) Anyway, I’m tired of repeating myself about this band as far as summations go, so if you wanna know how I’ve always felt about them — and to gauge a sense of my own disappointment — read this.
Some of my other favorite things about the band:
– Those buzzing, mid-range guitar lines on songs like “A Dark Time for the Light Side of the Earth” that thrust into your ears live like cattle prods dipped in white chocolate.
– When I first heard them, which was on a compilation CD out of some Dallas-based booking agency (possibly before I even moved up here), I thought Doris Henson was an older, female solo artist. The song was “Cows,” off the first album, White Elephant. I sent the Dallas booker an e-mail saying something like, “I like Doris Henson, but she sounds kinda like a crazy old lady who lives in a house infested with crystals and cats.”
– I have a couple of artist friends who don’t go to many shows but always wanted to see Doris play and got really excited about going down in front of the stage and rocking out like monkeys.
– The Half-Price Books companywide ad campaign that used Matt Dunehoo, along with local MC Approach, as models. It pissed some people off, but I thought it was pretty funny.
– The photo galleries on the band’s Web site — they made me long to be in a band like that. Nothing beats a good candid photo diary with hilarious captions — in that department, Wes was the man.
– That they could have a bald guy with a Har Mar Superstar mustache and a wardrobe of button-up short-sleeve shirts playing trombone onstage and still rock balls.
– “Sidestepping” — that song should be on every jukebox in town.
So, why did they split? Well, in the end, it was because Dunehoo quit. “As far as I’m concerned, my heart’s not in it any more, and I’m ready for a change,” he told me on the phone today.
Wes Gartner, the drummer, said something slightly different, when I talked to him last Sunday at the Record Bar’s one-year birthday party. He told me they broke up “mainly because Matt and I had major personal rifts after living together and playing in a band for five years.” Shortly after telling me this, Gartner was onstage, waving his shirt over his head and performing unsolicited backup dancer duties for a karaoke-singing Steve Tulipana.
When I told Matt how his roommate, Wes, had cited their friendship struggles as the reason for the breakup, he said, “My reasons for needing to stop doing this band have nothing to do with my relationship with any one person.”
So, it’s evident that there are problems between Matt and Wes. The good news is the band will soon be finished with its third album. They have no label on which to put it out, of course, and wouldn’t be able to tour even if they did, but we can probably expect a local release… maybe with a listening party at the Record Bar? And a topless dance routine provided by Wes!?
Dare to dream.
