St. Patrick's Day on the Emerald Stage
Low Expectations, Blank Labels, and Escape Goats perform live in the rain
In Wichita Falls, we frequently have outdoor events billed as “Rain or Shine,” and this St. Patrick’s Day weekend was of the “Rain” variety with very little shine, but that didn’t stop our hardcore music fans from coming out for the festivities.
This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Downtown Street Festival had an added bonus — two stages situated at opposite ends of Ohio Avenue. The city’s regular mobile stage, the one we normally see at Bud Daniel Park for summer concerts, was dubbed the “Emerald Stage” for this event, and hosted some of our best local talent, starting with Low Expectations.
Low Expectations celebrates their two-year anniversary as a duo in April of 2024. On For this show, they played in the rain to a dedicated group of music fans and what stuck out to me was excellent two part harmonies. Low Expectations was very enjoyable.
Blank Labels was next up, and I can’t say much more about this band than I already have. Led by the incredible vocals of Bryson Lawrence and the bombastic drumming of Mike Hardison, Blank Labels is never a disappointment.
Blank Labels treated us to some promising previews of the new music they’ve recently put down on digital and we should be hearing new streaming music from them soon.
The Emerald Stage was headlined by Escape Goats, a killer cover band that performs every great 90s singalong you could ask for.
Escape Goats is a veritable super group of local talent and includes two beautiful, talented ladies, and four badass dudes, including solo artist Clint Vines on guitar, drummer Robert Williams, also of Better Strangers, Jaymes Jager of Dirt and Unhinged, incredible bassist Jacob Seigler, and Lelani Lei and Melissa Williams from Alanis Morrisette tribute Jagged Little Band.
You can’t not sing along to every song Escape Goats performs (and I did) but the real highlight for me, after seeing them perform it several times, is Escape Goats’ cover of “Hunger Strike,” by Temple of the Dog. Jaymes and Melissa alternate lead vocals on the track, and Melissa will give you goosebumps during the call-and-response vocal section originally performed by Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. Don’t miss that shit.
In the end, the St. Patrick’s Day Downtown Street Festival was the best St. Patrick’s Day show I’ve seen in years. Let’s hope for some better weather in 2025.
Did you come out for the show? Tell us about it in the comments.
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