Rattle Shakin’ Dance Party

Living in the jungle, it ain’t so hard

Living in the city, it’ll eat out your heart

⁃ Johnny Thunders

The best thing so far to happened in my 2021, besides getting fully vaccinated, is that my favorite band decided to leave the paradise of New Zealand to relocate to…Dallas, TX???

Over the course of the many USA tours Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 have done over the past decade plus, they have always felt the love in the Big D, developing long time friendships that are now family. Rather than land back at their previous residence of New York, or dive into the sprawl of L.A. or the not-so-weird anymore Austin, Labretta and her partner-in-crime Johnny Moondog have come here (their OG USA band will reunite in a couple of months). And they got busy quick. Their 2 Piece Pack performed a weekly residence at Three Links in Deep Ellum in the month of May. Each show has been a blast. After they wrapped it up this week, I wrote the following review on my Instagram and thought “Oh yeah, maybe I should put it on the blog?” Here’s the review and some of the photos from the shows and the little promo video I made.

“Well now you’ve seen me at my worst!” Labretta told me after the finale of their May 2021 residency at Three Links. Her self-depreciating review of her and Johnny Moondog’s primal, rattle shakin’ dance party was in regards to the power of the duo’s full band The Motel 6. Yet the 2 piece is anything but a goof in my eyes and ears. While the last two shows reached insane levels of wild abandonment, last night’s performance was more controlled chaos. Except for a technical issue that ended the show prematurely, it was deadly on a musical level. Labretta’s stone age bam-bam and Moondog’s ‘60s teen fuzzbombs left the crowd wanting more (and last night was the best crowd so far). They combined Motel 6 classics, with amazing new songs (some of which will evolve to the full band’s treatment), and some stellar interpretations of familiar titles like “Mystery Train”, “I’m a Hog For You Baby”, “Rip It Up”, and the stompin’, hypnotic reimagined “Farmer John” (which has been stuck in my head after every show). I’m so thrilled that my favorite band, and two of my favorite people in the world, have made my town their adopted home.