“So where exactly is Denton?”
It’s in Texas—about 35 miles north of Dallas, a straight gut-shot up the highway.
“That’s cool. I had no idea about these Midlake guys until last year, but man!”
Yeah, I like to think of Denton as the Portland of the south.
“…[long pause, step away, talk to someone else].”

This happened twice last night when people spotted me talking to my friends in Midlake, whom I had interviewed many times when I used to cover North Texas’ music scenes. Their music, a well-crafted balance between Mercury Rev’s synthery and Fleetwood Mac’s classic rock, went criminally undernoticed in their hometown for years, only to explode with the MP3 blog favorite “Roscoe” last year. Since I’d forgotten that Midlake is actually played on the radio in Seattle, I figured last night’s crowd encounters would be my only chance to grab someone and convince them about my old stomping grounds.

But dammit, I scared the kids away. Come back, guy in vest! I’ve got a CD-R of bands you’ve never heard of from Texas…take it, please.

Though the stage was flooded with keyboards and synthesizers—four full rigs of keys in all—Midlake’s sound couldn’t have been warmer. Acoustic and electric guitar countered any cold tones, as did the swath of vocal harmonies from the band, led by the confident, high-register voice of lead singer Tim Smith. The singer and lead songwriter hopped from station to station, switching from strings to keys to even a flute; the latter came out for “The Pills Won’t Help You Now,” a Chemical Brothers song that Smith contributed vocals to earlier this year and has since adapted for his own band in incredibly fine fashion (an abbreviated version can be seen here).

KEXP fave “Head Home” got a grand response from the crowd, though the best stuff had to be the band’s older songs from 2005’s Bamnan and Slivercork. On record, those songs were catchy but frigid, a combination of home recording trappings and overloaded synthesizers. At the Crocodile, songs like “Making Kingfish Pies” and “Balloon Maker” benefited from age, what with the band’s arrangements improving and Smith’s voice sounding so much more confident. He’s not completely over his on-stage nerves, still turning around frequently and still skipping all forms of between-song banter, but I suppose there’s something good about still being antsy when you can attract a venue-filling crowd on a Sunday night.