Before attending Danielle Ate the Sandwich at the Gothic Theater on October 8th I was unsure as to what kind of sandwich exactly she may have eaten. However, after speaking to Danielle before her show and watching her exuberant performance I was certain said sandwich must be chock full of wit, talent and brilliance.

My father used to call it ‘blowing out the carbs..’ I was a little girl, in Northeast Texas, in the middle 70s. We had old cars, my entire childhood, often hotrods, or in leaner times at least a family car with a big-assed surprise under the hood..

Some of those older hot rods of his were high-performance cars that had four-barrel carburetors. If you drove slowly around town, you'd use only two of the barrels. To exercise the other barrels and keep them from sticking, you'd have to get the car on the highway and accelerate hard for at least a short time.

Overall, the general tide in Indie rock pulls heavily towards the twinkley.  Lots of synth, lots of electronics, lots of over-dubbing, lots of special effects, and less dirty guitar with each passing year.  Not that I would attempt to deny the appeal that this trend has – I’ve grown fond of pretty much the whole spectrum over the past decade – but what this trend conspicuously lacks is grit.  Grit and twinkle just don’t go that well together.