la Frontera In the News

Round Rock Leader

July 18, 2002

City's next outdoor gig showcases Damesviolet

by Kathryn Culver, Leader Staff

To see them lounging around their manager''s office, they look just a little too Teen Beat, with purposely messy hair, leather necklaces, and a soulpatch thrown in for fun.

The press photos suggest something neatly packaged and ultra-hip, but the boys in damesviolet deliver a solid rock sound, reminiscent of Collective Soul and Creed.

They''ve got just enough growl to make up for the fact that their online community is haunted by legions of teenyboppers with names like Pinky and Candy and let''s not forget, Bridgette.

The four-piece band is made up of drummer Tommy Roalson, bassist Evan Huston, and guitarist/brothers Beaux and Zak Loy. Beaux, the eldest at age 21, plays guitar and delivers deep jewel-toned vocals over the band''s well-blended melodies.

The group has sold 2,000 copies of their self-titled album and are getting respectable amount of airplay on Austin''s KLBJ-FM, one of the nation''s more cutting edge stations.

The band is exactly what organizers at Round Rock''s Summer Concert Series were looking for.

"What we're trying to do is to get music and get bands that are on the cutting edge, about to go national," said Kath Martel, of Round Rock''s Parks and Recreation Department.

Damesviolet will perform starting 7 p.m. Sunday on the Central Green at the La Frontera shopping center.

"They are getting a lot of national exposure," Martel said. "They are a pretty talented group of kids."

Damesviolet is playing regularly around Austin and have come along way since first forming in 1997, when brothers Beaux and Zak moved to the city from their fork-in-the-road hometown Dinero.

It came down to a choice for the two.

"It was stay in Dinero and be a country band or move to Austin," Beaux Loy said.

Introduced to Roalson and Huston through a producer, the quartet began immediately writing songs and hounding Austin clubs for gigs.

"We just bothered a lot of people," Zak Loy said. "We went by Antone's everyday until they gave us a show."

The determination is paying off. Damesviolet has taken the stage with big names like the Black Crowes, Bush and Blues Traveler and are now setting their sights on other cities in Texas.

Manager Mark Proct, who helped usher Jimmie Vaughan and the Arc Angels onto the national scene, saw something special in the group, despite their age and have watched them refine their act over time.

Sunday will be the second show in Round Rock''s free concert series, a program the city''s Parks and Recreation Department is trying to revive.

Martel said the series was steady offering until it was dropped in the mid-eighties.

"We would like to take this program and definitely expand," Martel said. "We're trying to promote music, recreation and summer get-togethers."

An additional two shows are schedule for August and September, including country act Haydn Vitera and Blues band Shawn Pittman and Killer Instinct.