The Best from 35 Denton Night One: The Dancing, The Technological Advances and The Artisanal Jello Shots

Mike Brooks

AND WE'RE OFF.

Work is miles away; the real world is even further. It is festival season. We begin at Hailey's in Denton. Terminator 2 kicks off the official portion of 35 Denton with a flexing of enormous sound. My everything shakes involuntarily, and it is perfect. --Kiernan Maletsky

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Before there was a note from the band that kicked off a night of mountain-melter rock, 35 Denton began at Andy's with a sound check: Tony Ferraro, lead singer, laser blasted the words "living on sponge cake" over and over into the microphone. Pretty sure there's no better way to kick of a heavy, American rock and roll set than to mic-check with the words of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville." It was epic, and the beginning of a great night. --Nick Rallo

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See also:
-How to Plan Your Night for Each Genre at 35 Denton, with Maps
-The Ten Funniest 35 Denton Band Descriptions
-How John Wesley Coleman Looked to Old Friends to Save His Set at 35 Denton

The women's restroom at Andy's Bar was literally duct taped shut (over the door frame) like a spiderweb, forcing women to use the seat-less toilet in the men's room. --Rachel Watts

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Mike Mezeul

Spooky Folk

Let it never be said that the staff of 35 Denton does not take requests. The lines were daunting last year, and this year this is a cavernous new venue for the overflow (The Hive) and a live monitor of the capacity of each venue. Right now, you can go to 35denton.com and find out what percentage of any given participating space is full. I find out because Bright ("Like a light!" he offers) asks me if what he is looking at on his phone could possibly be capacities. It is live updating as we watch it. I walk to Dan's Silverleaf and sure enough, there is a volunteer right by the entrance, marking each person coming and going. She has an iPhone and the screen displays four buttons: +1, -1, +5 and -5. She is not allowed to talk to me. After all, she has work to do. Spooky Folk is about to start here at Dan's and we are at 82% capacity and climbing. (KM)

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No rain in Denton's Square. Oh, the joy. Last year, 35 Denton was soaked. Wet hair and discarded ponchos were a common sight. Last night, for one camera flash, Denton was rainless and goddamn beautiful for 35 Denton's kick-off. The Square was actually chirping like the front porch of some lake patio as the Denton Radio-sponsored outdoor set filled the air. Ugh, awesome. --Nick Rallo

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Jessie, Kelsey and Kaitlyn

Carly Tester, Journalism student at UNT, did not get the dance party she was hoping for. "I was expecting a hot, sweaty, disco but it was definitely lacking," says Tester. "It has the potential to be cool, but right now it feels like an eighth grade prom."

Tester isn't done. "Who wants to go to a huge dance party with cops lining the room?! It's a little excessive," says Tester. "And to top it off, they close the bar at 11:30 p.m. and are charging three dollars for a soda...not what I was expecting." --Megan Morris

Jessie, Kelsey and Kaitlyn don't normally hang out in Denton when the weekend approaches. But tonight, they heard from a DJ friend that there would be dancing at the new warehouse space on Sycamore and Bell, so they paid their $30 each, put on their furry boots and charged up their glowing paraphernalia and showed up. It did not work out. The crowd was thin. They tried to dance. "Everyone looked at us like they were annoyed," says Jessie.

"Fuckin' hipsters," says Kelsey. (KM)