Concert review: Waiting for One at Tomcats West

Getting to Tomcats West, a new music venue on Alta Mere Drive, was a challenge. Alta Mere is easy enough, but the owners of Tomcats still haven't changed the sign that reads "Country Connection" (that was the previous tenant). I drove past it a couple of times before I risked my guy card and called for directions.

The building itself is a typical west-side concrete bar like all of the others that sprang up near what is now the Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, around the time the Vikings were inventing mead. It's larger than most but sports an intriguingly spartan interior -- a bar, a row of pool tables and perhaps the best sound system I've ever heard in a club. We're talking new floor-to-ceiling JBL speaker stacks. Of course, much like a race car is no better than its driver, a sound system like this is no better than the sound guy. Fortunately, Tomcats' sound engineer had it dialed in. On Saturday night, the mix was perfect, and the levels just-loud-enough. (As for the lighting: Finally a someone who understands that just because you can light the stage up like an Amsterdam brothel, it doesn't mean you should.) If they keep booking good original acts, like Waiting For One, I can see myself spending a lot of time in this place.

There's a universal rule among musicians: When the words "Hey, guys, my girlfriend is going to be in the band!" are spoken by anyone, the band is finished. Waiting For One may just be one of the few exceptions.

The band started out as a duo featuring Kelly Shatzer and Wayne Nelson. Then Shatzer started dating Leah Blakely, a laid-off telecom employee and donkey rancher turned karaoke tycoon (no, I'm not making this up). WFO and Blakely's karaoke company (Totally Twisted Karaoke) co-hosted a party at her donkey ranch, and though nobody remembers it (yes, it was one of those kinds of parties), when they played the recordings back the next day, Blakely had apparently joined the band.

Nelson (guitar, vocals), Shatzer (guitar, vocals) and Blakely (bass, vocals) then appeared on John Rody's live webcast, and Rody decided they needed a drummer and put out the call -- which was heard by drummer Sean Holbrook's father in Washington, D.C. Even though Holbrook happened to live near the Blakely donkey ranch in Alvord, it took a webcast taped in Funkytown and viewed in the nation's capital to find him.

So what started out as an acoustic country act is now a full-blown Southern rock/outlaw country happening. The musicianship and vocals are first-rate, and the lyrics are catchy. The band's anthem, Drinking My Way to Righteousness, gets stuck in your head and won't leave. The most popular song of the night was a profanity-laden diatribe that I can't even quote the name of here (or any of the verses). It's enough to say that it had the entire club laughing. Nelson writes most of the lyrics, although Holbrook is contributing more and more as the band evolves.

As a frontman, Nelson is rather understated. But Shatzer makes up for that with rock-star jumping around and stage banter. His guitar work is more lead-oriented, and he uses a talk box (think Joe Walsh or Peter Frampton) and other effects tastefully and to good effect. Blakely's vocal harmonies and bass tie it all together nicely.

With a full karaoke schedule (Blakely's company provides karaoke in bars and restaurants from Dallas to Granbury) and the four band members living all over the Metroplex, Waiting For One doesn't get to play out as often as the members would like. So check out their website at www.waitingforone.com, and keep an eye out for their next show. For karaoke, check out www.totallytwistedkaraoke.com. Oh, and if you need a donkey, go to www.lazy-lranch.com.