By Leah Gray
For Little d After Dark

Less than one month ago, you were probably dancing your ass off to these acts at 35 Denton, but were too drunk to remember. Let Leah Gray remind you with these gems from the memory card of Leah Gray.

First, we have Neeks -- a.k.a. Ashley Cromeens, a dancer and pals letting it rip not even a month ago during 35 Denton at Dan's Silverleaf.

And Air Review had its way with Dan's Silverleaf patrons, too.

Mary Walker packed Denton Square Donuts with a colorful crowd.

And Mary Walker played on.

Denton photographer Ed Steele has a fondness for live music, and he carried his camera bag to 35 des Refuses, a festival held as an unofficial auxiliary to 35 Denton. (Read: The showcase was not organized, promoted or sanctioned by the leadership of 35 Denton.) The festival was cut short due to the relentless rain on March 10. At any rate, take a look at the images made by the Haus of Steele (our brand for him).

This lineup of the two-time Grammy Award-winning Brave Combo hasn't been seen live for years. So the alumna of Brave Combo, the polka-rock outfit from Denton could bury the hatchet for at least a day.

Dangle-Dixon, a local band, serenaded the crowd at 35 des Refuses.

Sonas, a Denton four-piece Denton rock band, piggy-backed on 35 Denton on March 10 to get a gig at A Creative Art Studio, the host of 35 des Refuses.

Richard Haskins, the screaming, mad frontman of Denton's punk band the Wee Beasties, gave it his all at 35 des Refuses, the unofficial auxiliary festival of 35 Denton earlier this month. Haskins organized the festival, which was planned for two days but was cut short by rain on March 10. The festival ended before Denton's Lovesick Mary went on.

At the 12:30 p.m. performance of Nick Cave: Heard on Thursday, a big crowd watched art that transcended the track lighting, walls and pedestals of the art gallery.

It was art that pawed at the lawn between University of North Texas' Art Building and Curry Hall. It was art than kicked and strutted. It was art with a multitude of heartbeats.

The multi-disciplinary project produced about 15 "soundsuits" in the form of horses.
The project was the brainchild of Cave, a University of North Texas graduate who is now the chair of the fashion design program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sound suits are an invention of Cave's - a hybrid of fiber art, sculpture, puppetry and performance art. Cave has constructed these suits for years, and the fantastic creations are meant to be worn by a performer who moves while wearing them, thus creating the sound each suit is designed to make.

It took months to complete the suits. UNT visual art and fashion design students joined community volunteers to build the suits under Cave's mentorship.

After the performance, Cave appeared to get choked up. He pronounced the project "amazing" and praised UNT dance students, saying they "rocked" in a performance that demanded precision and courage - in addition to the endurance required to dance while wearing the voluminous soundsuits on an 80-degree Texas day.

"I came in last night, and I felt like I was being separated from the world because I was supposed to meet someone today," he said. "That's how it was for me."

The 30 suits include horse heads an armature of metal and hardware cloth covered with raffia, as well as horse bodies covered in raffia. Hundreds of hours went into the project.

In performance, the dancers appeared as horses, trotting onto the lawn. Percussionists in the UNT College of Music played drums and tambourines, affecting hoofbeats - and heartbeats - that intensified and sped up through the performance. The horses tossed their heads, pranced and eventually broke apart. Half of the dancers dipped and shook the horse heads. Dancers appearing as the horse rumps emerged from under raffia covered capes to dance wildly. The performance culminated in a blast of drums and flashes of black, white, red, yellow, pink and blue.

"We saw horses here today," Cave said. "It doesn't how we see them. They're real. We all saw them."

The music department wrote the drum score and dance faculty member Shelley Cushman choreographed the dance, which included some improvisation.

The project is the product of Cave's 2012 fellowship through the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts. The final performance of Nick Cave: Heard will be 1:30 p.m. at the Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St. in downtown Dallas. Admission to the Dallas event is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $5 for students. Admission is free for Nasher Sculpture Center members.