The Toadies are back September 12-13 with their seventh annual Dia De Los Toadies festival, starring some of Texas' top artists, including the Old 97's and the Toadies themselves.
For the second year in a row, the music festival will take place in Fort Worth, on the banks of the Trinity River at Panther Island Pavilion. Veterans may recall that in prior years it took place at Possum Kingdom Lake and at WhiteWater Amphitheater in New Braunfels.
Joining the Toadies and Old 97's are Austin rock trio Ume, Fort Worth blues rockers Quaker City Nighthawks, reunited Dallas quintet Pleasant Grove, roots rockers Somebody's Darling, Austin pre-teen rockers Residual Kid, Fort Worth garage rockers The Longshots and synth-punkers Blank-Men.
Opening night will be an almost-acoustic evening with the Toadies and Old 97's front man Rhett Miller. Saturday will be a full-out rock show, headlined by the Toadies. This year marks the 20th anniversary of their platinum-selling album, Rubberneck, which the band will play in its entirety during the show.
Food will be available via food trucks such as Bellatrino, So-Cal Tacos, Texas BBQ by Holy Smokes, Lee's Grilled Cheese, Bombay Street Food, Butcher's Son and Gypsy Scoops. The festival will also feature a beach area where fans can cool off by taking a swim or participating in tubing and paddleboard during the show.
Tickets are on sale now through Prekindle. For information on tickets, lodging and more, visit Dia De Los Toadies.
Toadies return for the seventh annual Dio De Los Toadies in Fort Worth on September 12-13.
Photo courtesy of KirtlandRecords.com
Toadies return for the seventh annual Dio De Los Toadies in Fort Worth on September 12-13.
Stories featuring ordinary people faced with extreme situations have proven to be popular in film history. They range from Hitchcock movies like Rear Window to Brian De Palma’s Blow Out to the Coen Brothers’ Fargo. Recent films like Nobody and Love Hurts have put a twist on the sub-genre, featuring protagonists whose mild personas and everyman looks hide violent abilities.
The new film Novocaine is a further twist, as the ordinary man at its center has an ability that he’s never fully tapped before. Nate Caine (Jack Quaid) is a mild-mannered assistant bank manager whose life is boring by design, as he has a disorder called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. Being unable to feel pain, traumatic events that would stop most people in their tracks don’t faze him at all, sometimes to his detriment.
Soon after making a rare connection with another bank employee, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), the bank is robbed and Sherry is kidnapped. Nate decides to pursue the kidnappers to try to rescue Sherry, setting in motion a series of events that a person without his condition would find unbearable. However, his inability to feel pain turns him into a kind of unstoppable machine, determined to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.
That synopsis of the film, directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and written by Lars Jacobsen, makes it sound like a serious action film, but it’s actually an action comedy that finds a unique angle for its hero. The filmmakers portray Nate’s condition, if not completely accurately, then with an air of plausible realism. The laughs come not at his expense, but in reaction to how he repeatedly uses his ability to his advantage.
The result is a violently graphic film that rivals ones like John Wick in what it showcases. Knowing he can’t get hurt, Nate has no issue putting himself in harm’s way, whether it’s burns, gunshot wounds, impalements, and more. The amount of damage done to him could make the film into a kind of live-action Looney Tunes, but the filmmakers manage to walk the line between hilariously ridiculous and eye-rollingly stupid.
The romance between Nate and Sherry provides a nice through-line for the story, with a few good twists and turns along the way. The lone big misstep of the film is Nate’s friendship with Roscoe (Jacob Batalon), one developed through online gaming that turns into real life by necessity. It takes a long time for them to get any scenes together, with their interactions ultimately feeling unnecessary.
Quaid seems to be hitting his stride as an actor, starring in The Boys on Prime Video and in the recent Companion. He does a great job of never overplaying this role, keeping Nate as a regular person despite what he’s able to do. Midthunder is hit-and-miss, as the story takes her character through a yo-yo arc. Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh do serviceable work as detectives tracking Nate, delivering exactly what’s expected of them.
Novocaine is much better than it probably had a right to be, with some solid storytelling, some intense action, and a fantastic lead performance by Quaid. Humor and graphic violence don’t always go hand-in-hand, but this film finds a way to combine them in memorable ways.
