Zookeeper's Emo Heart Won't Break

Zookeeper’s Chris Simpson and Co. laid into a set full of rambling indie rock stompers and sensitive soothers with a heart quaking howl and thick guitar layers to a scattered audience inside Stubb’s Wednesday night (Dec. 19). A small hometown crowd made up mostly of music critics and musicians stood stage front under the bright canopy of Christmas lights intimately watching, some with eyes closed mouthing along to the moody melodies. Simpson, who became a bit of an emo legend with his group Mineral and later built a formidable fan base with the Gloria Record, has retained much of the emotion of those earlier projects and injects it into songs that lie between Western indie rock with punchy guitars and a softer folkier sound.

Simpson and crew played tunes found on their latest LP, Becoming All Things -- like "Trumpets," with its ringing guitars circling an affective chorus -- as well as old fave "I Live In the Mess You Are." For Zookeeper's backing band, Simpson draws from a pool of local musicians that come and go collaborating now and then from groups like Zykos and Okkervil River. And even though some weren't playing with Simpson this particular night, musicians like Jeff Klein and Brian Hubbard from the Gloria Record were hovering in the crowd. New York's Rosewood Thieves offered their own super-sturdy vintage folk rock culminating in their performance of "Los Angeles." Frank Smith, a band which recently relocated to Austin from Boston, opened with some stellar pedal steel and banjo-fueled indie rock. 

We asked: Zookeeper is composed of Chris Simpson and many other local musicians. Who are some other local groups or artists that you’d like to see added to their lineup?