Tripping Along Just Fine: Tripping Daisy Delivers Sonic Bloom at The Factory

Los Angeles has Jane’s Addiction; New York City has Sonic Youth; Dallas has Tripping Daisy. These bands helped guide kids to be young and cool in the fast-changing America of the 1990s while defining their respective city’s underground before hitting the mainstream. Although all the bands went through breakups, their fans refused to let their music fade into obscurity. Instead, this rare coterie of alternative rock juggernauts have influenced droves of local musicians, helping birth the sounds of decades of bands to come, regardless of their group’s official status.

On Saturday, June 29 at The Factory in Deep Ellum, Tripping Daisy once again reminded Dallas why they are one of the city’s greatest cultural treasures.

After a short string of shows starting in 2017, Tripping Daisy recently announced plans to reunite, tour and record a new album. This sent the Dallas music community into a social media frenzy over the past week, one fan even declaring June 29 “Tripping Daisy Day” on Facebook.

For the night’s special event, Tripping Daisy announced it would forgo any openers and be the only entertainment for the night, billing the show as “An Evening with Tripping Daisy.” There was also a promise to play the band’s classic album, I Am an Elastic Firecracker, released in 1995 on Island Records from start to finish, followed by other fan favorites. As the venue seemingly neared full capacity, the band delayed the show by 25 minutes so more people could make it into The Factory.

Those early to the room were treated to songs by other 1990s local bands, such as UFOFU blasting over the main speakers, paying the first of several homages to former Tripping Daisy and UFOFU drummer Ben Curtis, who died in 2013. One fan openly reminisced about a now legendary show that UFOFO and Tripping Daisy shared at the Bronco Bowl over two decades ago.

Around 8:40 p.m, Tripping Daisy arrived on stage to lay down a blanket of psychedelic noise while hidden behind a giant white canvas bearing the band's name. Individual shadows of group members could be seen from the packed house moving from side to side, as the music swelled and oscillated, fans pushing closer and closer to the stage. The psychedelic jamboree ended with Tripping Daisy’s new lead guitarist Nick Earl playing the iconic opening riff of “Rocket Pop,” the first song off I Am an Elastic Firecracker. The white sheet quickly dropped and Tripping Daisy delivered a sonic boom-like musical punch to the giant room.

Along with Earl, singer Tim DeLaughter, bassist Mark Pirro, guitarist Phil Karnats, drummer Bryan Wakeland and keyboardist Dylan Silvers were greeted with a sea of thousands of screams, raised hands and smiling faces. After finishing the first song the band tore through “Bang” before leading up to their MTV hit, “I Got a Girl.” DeLaughter then requested the band play the song again after not being happy with their first attempt at the classic tune, which was a real treat for those who love the song. “Hey, we’re all family here, right?” DeLaughter said before starting the song again, “Let’s get it right this time.”

After the second take of “I Got a Girl,” Tripping Daisy began performing the rest of the 1995 album flawlessly, including crowd favorites “Trip Along,” "Noose” and “Raindrop.” DeLaughter at one point told the audience that “Trip Along” was one of the first songs he wrote.

Tripping Daisy’s show was enhanced by the outstanding light and visual displays from the band’s longtime visual effects artist Scott Berman. These included confetti cannons, light projections, original animations and over-the-top graphics displayed behind the musicians as they played. Fans were also treated to a rare and standout performance of “Prick” later in the first set, showcasing Earl’s prowess on lead guitar, mimicking a complicated solo originally written and performed by former lead guitarist Wes Berggren, who died in 1999.

After finishing the song, DeLaughter told the crowd that the guitar Earl was using for the tune happened to be Berggren’s beautiful red Gibson Les Paul custom. DeLaughter then mentioned that while recording the song in the studio nearly 30 years ago, Berggren nailed the complicated lead guitar part in one take. After a perfect performance of “Prick,” the band finished the first set with “High,” the last track from Elastic Firecracker. It's a soft contemplative song, ideal for building anticipation before entering an intermission period.

If the audience wasn't already emotional from the conclusion of I Am an Elastic Firecracker, during the intermission, Tripping Daisy projected a 15-minute-long montage encapsulating the band’s entire career, starting with old VHS footage of early shows in Dallas, candid moments with Berggren and Curtis and the band’s ascent to fame in the '90s, including an appearance on Conan O’Brian and ending with 2017’s Homegrown Fest reunion. Among those who watched the film from start to finish, there was not a dry eye in sight as even the most hardened, jaded sound engineers in Deep Ellum found themselves overwhelmed with emotion and what the band has come to mean over the years. The homage to Berggren and Curtis was a powerful reminder that life, like music and art, may be fragile and temporary, but also eternal.

After the intermission, DeLaughter and company were back onstage to perform 13 more songs off the records Bill, Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb and Time Capsule. As the band tore into song after song, there were several standout moments.

Four songs into the second set, guitarist Karnats' 13-year-old son, Atticus Karnats, joined his father onstage to contribute the trumpet parts to “Waited a Light Year." The young Karnats displayed nerves of steel as he stepped onto the stage in front of thousands of people, delivering the parts with precision. The song also served as a crescendo of sorts for visual artist Berman as the audience watched his display of two astronauts holding hands heading into the sun together. After the song was over, the elder Karnats gave his son a hug as DeLaughter applauded the young musician’s performance.

Tripping Daisy went to play fan favorites such as “Mechanical Breakdown,” “G.R.O.W” and “Tiny Men” before moving into the early material that helped give the band its lofty status, starting with “Blown Away.” During this part of the show, the audience could see DeLaughter’s two sons filming and enjoying every minute of their father’s performance. Oscar DeLaughter, a young musician himself, might have taken a few pointers. After “Blown Away,” several young people in the audience started crowd surfing, which lasted through the end of the show as the band ripped through “One Through Four.” At the end of this song, DeLaughter announced that Tripping Daisy had only one song left, and the audience started booing loudly. At that point, the singer said, “OK, that was our last song,” with a chuckle as everyone in the room laughed. Tripping Daisy ended the night with “My Umbrella,” and that’s when things got really wild. As the front half of the room jumped up and down, one crowd surfer managed to jump from the stage, but missed the screaming crowd and connected instead with the metal barrier fence. It was later confirmed via DeLaughter’s social media feed that the concertgoer had broken his jaw and lost a tooth, but was otherwise OK. As the night ended and the band took a bow together in front of thousands of screaming fans, DeLaughter’s words centered on his former bandmates.


“I can feel Wes’s energy here tonight,” DeLaughter said. “I can also feel Ben here with us.”

DeLaughter thanked the audience for the 30 years of support that Tripping Daisy has received from the city, before saying that he needed to go check on his friend from the stage diving incident. He followed up with the band’s plans for the near future: “We will see you in 2025 with a new record and tour,” DeLaughter said. “Thank you and be safe tonight getting home.”

With this announcement, Tripping Daisy may help revitalize the Deep Ellum scene they helped to build by granting new bands opportunities to grow by playing opening slots. With corporate entities taking over many buildings in the historic neighborhood and the average music patron spending more money per year supporting cover bands than original acts, this would be a great opportunity for a forward-thinking, successful band like Tripping Daisy to help usher in a new horizon for Deep Ellum.

Like Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, DeLaughter with Polyphonic Spree and Tripping Daisy writes timeless music that points to what was tasteful and hip years ago but will still be cool 30 years from now.