Rubber Gloves Studio welcomes Plus Fest for 3rd year

Lauren Davis sings with Grey Bloom, a Dallas post-hardcore band during the Plus Fest at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios on Oct. 15, 2023. Hannah Sutherla

Plus Fest had its 3rd annual appearance in Denton at the Rubber Gloves Studio from Oct. 14-15, featuring local, national and international math rock bands and musicians.

The festival was produced by BLVR Booking owner Danny Laake, who wanted to shine a light on math rock bands and musicians in the math rock scene of Denton. Over 30 bands and musicians performed over the course of the two-day festival, alternating between the Choke Artist outside stage and the Jordrews inside stage.

“Why I keep doing Plus Fest is to one, unify that math rock grouping both in Texas,” Laake said. “Which Plus Fest One started as exclusively Texas bands and now we have a band from Japan, Silhouette of Nude, playing. We have bands from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sacramento, California, New Jersey, just like everywhere and being able to unify that.”

A gentle breeze blew throughout the outside venue on a chilly and sunny Saturday afternoon with performances starting at 2 p.m. A small crowd of young adults grew quickly throughout the first performance to watch math rock musician and current Halfsleep band member Nathan Gass, who goes by the stage name Ginji, perform.

"Ginji" was inspired by Gass’s favorite character from the anime show “Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi.” Gass grew up in Decatur, Texas, surrounded by music with his mother’s guitar shop and exploring musical interests he had by playing jazz and marching band in high school. Gass’s style of math rock is more laid back and heavily incorporates the guitar.

“Music for me has always been a cathartic sort of outlet,” Gass said. “It always feels satisfying to do it no matter how much time I’m putting into it.”

Five of the 30 bands that performed are based in Denton, including Hessdalen Light, Ginji and Dome Dwellers. Each band consists of members from various musical backgrounds who come together to put their flair on the math rock genre.

Math rock is a broad and diverse element of rock music. Some bands and musicians stick to traditional rock and punk elements, while others are groovier and have psychedelic rock influences. Hessdalen Light, established in 2019 with a progressive style of math rock, performed on Oct. 14. Music is one of the bands occupations, with several band members having jobs outside of their pursuit in music. The guitarist of Hessdalen Light, Tanner Thornton, works at a tech company as a software engineer. Despite the opposing professions, Thornton made a connection between the two.

“Math rock and progressive rock is super technical in nature, how you fit things together,” Thornton said. “You solve software problems, you solve problems on how different parts of the music and song fit together.”

On the last day of the festival on Oct. 15, Dome Dwellers performed in the late afternoon on the Jordrews inside stage, a venue that could hold about 50-100 people. Different colored lights of various patterns shined on them as they performed in the dark venue.

Dome Dwellers is a four-member band, that has been together since the fall of 2012. The band members are from different musical backgrounds which aids them in exploring other genres and avenues of math rock. Drummer, David Gore, has a jazz and hip-hop background, while Cullen Dean comes from post-hardcore music.

Recently, Dome Dwellers have been focusing on psychedelic rock with their latest tracks consisting of groovy and funky rock music but throughout their catalog of music, elements of progressive rock can be heard. Band leader and guitarist Michael Slack grew up listening to a lot of music from the psychedelic era which has had an influence on the band's latest tracks.

“Everyone’s voices are heard,” Slack said. “Things are far better whenever there is more creative voices in my opinion […] things can get a little one note when there’s only one person making creative choices.”

Math rock is still a niche element of music that is still growing, but Laake says he seeks to unify bands and fans both locally and internationally by putting on the Plus Festival, as well as exposing the community to a different type of music they may not have heard before.

“There’s definitely this musician’s music element to us,” Slack said. “But at the same time I think a lot of our fans we might be the only band that they listen to that kind of sounds like us, which is also something that we’re totally okay with.”