Musician kicks off tour

Former one-man-band Daniel Francis Doyle kicked off his fall 2011 tour with a full band at his Sept. 1 show at Mohawk. The indoor stage was surrounded by fans to see Doyle, and the rest of the bill. Transmography opened the show followed by Seth Sherman, Doyle then the Dikes of Holland.

Somewhat notorious for his impressive melodic noise pop looped solo sets, he said he hit a wall and couldn't perform some of his complex tracks live. This is his first tour with a full band after three years of solo touring. Doyle said he's been playing with the band since February 2011.

The band was originally comprised of drummer Brandon Crowe and bassist Cory Plump, but Plumps was unable to go on tour and replaced with Rob Mosely.

Doyle said they are touring for a month and a half and will hit places all over America and Canada.

Crowe said Mosley, who is also the bassist for Dallas band Marriage Material, has only practiced with him and Doyle a few times before starting the tour, but has picked up the songs very quickly.

Doyle said he received some concerned emails about him not playing unaccompanied because the full band will perform at every show. He said he's not opposed to splitting sets if fans desire him to play solo in a looser concert environment.

Attendee Priya Patel said Doyle's solo loop station setup was very unique. She wasn't sure how she would feel about the band, but was surprised at how much she liked it.

"[They sounded] kind of spazzy at points with softer elements and a good beat going," Patel said. "The band was just different, but always really cool."

The full band performance of "There Are Two Of You" did not have the same effect as the solo version. The original long winding buildup intro to the song and Doyle's powerful lyrics – "There are three of me" – really build up steam and excitement about the song. The full band went right into it the song and didn't really create any pressure, but the it still sounded unique and garnered a fan sing-a- long.

Doyle moved to Austin from Dallas eight years ago to follow his previous band-mate Seth Sherman. The band, Early Lines, eventually broke up which inspired Doyle to begin his solo setup.

"No one person can do that," Crowe said was his first impression of hearing Doyle's music. A huge aspect of Doyle's original performance was the visual focus on him as the sole source of several layers of sound. Playing solo, his sound progressed from noise rock to melodic noise pop and now, as a trio, it has evolved more into poppy experimental math rock. Doyle doesn't like being called just ‘noise' anymore because he feels like he has created more melodic music for some time.

"That bothered me a little bit – I was trying to make songs," he said.

Doyle started playing guitar when he was 13. Obsessed with music, he said he listened to more and more bands and would daydream in school about performing music for a living.

He said Minutemen, Jonathan Richmond, Red Crayola and Aids Wolf are some of his influences along with post-punk 80s, 90s indie rock and early American hardcore.

"[Some songs] are predictable romantically inspired songs about being bummed out about a girl," Doyle said. "[Which] happens a lot of times unfortunately." But his songs are almost random ramblings that aren't exactly autobiographical.

"Daniel is an amazing songwriter," Crowe said. "[The songs are] so complex, but seem to flow well and don't sound like math rock."

The band performed four new collaborative songs at the Sept. 1 show and has an upcoming 10" vinyl record split with the Dikes of Holland to be released October 2011.