Apparently, Fitzwilly’s is booking all the right bands these days—at least for indie pop/rock lovers in the area. Just a few weeks ago, the Umbrellas appeared with the Hero Factor and Isola. Thursday, February 9th, Fitz’s lineup featured Green River Ordinance and Wideawake—two Texas bands with quickly-expanding fan bases.

Green River Ordinance, a band of underage boys from the Fort Worth area, opened the show. I have never seen Fitzwilly’s this packed with an array of folks ranging from 18 to 40, from hipsters to rockers, from students to parents. The band really got the crowd on their feet; they played with the authority one would expect from seasoned professionals. Aggressive and in tune, these young men impressed the crowd greatly and prepared them for what was to come.

Headlining that night was Wideawake, a band whose fame has recently skyrocketed. They’ve done the Texas circuit for years with the Lucky Lounge in Austin as their home venue, but they’ve recently taken flight and spread their sounds elsewhere. With the advent of the New Year, the band jumped aboard the Sister Hazel/Sixthman Rock Boat VI, a carnival cruise that departed from Galveston and toured the Gulf, stopping at Playa Del Carmen among other places in mid January with over 35 bands. According to a consensus on therockboat.com’s message boards, Wideawake was the “it” band this year. Shanin’, their merchandise sales rep, said that for the first ten days after the cruise, they were receiving one hundred MySpace friend requests a day, and since the band doesn’t solicit on the website, this made their “friend” list grow by 30%. In the weeks following TRB VI they toured in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Georgia with their Fitzwilly’s show being their last public show before a week of rest.

Despite their hectic schedule, the band’s energy soared. If one wasn’t aware of their recent travels, he would never be able to tell. Although they were exhausted, these guys didn’t miss a beat. They opened the show with their tune “Mariposa”, and by the end of the song, they had the crowd singing. They continued with “Bigger than Ourselves”, the title track from their 2001 album, which makes a claim that rings so true. As Scott Leger belted out “We need something bigger than ourselves to rescue us from us…” the whole crowd seemed to swell as if feeling the same thing. At some point early in the show, Scott did a “town roll call” and ask expected, many members of their loyal fan base had taken quite a road trip to see them perform.