Half Dream

Half Dream: “Fly” [Recorded Live at the Hole In the Wall]

For over a decade, the windows in the KUTX booth and the front of the Hole In the Wall have gazed at each other from across the street. Generations of musicians and music lovers have storied memories of the 51-year-old venue, whether you were there to see Townes Van Zandt’s regular performances or Lucinda Williams get her start, spotted icons like Courtney Love and Dave Grohl, or witnessed Yard Act’s first show in the U.S..

So it would make sense that two iconic Austin music institutions would finally converge. Over the last few months, we’ve invited our Concert Club members to be part of a new tradition, a series we’re calling The Hole Story. Think of it as MTV: Unplugged, but Austin. Short, stripped-down story-driven solo sets by some of our favorite Austin musicians performed on Hole In the Wall’s famous front stage.

And now, we’re sharing these sets with you, kicking it off with our May Artist of the Month Half Dream. A regular on the Hole In the Wall calendar, Half Dream’s Paige Renee Berry performed a plugged-in solo set, showcasing her lofty, haunting vocals and bare-it-all-while-sometimes-taking-no-prisoners songwriting prowess.

Half Dream: “Fly” [PREMIERE]

Austin’s Paige Renee Berry has had music at the center of their life since before they could talk. The Knoxville, Tennessee native began writing their own music in college, and when they moved to Austin in 2015, Berry co-founded the folk duo The Rosaries. In 2018 Berry started taking their own solo music head-on but quickly fleshed out their vision with a full rock band and renamed the project Half Dream. Since 2018, the group has released an EP and full-length, toured the East Coast, and been an official SXSW artist.

Today, Half Dream releases their new single “Fly,” a song true to their brand of rock music with lyrics about growth, trauma, and the state of the world around us. But, also true to their brand, there’s no wallowing or doubling down — there’s always a sense of therapy and hope, as fallible as we may be along the way. “Fly” in particular, has a slight country step to its groove like a little nod to where their love of music all began.

Half Dream plays tonight at Hole in the Wall with Great Howl and Hallo.

Half Dream: “Roses”

With the autumnal onset of dreary, drippy weather here in Central Texas, this past weekend was kind of a wash for live events; at KUTX, we ended up postponing our final Rock the Park performance of 2022 a full week. But if you’re not as easily deterred by the elements, you might’ve made your way out to ABGB this weekend for a free show featuring Mean Jolene and Austin quartet Half Dream.

Masterminded by chief vocalist Paige Renee Berry, Half Dream’s been hammering down a hazy brand of indie pop rock for about half a decade. True to their name, Half Dream’s lucid instrumentation sounds like an original score to a fevered hallucination, one you won’t want to wake up from right away. The reason Half Dream was hunkering down at ABGB? The group’s latest single, “Roses”.

“Roses” fell last Friday, and Half Dream opens up for Shooks’ residency at Hotel Vegas 10PM tomorrow night. Myself? I’ll probably show support from home with fuzzy slippers on and a hot chocolate steaming. So if you’re like me and want some synesthesia for your senses without ever leaving the cave, get a whiff of languid rhythms, jangly guitar, and of course, Half Dream’s signature harmonies, with “Roses”.

Half Dream: “I Am My Own God”

Concerning artists who amp up the anticipation with an enticing name, Austin four-piece Half Dream is definitely a group who lives up to the expectations of their handle. The quartet walks a mesmerizing tightrope between ethereal shoegaze arrangements and grounded folk songwriting, spearheaded by fronting vocalist-guitarist Paige Renee Berry.

Half Dream shared their debut album Monster of Needing last October and cast their latest spell this morning. Get lucid with Half Dream when they perform 10pm tonight at Far Out Lounge for the single release show (along with The Hermits and Glasshealer) and even if you you plan on staying inside because of grey skies, you can still bask in the brooding nature of “I Am My Own God”!