"Maybe it's just because they're Texans, but something about the band's third album, Matter and Light, seems to view introversion as a form of secession. Perhaps because they've been forced to circle the wagons and rechristen themselves, they've cultivated a strong separatist streak in their music: With their clever orchestrations and cleverer lyrics (best: "I'm not bitter but I hope she dies"), they inhabit their little corner of the Lone Star state, and while you're invited to listen in, they're not asking twice or saving you a seat.
Matter and Light, however, is far from inaccessible. The Fire have a knack for curious, slightly off arrangements that reveal their layers through repeated listens. Their cover of Elliott Smith's "Say Yes" says yes to music box bells, plunking banjo, mariachi horns, and singing saw, but says no to lyrics. All they care about is Smith's mournful up-and-down melody, which makes a lovely album intermission. "Uncle Wayne" marries a skipping rhythm to Don Feagin's Smoggy vocals, lyrics about particularly gruesome car-crash fatalities, and trumpets playing one of the wryest fanfares ever. (It should be noted that the video features actress Angela Bettis of May fame, which means it is one of the best videos ever made). That fanfare only echoes Feagin's performance, which gravitates toward unannounced punchlines and constant self-deprecation. "I'd like to help stop the war, but I just stayed home and watched it on TV," Heath sings on "Swashbuckler Blues". "I'd like to rob from the rich and give to the poor, but I'm too lazy." They may be territorial, but the Theater Fire are more engaged with the world than even they realize" - (7.4) PITCHFORK
"The Theater Fire certainly lives up to their name with passion, lust and fire conveyed in a classic, understated form. They know what they do well and never hold back, taking traditional music and twisting it into their own signature sound. The product is country music with a mariachi, folk, rock edge that is at the same time both easy to listen to and layered so deep that every time hearing it again brings something new." - CMJ
"The Theater Fire takes me back to a simpler time, or simpler frame of mind, when artists sung about serious things without getting freaked out or dressing in black, or by trying to convey their seriousness by mumbling the lyrics in a tedious monotone. This band is bright, both musically and mentally, and they make a joyful noise — without completely ignoring life’s grim realities. The Theater Fire could be a modern American version of the Kinks with their deadpan humor, fine musicianship, and upbeat, slightly skewed vision of the world. Their all-acoustic sound is timeless, and with arrangements that condense the last 60 years of pop music into tasty, easy-to-swallow nuggets, they should be around for a long time. " - CRAWDADDY! MAGAZINE
"The Theater Fire seems to be pulling its influence from thin air — or maybe out of thick, swampy, Southern air — but the strange brew works. The album’s a good listen overall with standouts including “Swashbuckler Blues,” a lament about the shortcomings of a guy who tries to be valiant like Errol Flynn but winds up lazy like his old man: “I’d like to have stopped the war / But I just stayed home and watched it on TV.” And don’t forget “The Testicle Song,” which just might be the prettiest song ever written about balls." - VENUS ZINE
"The septet’s sprawling, idiosyncratic sound makes Matter and Light, the collective’s third full-length album an elegiac, mesmerizing experience"-FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
"This is chamber music with spurs and tumbleweeds. Very nice." - Ink 19
"The Theater Fire sing songs that are similar to the smoldering embers of a campfire - rich and luminous. Their tales of love and loss are a good time and a good cry." - UNDER THE RADAR MAGAZINE
"On their second album Everybody Has a Dark Side, they've blossomed into a laid-back, unassumingly sublime outfit that is quite comfortable in its musical skin. As the thirteen presented tracks ramble through forty odd minutes of playing time, we hear yarns spun about lovers, loners, brothers, dusty strangers and guilt ridden survivors. These stories are set to music that consistently changes things around while avoiding most of the formulaic trappings of americana or roots music."- THE ASHVILLE DISCLAIMER
"As sweet as a jar of homemade strawberry preserves. Through ghost towns, over mountains and beneath blue moons, it's alt-country for the parts of the country you only see on your way up" - MAGNET MAGAZINE
With "influences ranging from The Velvet Underground to George Jones", The Theater Fire is what Texas Music should sound like, but rarely does. Their sound is a spellbinding fusion of folk, country, mariachi, and rock, wrapped in themes of death, guilt, and isolation. Perhaps the Fort Worth Weekly put it best: "It sounds at once urban and rustic, modern and very, very old." - GORILLA VS. BEAR
".a gorgeous trek down country, soul, folk and Latin paths all at once, and there's nary a plugged-in instrument to crowd out the horns, mandolins, washboards and accordions."- DALLAS OBSERVER
