Petty Fox + Damion Shade and more
Thelma's Peach and Whittier Bar
April 4, 2026
Saturday nights are full of music in Kendall Whittier. In this neighborhood, it’s no problem to go to more than one show in one evening, given the easy flow of the musicians’ sets and the easy walk from one venue to another. On a recent Saturday, I wandered between Whittier Bar and Thelma’s Peach over the course of several hours, getting a taste of six bands before the night was over—from witty folk to EDM with a banjo sample.
First I stopped by Thelma’s Peach to see what was happening with the vinyl release show for What Fun, the new album from Winston Churchbus (Nicholas Foster). To my surprise, they started their show on time. Even a little early! Live music rarely starts on time.
Winston Churchbus has lyrics that’ll make your heart think and your belly laugh. He sat on a stool on the stage, just him and his guitar, surrounded by instruments ready to play by the next band. In one moment, he had the whole room singing and cheering along to “Why does everybody keep pissing on the floor in the men’s bathroom?” In the next, he was wrestling with why “no one wants to talk about how the circle ends.”
As he wrapped up his set, I wandered over to Whittier Bar, where Joey Duffy was starting the night off on piano, singing some covers, getting some of the crowd involved. I stayed for a bit, but the Disney cover wasn’t really my jam, so I was eager to see what else was happening.
By the time I got to Thelma’s again, the Molly Devine Trio was tuning their strings. I sat outside, talking to some of the others when Molly’s voice drifted through the door. Two-thirds of the crowd outside turned and walked in, like they’d been called. Devine has been establishing her presence in Tulsa with her soft, airy folk voice. The crowd listened in near silence; a woman swayed to the music in the corner.
After listening for a while, I went for another walk down Admiral. When I got back to Whittier Bar, I noticed someone staring off into the southwest sky. He looked at me and asked if there was a storm coming. “Nope,” I said, “It’s the Zach Bryan show.” You could see the lights and feel the beat all over midtown.
Inside, a rapper from OKC named S. Reidy was starting up. With an arm in a sling and a mic in hand, he spit fast, controlled lyrics to a semi-distorted but steady beat. It was an abrupt juxtaposition after the Molly Devine Trio’s set of soft strings up the street. Reidy had me laughing when he introduced one song with “The only thing worse than a panic attack is having one with bad house music.”
Then, back to Thelma’s, where the last act was going to be a joint venture between Winston Churchbus and the Good Time Band (led by Chris Foster), which they lovingly call “Good Bus.” One of the first introductions I had to Tulsa’s music scene was at Mercury Lounge with Foster on Foster, in which the father-son duo covered all the songs from the Tulsa bands they play in. They were still setting up, and I was more sauntering back and forth on Admiral than walking, so I figured the headlining act at Whittier Bar—Petty Fox and Damion Shade—would be good to go by the time I got back.
A few weeks ago, I ran into Petty Fox (Jason Bauer) at the Colony and asked my favorite question to ask artists: “What are you excited about next?” Without hesitation, he talked about this upcoming gig at Whittier that would start with an emo-acoustic set, then emo-rap, and then himself. He was grinning ear-to-ear talking about it.
When I first heard Petty Fox, he was running the Wednesday night loop set at The Colony: just him, his keyboards, and a computer, week after week. As the residency progressed, Kris Davis joined in on drums and Damion Shade on vocals. Shade brought the depth of his lyrics; Davis brought a pounding rhythm that didn’t stop. They’ve been playing together long enough you can feel that they’re just really damn good. The build, the drops, Petty Fox’s electronic dance vibe with Shade’s lyrics and voice: they just work, along with experiments and allusions that keep you guessing (on this night, small odes to Zelda and 15% more banjo samples).
This was the group that was set to close out this night at Whittier Bar. I could hear Davis’s drums before I crossed the street. Walking inside, I noticed that the venue now had a completely different feel from the rest of the night. Even the two people playing video games in the back were bouncing to the beat. And I gotta say, it is so refreshing to hear live music in Tulsa without any strings. I love a good string instrument, but there’s an abundance of them around town.
Petty Fox was stage right, head flung back in the air, hands flying across keys. Davis sat stage left against the wall with the kind of intensity you only see in a drummer. Shade owned the corner stage, alternating between standing with the mic at arms length and nearly eating the mic while sitting on his stool.
The crowd probably wasn’t much larger than before, but the room felt full. When Shade sang the chorus “Can’t stop, I won’t stop,” everyone’s head was on beat, every voice singing along. Shade has a long history of deep lyrics with killer beats, and he just released an excellent new single, “All My Fever Spilled,” with the Boom Bap Chorus featuring Petty Fox on talkbox, piano, organ, wurlitzer, and mellotron. When you hear Shade’s growl voice on that track leaning in and fading away from the mic, you want to belt out “oh, I want you” with him, just like you’re in the crowd at Whittier Bar. I wish they’d played it live that night.
As Petty Fox and Shade closed their set, I sauntered (not walked) back to Thelma’s one last time to see if Good Bus had commenced. They had, and the crowd was roaring and dancing. People were hugging. They were happy. That’s one of the beautiful things about Tulsa’s music scene. When you show up, you get to meet new people, new friends. As for the music itself? To see someone put themselves out there on a stage, a vulnerable place, and then to sing something or play something they’ve poured their soul into—it makes me want to be vulnerable in my own art and life. Music craves an audience, but it can inspire one too.
