Damn — No AWK for H-Town, After All…

And here I was, all gearing up to rant & rave, only to swing by the Hands Up board and learn that Andrew W.K. will now not be playing the Keene St. Warehouse Party this coming Saturday, July 5th. From AWK’s Website:

“I’m very sorry that the Houston show fell through. We did our best to salvage it, but the opportunity vanished. I’ll come back to Houston soon and the party will be better than ever. We were advised by some of the show organizers that their original plans had fallen through, and in their opinion, we should cancel, rather than show up and not be able to play.
I was sincerely looking forward to seeing many familiar faces and old friends, and I’ve been deeply frustrated by this turn of events. It wasn’t meant to be this time, but there will be a next time, and it will be great.”

This really, really, really bums me out. Seriously. I’d been psyched as hell for the show, folks, in a way that I have for few shows outside of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ Houston appearance a while back. sigh. Oh, well — least we got to chat with the guy, albeit briefly.

On the positive side, it looks like the show will go on, although I’m a bit confused, in that case, about reports of permits not being appropriately obtained; if a lack of permits stops one guy from playing, uh, wouldn’t it stop everybody? Anybody know? Whatever the story is, it still promises to be a heck of a show — it’s hard to go wrong with The Octopus Project, Bring Back the Guns, The Riff Tiffs, Papermoons, & The Watermarks on the bill, I’ve meant to catch O Pioneers!!! for a very long time, and I’ve heard really good things about Welfare Mothers, American Sharks, & B., as well. (Dunno much about the rest, sorry.)

So keep it penciled in, people, and go celebrate the fuck out of our great, strange, sometimes misguided but always hopeful country. Happy We-Kicked-the-English-Out-of-America Day, y’all.

(And yes, I do realize AWK’s still playing tomorrow night up in Austin. Fuck Austin.)