Your Weekend, Pt. 1: Benjamin Wesley + Queensryche (Reviewed!) + Hometown Hoedown + Earth Crisis + More

We’re headed for a badass Memorial Day Weekend, folks — there’s a ton of stuff going on, seriously. I’ll try to post more about the remainder of the weekend, soon, but for tonight, Friday, May 22nd, you’ve got some choosing to do…

First of all, I need to mention that we got a couple of new reviews up in time for shows tonight, Friday, May 22nd, namely a belated-but-laudatory writeup of Benjamin Wesley‘s awesome, awesome Geschichte EP (released back in March; check the full review here) and Scott “The Metal Guy” Whitt‘s review of the new Queensryche album (check it out here; and while I’m at it, why is it that Firefox won’t recognize my y-umlauts? damn frustrating…). Wesley will be opening for the ever-awesome Spain Colored Orange tonight over at Mango’s, while the prog-metallers will be playing all by their lonesomes at the House of Blues.

Beyond those two, though, there’s plenty more to pick from. My favorites:

Hometown Hoedown, featuring Blackmarket Syndicate, Molotov Compromise, Rats in the Attic, & more @ The Jet Lounge
Earth Crisis/Walls of Jericho/Reign Supreme/Unholy/Blood Stands Still/Supremacy/In the Storm @ Javajazz Coffee House (16300 Kuykendahl)
Welfare Mothers/XYX/Footsies/Limb/Ratas del Vaticano/Muhammid Ali @ Notsuoh (7PM; $5)
Girl Shy, featuring Two Star Symphony @ Discovery Green
Quiet Morning & the Calamity/Sew What/Elaine Greer/Dana Falconberry/Sunset/Robert Ellis @ Super Happy Fun Land
Pierced Arrows/Orange Is In/Dead Roses @ Rudyard’s

And the runners-up:

Soulcase/Magnetic/Journey Agents/We Are Halffnelson/Mic Skills @ The Mink
India Arie @ Arena Theatre (yeah, yeah; the song she did with Elmo on Sesame Street got stuck in my head, what can I say?)
The Failed Attempt/Los Desconocidos/The Buzzkillers/Always Guilty @ Fitzdown
Indigo Girls @ Verizon Wireless Theater (c’mon, anybody who went to college in the ’90s is secretly dying to get their folk on…)

For those into crappy-yet-hilarious shows, btw, you may be interested to know that Brian “Head” Welch, ex-Korn guy turned born-again and reformed junkie/alcoholic/whatever it is he drugged himself with, will be doing his thing tonight up at the Salem Auditorium in Tomball. I’d dearly, dearly love to see a crew of old-school Korn fans (which I am not, I should add) show up and heckle. If anybody does it, please bring a camera…