Tonight: Retribution Gospel Choir (Reviewed/MP3!) + Frank Turner/Flogging Molly (MP3s!) + More

Man…what the hell day is this? I could’ve sworn it was plain-old, nothing-special Wednesday, the mid-week lull before the weekend storm, and yet tonight (February 10th) is pretty badass.

Here are things that sound good to me:

Retribution Gospel Choir/The Bloody Mushrooms @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian)
This first one’s the biggest deal to me, at least, partly because I’ve been blasting Retribution Gospel Choir‘s “Hide It Away” and “Workin’ Hard” on repeat for the past week or so and partly because we’ve got a brand-spanking-new review of the trio’s latest release, 2, up on the site right over here.

It’s good, good, good shit, albeit a bit surprising — as a longtime fan of frontman Alan Sparhawk‘s day-job band, Low (although, yeah, I have to confess that I haven’t heard much from their last couple of albums), I was absolutely not expecting an album’s worth of straight-up, rough-edged rockers that sound, at least in some cases, like they could get airplay on old-school KLOL. Check out “Hide It Away,” courtesy of label Sub Pop:

Retribution Gospel Choir – “Hide It Away”

Seriously, this one’s my top pick of the evening; I’m a bit worried, though, that with multiple things going on, the Choir playing at a big-ass place like The Meridian (whoops! sorry, Wired Live) means they’ll be playing to a half-empty room, and that’d be a damn shame…

Flogging Molly/Frank Turner/Architects @ House of Blues
I honestly doubt I’ll have to worry so much about Flogging Molly‘s show at the House of Blues being half-empty, but it’s still going to be freaking great, not least of all because of the headliners’ rollicking, drunken, Irish folk-punk. Seems like there’s a fair number of bands out there that do similar stuff, but hell, I don’t care — FM’s amped-up Pogues-with-electric-guitars thing sounds damn fine to me.

The person I’d really love to see, though, is actually Frank Turner, ex- of British hardcore dudes Million Dead and lately more of a solo, Billy Bragg-esque protest-folk troubadour; SCR compatriot Mel first got me interested in the guy, and he’s mind-blowingly cool, playing these sweet, deeply heartfelt, ridiculously smart songs over jangly guitar chords. He really is pretty much the only true successor to Billy Bragg that I’ve ever encountered, and that’s no minor thing.

To whet your appetite somewhat, then, here’s a few tracks to check out from both bands:

Frank Turner – “The Real Damage”
Frank Turner – “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous”
Flogging Molly – “Irish Pub Song”
Flogging Molly – “What’s Left of The Flag”

That’s not all, of course — if neither of the above sound appealling, here’re a few more promising-sounding shows…

Runners-Up:
Nile/Immolation/Krisiun/Rose Funeral/Dreaming Dead @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Robert Ellis & The Boys @ Mango’s
Free Radicals @ Avant Garden