The Progressive Collective Hits Warehouse Live, This Saturday

Quite a bit coming for our cold-ass weekend, but I wanted to point a quick finger at one thing in particular before I forget and/or let things slide to the absolute last second.

In case you hadn’t heard of ’em already, there’s a new-ish, loosely-affiliated grouping of bands floating around town calling itself The Progressive Collective; well, okay, I think it’s a band-coalition-type thing, anyway, having seen the name on a comp from a showcase back in August at Fitz…

Anyway, it’s also an actual festival, coming up this Saturday, February 5th, over at Warehouse Live, and it features a ton of cool bands, both from here & elsewhere. There’s moody alternarockers The Lotus Effect, whom I like quite a bit (esp. “Fireflies”), twitchy, frantic, funk-edged rock dudes Peekaboo Theory, who are also pretty great, and more out-and-out Latino-prog-pop guys Tax The Wolf, who I seriously need to write about in more detail one of these damn days.

There’re also folks playing that I’m not as familiar with, namely Austin weirdo-popsters Opposite Day, Denton prog-metallers Shaolin Death Squad (who, surprisingly, are better than their goofy, Slipknot-esque getups would suggest), soul-tinged locals Ellypseas, and self-described prog-rock trio MacAdams.

The happy surprise of the bunch, though, is Sunrise and Ammunition, a gang of youngsters who play prog-influenced (see the common thread, here?) rock/metal with interestingly post-emo harmony vocals; I’d never really gotten a chance to listen to these guys ’til now, but I have to say, they sound pretty damn promising, especially if you’re into the noodly, prog-y rock thing. “Albedo,” in particular, sounds oddly like early Radiohead at points — worth keeping an eye on…

As an added bonus, by the way, the whole thing’s being hosted by the infamous Jef With One F, formerly of this here Website & currently of the {Houston Press} (and whose book, The Bible Spelled Backwards Does Not Change the Fact That You Cannot Kill David Arquette, still cracks me up after multiple readings). He’s an entertaining guy, seriously; expect some weird, Rocky Horror-esque showmanship.

So, that’s the deal — brave the cold & get on out of the house, slackers. It’s $12 for the whole deal, and the doors open at 5PM, so get over there early…