Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: Valentines Day Massacre + Chris/Kris Becker + Baby Rudy Benefit + More

Sunday, February 13th, coming up, with plenty to do; here’s what looks cool to yours truly:

Valentines Day Massacre, featuring D.R.I., Death Angel, Early Man, Lazarus A.D., Bonded In Blood, Hexen, Will to Live, & H.R.A. @ Numbers
Wow. That’s one hell of a lineup — all-out thrash insanity at Numbers, of all places, including old-school, H-town-bred throwbacks D.R.I., the reunited Death Angel, more recent additions Early Man & Lazarus A.D., not to mention local boys {Will to Live} & {H.R.A.}. Bang yr fuckin head, y’all.

The Caroline Sessions, featuring Chris Becker & Kris Becker @ CultureMap (1011 Wood Street First Floor; 2-5PM)
Okay, I’ll admit it: the whole concept of both “Chris/Kris Becker”s playing a show together makes me grin like an idiot. And yep, these are indeed two different guys — New Yorker Chris Becker is an avant-garde-ish composer who uses computers to do his thing and performs while simultaneously showing films by folks like Maya Deren (which is to say, that are very strange/intriguing), while Houston’s own {Kris Becker} happens to play keys (awesomely well, I might add) in {The Literary Greats} & has his own solo career on the side.

Very, very different people, obviously, but both damn, damn talented. And fyi, this isn’t at the usual Caroline Sessions location of (duh) Caroline Collective, but is instead at the HQ of the ultra-cool CultureMap folks, 1011 Wood Street. Good food, good music, and all free-free-free. Get on over there…

Baby Rudy Benefit & Spaghetti Cook-Off, featuring Mooseknuckle TX, Lone Star Tall Boys, The Lotus Effect, Two Times Up Top, & DJ Bigg Redd @ The Concert Pub North (Spring; 3-7:30PM)
I never met Rudy, no, but as a dad I can’t help but feel for these folks; this show’s a benefit to raise money for a headstone for this poor family’s little boy, who passed away back at the end of December. I can’t even begin to understand how it feels to lose a child; having to worry about how you’ll afford to bury ’em is even worse.

I have to say, as well, that as benefits go, this is pretty unique — it’s a spaghetti cook-off, with different teams of people (including “Team SwishaHouse,” apparently) competing to see who can come up with the best damn pot of spaghetti in the place. They’re supposedly still looking for more teams of burgeoning cooks to compete, so if you do a great meat sauce, hey… Oh, and the musical talent here’s nothing to sneeze at, either, esp. cool, intense alt-rockers {The Lotus Effect}; kudos to everybody for donating their time & skills for this.

Runners-Up:
Air Waves/football, etc./The Handshake @ Fitzgerald’s
Binarium Sound Series, featuring Carlos Pozo/Pablo Gimenez & Robert Pearson/Chris Lopez/Jim Stockton @ The Mekong Underground (8-10PM)
The Red River/The Escatones @ The Mink