Yeah, yeah — rushed again to get my little list of things-you-should-not-miss up on the site… Seemingly as always, I’ve got to keep this brief, y’all. Which is out-and-out painful, considering how damn much is going on tonight (Friday, April 15th, to be precise)…
Ran across a bit of news late today, namely that the much-contested, often-revived local venue formerly known as The Meridian has — yes, indeedy — risen from the grave once more….
I have to say that I think this place was, at least, the most comfortable mid-size venue I’d been to around here. It never looked like much from the outside — it was on the second floor of what used to be a Chinese fish wholesaler…
Believe it or not, this Sunday, December 12th, is looking, if anything, like a busier day (show-wise, that is) than the rest of the weekend. How often does that happen? Not real often, y’all. So take advantage, ’cause there’s some good shit going down…
Folks, we have one heck of an amazing-ass weekend in front of us. Seriously, from everything that’s going on, you’d think it was some big holiday weekend or something, not just some random second weekend in December…
It’s shaping up to be quite a handful of days, coming up. Starting tonight, Fri., June 18th, there’s good, good, practically unmissable shit literally each night…
Damn…gonna have to just hit it quick tonight (Wed., June 16), I’m afraid; there’s some darn good shit going on tonight, though, so I didn’t want to avoid mentioning it:
Sage Francis/Free Moral Agents/B. Dolan @ House of Blues
Ah, yes. What can I say?…
Back again with the hopefully-handy little weekend writeups, and just to make sure it feels like Old Times, yep, I’m late once again… There’s quite a bit going on this weekend, definitely, but I’m afraid this’ll have to be part 1 for now, with the rest to come later. First of all, though, a little bit of news… The show at Walter’s this coming Monday, May 31st, which was supposed to include Leatherface, Ninja Gun…
There’s an awesomely free, effortless feel to Miike Snow’s eponymous debut, so much so that you can practically hear the roguish grins and collective shrug — Miike Snow feels not like a trio of musicians setting out to “make” something, but instead just letting everything spill out and grabbing onto whatever sounds good…
It took me until a full minute into “Workin’ Hard” to get it. I’d been enjoying 2, the aptly-titled second album from Retribution Gospel Choir, definitely, right from the first ringing chords of “Hide It Away,” but I didn’t really get it…
For any national act, playing a hometown gig is a special thing. For their special moment, Scale The Summit got to play to a packed Meridian…
As the single “Mountain Man” moves up the Alternative chart, and “It’s Only Wednesday” takes a ride on an apocalyptic road trip…
When you name your band “Unholy,” you have something to live up to. People are going to expect the most demonic, violent, wretched, and evil sound ever. Or, at least, a really good metal band. This quintet from Syracuse, though, is sadly neither…
I think I’ve cracked it. It took me a while to get my head around it, but I think the best way to look at RX Bandits isn’t as a reggae+X band — like I’d always instinctively wanted to see them ’til now — but as a damn talented prog-rock band that just happens to pull in reggae, dub, punk, metal…
On Back and Fourth, soft-voiced singer/songwriter Pete Yorn comes off almost like a musical chameleon, to the point where I’m at first not entirely sure what to make of the guy. He starts off with gently determined, heavily folk-influenced country on “Don’t Wanna Cry”…
As I walked into an almost-empty Meridian, I wondered, “Am I at the right show? Is Black Mountain still playing tonight?” Then I remembered I was in Houston. And everyone was either recovering from SXSW or still there. As the opening bands came off-stage, The Meridian‘s small red room started to fill, but not enough to pack the house, which made for a great intimate setting…
Henry Rollins is one of my heroes. I dig his music, his spoken word/comedy, his books — I’ll even go see crappy movies that he’s in just because I like to see him act. Yeah, I’m talking about Jack Frost, and I’ll probably rent Wrong Turn 2 eventually, as well. I’ll also always take the Rollins side in the Black Flag debate…
In the end, it felt more like we were witnessing a social experiment of some kind, albeit from the inside. We’d gone to see Kings Of Leon and The Stills downtown at the usually-very-comfortable Meridian, and worked our way through security, surprised to see so many people coming out to a show on a Tuesday night. I figured it was just a sold-out show, although given the bands that was in itself kind of strange. We Houstonians ain’t always the hippest lot, particularly en masse…
