Saturday Night’s Alright: Good Stuff to Do Tonight

Man. Is it just me, or have we really been hitting a string of bad-ass weekends for shows lately? I can tell I’ve been watching too much Deadliest Catch, ’cause the analogy that keeps popping into my head is of H-town sitting on a big biomass of, uh, good bands and consistently hauling in a ton of keepers. (Sad, I know. Cable TV, I both love you and curse you for keeping me up all hours watching this crap…)

Anyway, however you want to describe it, tonight’s a goldmine of good stuff to check out. Pick yer poison:

Sad Like Crazy/Rossi Mission @ Rudyard’s
I’ve waxed eloquent here about the Sad Like Crazy crew before (ex-Trompedo, ex-Celindine, ex-Linoleum Experiment, ex-All Transistor, etc., Thane’s currently also in the very cool Judas Bear), but hell, it’s worth doing more than once. Despite a lengthy hiatus, these expat Houstonians (now Austinites) haven’t lost a step; they still crank out some of the coolest, most interesting indie-rock to ever come out of this city. Fans of Pavement, Silkworm, Archers of Loaf, or a host of other ’90s-era indie bands will really, truly dig it, I swear. They’re so good I’m halfway tempted to ditch the fam (in town for the midget’s first-ever ballet performance down at Stafford Centre) and head to Rudz for a late night of laid-back, damn-I-wish-I-was-a-drinker rock.

AWAKE/The Gold Sounds/The McKenzies @ The Backroom (The Mink)
And here’s Candidate #2 for my hypothetical nighttime escape plan (which, sadly, probably won’t amount to much…). I’ve caught AWAKE twice now and have been very, very impressed/intrigued by the heavy, dirge-y postcore thing they do, and The Gold Sounds, Pasadena’s finest, play some extremely fine garage-y rock — seriously, their EP was one of the best local releases I heard last year. Plus, I’ve heard good things about The McKenzies from very reliable sources (like Ramon @ the Free Press), so they’re bound to be worth checking out, too.

A Night of Underground Sounds, featuring Pistolera, Machina, Out of Reach, & Pistoleros de Texas @ Talento Bilingue de Houston (333 S. Jensen)
Dunno much about this one other than Spanish-language New Wave/folklorico band Pistolera’s playing, and they sound pretty cool, if a bit oddball…

Runners-Up:

• Patrice Pike/Skyblue72/Liviya Compean @ Warehouse Live
• Zike/Vatos Locos/Death From Afar/Fireborn Disciple/Southern Embers @ The Engine Room
• Jamail Skatepark Pre-Party, featuring McRad, Frontside Five, Bark Hard, & The Party Downers @ Walter’s on Washington
• Gauge/Nosaprise/DJ Whitey/Mr. Castillo/Tha’ BBC/Fresh Kid Ihsan @ Avant Garden
• Cop Warmth/BLACKIE/Giant Princess/Caprolites @ Patterson Place (Pasadena Blvd. & Strawberry; Pasadena)

Get on out there; I’m gonna try to convince my little brother he really, really wants to experience the H-town scene…