Tonight: Jana Hunter + Beach House + Tricky + Deer Tick + Wintersleep + St. Paddy’s + More

Whoa…almost completely forgot to mention all the insanity going on tonight, which is a ridiculously bad thing, considering how good this stuff is. Before I lose my mind again, here’s the pile of good things with which to while away your Happy Irishy Day evening:

Beach House/Jana Hunter @ The Orange Show (7PM; $10)
At this point, I really shouldn’t have to mention Jana Hunter at all — she shouldn’t need the introduction, folks. Expat Houstonian (now dwelling in Baltimore, last I heard), ex-Matty and Mossy brilliance, and currently one of a small handful of Houston Scene-bred indie-ish people to have made a splash outside the confines of 610 and garnered some serious critical acclaim. And she deserves every bit of that for her strange, folky, creaky/creepy, backporch-in-Hell songs, which sound more than anything like they were made by one of those weird-ass Canadian collectives after a long, sun-starved winter. On this particular trip back home, she’s playing with fellow Baltimoreans Beach House, whom we reviewed the last time they swung through Houston and who mine a similarly psychedelic realm of gauzy/woozy almost-folkiness.

Plus, the show’s at The Orange Show, and it’s NOT FUCKING RAINING. Take advantage, y’all.

Stardeath & White Dwarfs/Deer Tick/Wintersleep/Tigercity @ Rudyard’s
I’ll shamefacedly admit to total ignorance of headliners Stardeath & White Dwarfs (beyond the fact that they have an entertaining name) and openers Tigercity, but I dig what I’ve heard of the folks in-between, both Deer Tick and Canadians Wintersleep — the latter do a beautifully driving indie-rock roar with flat-ish vocals, like a more shoegazery Stills or Austin heroes Silver Scooter, while the former do some truly fractured, trippily weird, countrified bedroom-pop, sounding like a yallternative band on bad acid. And if you hurry, you can catch a preview of Deer Tick at Cactus Music at 5:30PM (with free beer!).

Tricky/Natelie Stewart/ Nosaprise @ Warehouse Live
The world needs a Tricky — a fuck-the-rules musical prankster who alternately broods and exults in what he’s doing, in the process crafting some dark-ass music for the world to attempt to dance to. He’s like the sound of grimy, messy, dangerous-seeming London, the areas of the city that look like the sets of Children of Men right freakin’ now. Angels With Dirty Faces still ends up in my car on a fairly regular basis, I swear (hell, I’m not even sure how it happens). Dunno Natelie Stewart, except that she used to be (still is?) in Floetry, but local boy Nosaprise is a heck of a talent in his own right, with a nice flow, intelligent samples, and

St. Patrick’s Day Festival, featuring a bunch of folks @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Yep, the old Mucky Duck‘s venerably St. Paddy’s festival, which always makes me smile nostalgically for the days when I could just go hang there for hours, listening to all the fine, fine folk music, enjoying the food, admiring the dancing, the whole deal. This one evening packs enough Irish-ness in for the rest of the year plus some…

The Runners-Up:
Sugar & Gold/Bart Davenport/The Botticellis/Grandfather Child @ Walter’s on Washington
Pterodactyl/The Coat Hangers @ The Mink
GoGirlsMusic St. Paddy’s Day, featuring a bunch of bands @ Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar
The Boy Bathing/Willie Heath Neal/Charlie McCalister @ Notsuoh
Miami Horror/Don Rimini/CLP/Damon Allen/Fredster/DJ Cuba Gooding Jr./GRRRL Parts/Dayta @ Escobar (2905 Travis)