Tonight: Sara Van Buskirk/Prairie Cadets + The Starlight Mints + Unsparing Sea + This Year’s Tiger + More

Believe it or not, tonight’s a bit of a slow one ’round these parts, at least for my tastes — not that there’s not good stuff going on, but there’s, well, less of it. Here’s what I may be dragging our out-of-town guests (back in town after 5 yrs. from the pathetically music-less wilds of Roanoke Rapids, NC; one of said friends has to drive 3+ hours just to see bands) to tonight, Friday, June 26th:

Sara Van Buskirk/Prairie Cadets/Frank Freeman/Paula May @ Avant Garden
Yeah, this is probably where I’ll end up if we can escape the humble abode this evening — I’m liking Sara Van Buskirk‘s thoughtful, sweetly rough folk songs and want to hear more, and I’m heavily intrigued by Prairie Cadets, which happens to be the new musical project of excellent local photog Marc Brubaker & music writer Adam Newton of Dryvetyme Onlyne. They do some cute, quirky folk-pop, and I’m enjoying it, myself, so I’m curious to see what they’ve got up their collective sleeves. (And hey, if Adam’s ever said mean things about your band, now’s your chance to heckle. Win!)

The Starlight Mints/Evangelicals @ House of Blues
Torn on this one, seriously — I haven’t heard The Starlight Mints lately, but when I heard them last (waaaaay back on The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of), I liked their sweetly hazy indie-pop thing. I’m guessing they’ve mutated over the years, although reviews I’ve seen lately make ’em sound pretty good even now. Evangelicals, on the other hand, I absolutely, completely, do not get. I got suckered in by the indie-hype last year, thought the name was cute, and then…meh. Not horrible, but definitely not great, at least on record. Sorry…one out of two’s not bad, though, right?

Unsparing Sea/Maxwell and His Demons @ Super Happy Fun Land
I’ve got the new Unsparing Sea EP in hand, although I’ve yet to be able to give it a full listen — I’m digging the murky, woozy art-rock so far, and I’ve heard good things about locals Maxwell and His Demons.

This Year’s Tiger @ Hot Topic (West Oaks Mall; 7PM)
Argh. I won’t be making it out to Hot Topic, but I desperately need to get a hold of This Year’s Tiger‘s newest stuff. Raw-yet-tuneful melodic indie-rock, and good shit, honest…

Carry The Storm/Cryptic Psychosis/Silenced Within/Altercation @ Walter’s on Washington
What (admittedly little) I’ve heard of Carry The Storm has been pretty cool, but I’ll admit it: the main reason I like this show is b/c the name “Cryptic Psychosis” cracks me up. (Offended Magnolia death metal dudes: I mean “cracks me up,” btw, in a good way. Um, kind of?)

Super Secret Awesome Fest 9000 Deux, featuring The Guns of Detroit, Kidd the Great, Hollywood Floss, Giant Battle Monster & more @ The Factory (10553 Fisher Rd.)
And speaking of “cryptic,” here we have Super Secret Awesome Fest 9000, which is apparently so secretly awesome that I can’t find a freaking thing online about this show except my listing and the one on Showlist H-Town. So be warned that if you try to go to this, the people at the cement factory this thing appears to be scheduled to be at may have no idea what you’re talking about. If the fest’s been moved, well, I guess it’s really secret, then…

Randy Travis @ Arena Theatre
Oh, c’mon. This is just so cheeseball it has to be entertaining. We’re in the Post-Irony Age here, people — things like Randy Travis & Yanni are now hysterically funny kitsch, at the very least.

Runners-Up:
Fox Derby (CD release)/Ember/Proto-Stereo/Stoneside/Suburban Warfare @ Fitzgerald’s
Neon Collars/Tax The Wolf/Journey Agents/Ellypseas @ Dean’s Credit Clothing
The Blue Poptarts/betterLUCK/The Hit/Otenki/Tigerparty/Await the Day @ Javajazz Coffee House
Congas by Carlos/Dub Texas @ Last Concert Cafe