Yep, yep, yep -- another weekend, another gigantic pile of excellent-sounding shows, and yet still not enough time for me to go through 'em all at once. Expect Helping #2 this evening, hopefully. Here's what I think sounds cool for tonight, Friday, February 19th:

Mike Doughty (ex-Soul Coughing) @ Listening Room (NiaMoves, 508 Pecore; two shows)
Wow. Wow. That's really all I can say about this; I'll admit that I've heard only a teeny-tiny bit of Mike Doughty's solo stuff, but I'm sold based just on his mind-breaking lyricism back in the day with his old band, Soul Coughing. Saw them once at the Satellite Lounge, and they were so damn good they rendered me speechless. The man's less a musician than a poet, but hell, I don't care; it still works. And hey, he's got two shows tonight, one at 6:30PM and one at 9PM, so you've really got no excuse. Unless, um, you've got little kids & a sick wife at home & whatnot. [cough]

(BTW, yeah, I know the $17.50 cover at NiaMoves seems a wee bit high, but hopefully that won't dissuade the fans from coming out...)

D.R.I./Sinister Minister/Cancer/Room 101 @ Wired Live (formerly The Meridian; The Channel)
I can't claim to've been a fan of skate-thrash pioneers D.R.I. back in the day, sadly -- at my high school, there was a small contingent of skate-punks who tromped down the halls in baggy shorts with sullen looks on their faces and D.R.I./Black Flag/Circle Jerks patches on their backpacks, but I wasn't disaffected enough to be one of 'em (they weren't exactly the cool kids, at least at our school, but they always seemed to be their own separate stratum, and I was over in the intersecting metalhead/nerd stratum, myself). So it wasn't 'til quite a bit later that I ever even heard the band...and then they pretty much went into hibernation for what seemed like forever. Hell, I figured they'd broken up, myself.

Glad to see that's not the case -- and extra-special-glad to see H-town bizarro noisemaker Room 101 on the bill, too. Get there early for this one; he won't disappoint.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives/The Fox Derby/Nico Vega @ Warehouse Live
Honestly, I have yet to hear The Soundtrack of Our Lives -- just not enough Headphones Time this week -- but I've heard 'em praised to the skies by people whose opinions I value a heck of a lot, even if the descriptions I've heard have been fairly confusing. (Something about a fat Swedish guy in a brown tunic fronting a heavy rock band or something?) Your mileage may vary.

I have heard a fair bit from LA rockers Nico Vega, however, and they've impressed me mightily with their dramatic, Denali-esque alternarock (see Quinn's review of their show last year at the HoB over here); well worth checking out, as are local folks The Fox Derby.

Roy Clark @ Stafford Centre (Stafford)
Please tell me I don't have to explain this one. Roy Clark! Roy fucking Clark! The guy was like the introduction to non-metal guitar-shredding for all the kids like me who grew up watching Hee Haw; watching him was when I realized that you really didn't have to play heavy to be a badass guitarist. I'm betting he's still got it, y'all.

Runners-Up:
Fistful of Soul, featuring the Urbane Guerilla Sound System @ The Mink
The Flamin' Hellcats @ Rudyard's
Robbers/The City Lives/Days n' Daze/Jimson Jolly Vagrants/Darwin's Finches/U NOT I/Jake Swan @ Super Happy Fun Land
The Distracted/The Colored Bandanas/Suburban Warfare/InsertNameHere @ Fitzgerald's
Jody Seabody @ Mango's
Vatos Locos/Siba II/Fresh Millions/Laserz @ Fitzdown
Osirus/Adrian & The Sickness/Bateman Red @ Crazy Frog's Saloon (3939 FM 1960 West)

Labels: Flyeration, H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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