Tonight: B L A C K I E (Tour Kickoff) + The Dig + Port O’Brien + Inner Lights + MP3age

Busy night tonight, esp. for a Thursday (March 4th, that is). Gonna try to keep it brief, so I can get some other stuff posted up here relatively quickly, but here’s what I think sounds cool this evening:

B L A C K I E (tour kickoff)/ Rapeworm/ Wife @ 1816 Calumet (8PM; $5)
Never heard Rapeworm or Wife, sorry, but damn, I fucking love B L A C K I E. Even if I can’t fully describe him, I’ve gotta love what the guy does — it’s hip-hop, yeah, but it’s hip-hop like it might be interpreted by nihilistic aliens living somewhere out beyond the Van Allen Belts, who only get to hear old-school Yo! MTV Raps broadcasts with layers and layers of grimy static, tinny snare hits, speaker-destroying bass tones, and weird breaks and think, “okay, so that’s what Earth hip-hop must sound like…” It’s something you’ve got to see/hear to believe.

Here’s a track from the Dope & Doper EP, for proof:

B L A C K I E – “No Future”

And hey, tonight’s his tour kickoff, starting out a tour that’ll see him making his way through Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, & Arkansas before coming back to TX for SXSW. Catch him now or pay big $$$ and rub sweaty shoulders with a million or so strangers to try to witness it…

Portugal The Man/Port O’Brien/The Dig @ Warehouse Live
For my money, this show’s noteworthy not for headliners Portugal The Man (and yeah, I think there’s a comma or a period in there somewhere, but I dunno where, so fuck it; it’s a damn stupid band name anyway, folks…), but rather for opening acts Port O’Brien and The Dig. The latter are sweet and New Wave and romantic, like The Strokes really should have been when they made it big; the former are more delicate, kind of a ruralized, folkified indie-pop that sounds appropriately watery and ocean-going. Here’s a taste of each of ’em:

The Dig – “You’re Already Gone”
Port O’Brien – “Sailor’s Son”

H-Town Footnote Time: Just noticed that one of(?) the guitarists for Port O’Brien is none other than Houston scene alumnus Gram LeBron, who made his bones playing ’round town in flat-out great bands like Schrasj, Jessica Six, and Sad Like Crazy before moving west and ending up in a little band called Rogue Wave. No clue if Gram’s a permanent addition to the POB band, but he was playing with ’em as of last November, so maybe he’ll be making it back to town tonight.

Inner Lights/Smoke and Feathers @ Rudyard’s
Dunno a whole lot about these bands, but I do like the woozy, bad-trip-sounding psych-rock thing Inner Lights do, bridging the gap between swaying mid-’90s Britrock like Ride or The Verve and full-on ’60s psychedelia, and it’s just about guaranteed that any band with Kevin Richardson (ex-about a million awesome bands) is going to be good, so y’know…

Runners-Up:
Shock Treatment, featuring Born Liars & No Talk @ Rocbar
Chelsea Hotel/The Wrong Ones/Dead Roses @ Mango’s