Tonight: Local Rock Heroes Go It Alone at Boondocks

I’ll be offline for a bit towards the end of the week, so I’m hoping to post a “big” rundown of everything that’s going on over the next few days, but since I’m a little pressed for time at the moment, I didn’t want to skip over what’s bound to be a particularly cool show tonight…

As part of Boondocks quasi-regular Monday-night live-music thing (they seem to have DJs most of the rest of the time), the bar’s hosting a trio of local music luminaries this evening (Monday, March 29th, for all the calendar-less people out there), cut adrift and sailing free for a night from their usual musical projects. They’ll all three be performing acoustically, and I swear to God, it’s gonna be really damn neat.

First up is Ben Godfrey, better known as the frontman for listenlisten, one of my absolute favorite bands, and an all-round awesome guy. I’ve never seen him play a solo show, so I honestly have no idea what he’s going to be doing; odds are, however, that it’ll be at least sorta-kinda like his listenlisten stuff. Which means it’s bound to be dark, bound to be murky, and bound to be “old-timey”-sounding, whatever he does.

(Admittedly, I could be wrong; he could be playing cheery, Evan Dando-influenced folk-pop, for all I know…)

Second comes Gilbert Alfaro, a guy who’s been in so many damn bands over the years that I’ve lost track — he’s currently in Spain Colored Orange, but he also used to be in bands like Blueprint (later called In Echos), Chasmatic, a previous incarnation of SCO, 8-Track Charade, and straightedge heroes Refuse To Fall, all of which were pretty badass in their day. These days Alfaro’s mellowed a bit, I think, but he’s still one hell of a songwriter. I’m curious to hear what he does tonight.

Headlining — or seeming to according to the flyer, anyway — is Pedro Tijerina, who heads up retro-fuzz-pop gang Springfield Riots, easily one of the most promising, coolest-sounding bands around at the moment. Besides that, Tijerina also used to front more straightforward popsters Program, who presaged the current wave of indie-pop bands in this city by a few years but somehow, sadly, never really found its niche.

With Riots, though, I think Tijerina’s there; again, no clue what he’ll play, but it’s just about guaranteed to be good.

Alternative Time:
Yeah, it’s hard to beat the Boondocks lineup, I know, but there’re a couple of other shows worth checking out tonight, as well, if jangly, acoustic folk-pop isn’t your thing:

Same as Sunday/Caney Creek Heroes/Young Americans/A Dream Within A Dream/The Ride Home @ Fitzgerald’s
Dunno most of these guys, although the name “Caney Creek Heroes” cracks me up just for repping the New Caney ‘hood. The real highlight, though, is Mia Kat Empire-affiliated post-emo rock crew The Ride Home — I haven’t heard a whole lot from ’em, unfortunately, but what I have heard is awesomely catchy in a 1997 (the band, not the year) kind of way.

Casino/Intimate Stranger/The Ganjas @ Super Happy Fun Land
And, because it’s always nice to be welcoming to strangers from other lands, there’s this trio of bands from Chile playing tonight up at Super Happy Fun Land. Bands Casino (which is not the long-gone H-town band of the same name), Intimate Stranger, and The Ganjas all sound like decent enough folk, and they’ve been touring with the likes of Radiohead, REM, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, so they’re bound to be at least pretty good live. Go check ’em out.