Tonight/Tomorrow: Coheed and Cambria + Awesome Color + Megafaun (MP3!) + Earl Gilliam + More

Some cool, good, intriguing, and otherwise neat shows going on over the next couple of days, and I’m determined to not let ’em fall through the cracks (like, um, I normally do with the mid-week shows — sorry, folks…).

On top of the things musical mentioned below, I’d also heartily recommend humorist/writer/whatever guy David Sedaris‘s show tomorrow night at Jones Hall. Dunno for sure if there are still tickets, but I’ve seen him before and was mightily, mightily impressed, not having even read any of the guy’s books (at that point, anyway; I have since, and most of ’em, esp. Me Talk Pretty One Day are hysterically entertaining & smart like you wish you could be). He’s a funny little man, in both senses of the word.

Otherwise, here’s what looks good to me:

Tues., April 27:
Coheed and Cambria/Circa Survive/Torche @ Warehouse Live
I can in no way claim to be a huge Coheed and Cambria fan, no, but I do like ’em; I was pretty impressed back when The Second Stage Turbine Blade came out and laid out the band’s Rush-gone-metal thesis, which they then went on to flesh out as a freaking comic book. Which is pretty damn cool, as is the fact that the band’s somehow maintained the same coherent artistic vision over the past eight years or so. I can’t think of another band out there that’s managed that feat, particularly while crafting good, ridiculously intelligent, catchy, heavy rock.

Awesome Color/Hair Police @ Mango’s
Never managed to catch Awesome Color, unfortunately, but friends with good taste in things musical have recommended ’em to me for a few years now, and what I can find of ’em sounds nicely woozy and warmly ’60s-retro, maybe a little like a groovier, less paranoiac Nation of Ulysses. Plus, there’s Hair Police, who are fairly guaranteed to peel the paint off the Mango’s walls…

Little Joe Washington @ Boondocks
Overkill/Vader/God Dethroned/Warbringer/Evile/Woe of Tyrants @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
The Umbrella Man @ The Continental Club

Wed., April 28:
Megafaun/Breathe Owl Breathe @ Rudyard’s
I’ve only heard a little bit of openers Breathe Owl Breathe, who so far make me think of a more flat-sounding Fleet Foxes in their delicate folkiness, but I have listened to a fair amount of Megafaun and am pretty impressed. In spite of the science-y band name, their sound is more akin to the backwoodsy than it is any kind of sci-fi nerdiness, all rambling guitars, rough-edged harmony vocals, and plucked, Byrds-sounding banjo. Check out a little bit of it below:

Megafaun – “Volunteers”

The band’s sound makes some sense, btw, when you learn that the band used to include Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. And yeah, I’m currently liking his old band’s new stuff more than I am Bon Iver’s (sorry; I’m sure he’d be all broken up to hear that).

Earl Gilliam @ Discovery Green (12-1:30PM)
This one’s cool not only because, hey, Earl Gilliam is a bona-fide living blues legend, in Houston or anywhere else, and a phenomenal keyboard player, but also because this is a lunch-break kind of deal they’re called “Blues & Burgers” — the idea is for folks to head on over to Discovery Green on their lunch hour & forget their cares for a while. And on a Wednesday, I bet money there’s not a single damn person out there who wouldn’t jump at that prospect if they could.