Thursday Coolness: Buxton + The Small Sounds at Discovery Green

Feels pretty good to be able to post once again about cool things that’re coming up — apologies, everybody, for the long, long silence while we made the transition…

At any rate, this week’s looking good, particularly this Thursday, May 27th, when two of my absolute-favorite bands in town are playing one of my current favorite places in town as part of the Thursday Concert Series.

The place in question would be {Discovery Green}, which I finally got to check out last month & was very impressed by — it is no end of awesomeness, to me, that H-town now has a place where folks can go and throw a frisbee around, let their kids play in the water, walk the dog, get organic produce, listen to a band play, watch a movie, or see a play, all outside. And in the middle of downtown, no less. I’ll admit that I was a doubter that any kind of “urban greenspace” deal like this would work, but I swear, I’m sold.

Of course, it helps that the bands playing on this particular Thursday evening also happen to be badass. {Buxton} headlines, I believe, and they’ll be throwing their unique brand of warbly-voiced, insistent indie-country-rock out to bounce incongruously off the surrounding skyscrapers; the more I hear the band, the more they’re coming to resemble Houston as a whole, at least to me. They’re countryish and folky, sure, but there’s also a smart, urban, “rock” tinge to the music they make that pulls the whole thing together. Plus, they can play “Feathers” on end for days and still have me grinning like an idiot.

Then there’s {The Small Sounds}, a band that’s awesome in its own right and also rides the line between full-on country and other, less-country things. I’d been a little leery for a while of the band’s forays into the more rocking stuff, honestly, but the last time I caught ’em up at Walter’s, it sure sounded like they were making it work, even the track that I’d swear sounds like a U2 outtake — when I mentioned it, guitarist James Thompson laughed & said I could blame it on him, then noted that the band was veering back in the more country/folk direction once again.

Which is no bad thing, in my book; of the songs on the band’s self-titled album, the ones that still hit the hardest for me are the quieter, more melancholy tracks, the songs where the band can show off their utterly pro restraint and phenomenal sense of just what little touch needs to go where. “Leave Virginia Girl”, “Mothers & Daughters”, & “Grey While Gone” are my faves on there for just that reason. Keep an eye out for new stuff from these guys soon; fingers crossed.

Now, for the details: the show’s an early one, seemingly timed to catch the on-the-way-home crowd, with the bands starting off at 6:30PM and playing ’til 9PM or so. And obviously, being that this is a couple of bands playing in a park & all, it’s free.