Get Ghoulish, This Weekend: Houston’s Newest Music Festival Kicks Off

Well, we are indeed there — tomorrow, Saturday, October 30th is the much-ballyhooed, impressive-looking, hopefully-badass Ghoulsfest. I’ve got a previous thing I’ve gotta do, so yours truly will unfortunately have to miss out, but based on what I’ve seen/heard about this thing, it sounds very cool.

These folks have pulled out all the stops, particularly with the lineup, which is damn solid (especially since Peanut Butter Wolf is apparently still in the pile). Here’s the schedule, last I saw it:

Saint Arnold’s Stage
1:00 PM — {Fat Tony}
1:50 PM — {The Live Lights}
2:35 PM — {Scale The Summit}
3:45 PM — …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
4:50 PM — {Ceeplus Bad Knives}
5:20 PM — Peanut Butter Wolf
6:40 PM — Macy Gray
8:20 PM — We Are Scientists

Mini Cooper Stage
1:35 PM — {Tax the Wolf}
2:20 PM — Roky Moon & BOLT
3:05 PM — Girl In A Coma
4:10 PM — Daniel Johnston
5:15 PM — {Spain Colored Orange}
6:15 PM — {Giant Princess}
7:30 PM — Hot Chip
8:55 PM — Bad Brains

I’ll freely admit that I don’t care all that much about some of the headliners — Macy Gray, meh… — but some of ’em I’d be genuinely psyched to see. I mean, c’mon, who wouldn’t want to see the original Bad Brains? And Peanut Butter Wolf is the first DJ I ever really, truly listened to as a DJ, on their own, without thinking of ’em as an abridged backing band for somebody else.

Plus, there’s a ton of excellent locals — got to see Scale The Summit one of these days, and Fat Tony and Giant Princess, in particular, both rule — and then there’s Girl In A Coma, a fine San Antonio trio who recently did a damn fine cover of the Patsy Cline classic “Walking After Midnight”:

Beyond that…well, let’s see, there’s:

• A roaming troupe of fire dancers
• A free arcade from Joystix Classic Games and Pinballs
• A halfpipe, complete with skateboarders & a retail shop, from Kingpinz Skate Park
• A dance-club labyrinth (um, wha?)
• A pumpkin patch for smashing gourds of all sizes
• Free hydration stations (if you’ve got an unopened plastic bottle)
• Lots of food vendors (including Tacos A-Go-Go, which I keep meaning to try)
• An afterparty with Macy Gray & Marnie Stern at the Hard Rock Cafe
• A second afterparty, this one with Peanut Butter Wolf, Ceeplus Bad Knives, & other folks, at the Groundhall

…and probably a dozen or so other things I’m forgetting. All together, this promises to be a festival to rival both the revered old-school Westheimer Street Festival and the Free Press Summerfest.

Details Time: The tickets ain’t cheap, I’m afraid, at $50 (which includes the after-party), the deal starts at 2PM, parking is free, and it all takes place down near 288 & the Beltway, at Tom Bass Park. And hey, the weather’s supposed to be beautiful, not too hot, not too cold. Get on out there…