Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Pik-N-Pak Reunion Night #2 + Fiskadoro + Metal Summit 3 + The Kimonos + Winter Wallace + More

Good night coming up tonight, mostly due to the Pik-N-Pak Reunion deal, but also because of some other shows going on ’round the same time. Get on out the house; here’s where I’d recommend:

Pik-N-Pak Reunion Show, featuring Anarchitex, Hummungus, U.Y.U.S., Bark Hard, Contortion Session, Dixie Waste, Rusted Shut, Room 101, Bad Samaritans, Personality Crisis, Gus Buzbee, Future Blondes, & Dead Roses @ Groundhall (1:30PM-2AM)
Night #2 of the grand Pik-N-Pak Reunion Weekend thing over at the Groundhall — yeah, apparently Rudz last night was actually part of the deal — and it promises to be pretty well epic, I have to say. I sadly missed out on the whole Pik-N-Pak scene, myself, only venturing sporadically off-campus during college (and then mostly to also-long-gone Emo’s or Goat’s Head Soup), but I’ve heard amazing, amazing things about the place since then. It truly was a fixture in the H-town scene, as much a part of our city’s shared musical history as more mainstream stuff like, say, ZZ Top or King’s X.

There’re some bands playing tonight’s show that you’re not likely to see again any time soon, btw, particularly Hummungus (does this mean Cheetah Chrome will be making an appearance tonight, too?) and Dixie Waste, both of which — as far as I’m aware, anyway — are long, long, long dead. Plus, there’re some more recent (and good) folks playing, too, like {Future Blondes}, {Dead Roses}, and the now-New Orleans-dwelling {Room 101}, for three.

Get on over & catch a (temporary) glimpse of the scene you you used to be a part of (or maybe never knew in the first place).

Fiskadoro/Papaya/Christopher Cascio @ Notsuoh
If you’re less into the punk side of things and more into the odd, off-kilter, and edgy, however, the always-freaked Downtown environs of Notsuoh is probably where you should be headed tonight. Headliners {Fiskadoro} are strange but cool, intriguingly murky and menacing, with tribal-sounding rhythms & creepy, echoey vocals — in terms of comparisons, lately I can’t help but think of fellow Houstonians {Indian Jewelry}, since both bands ride the line between electronic & analog and come off dark and dangerous.

They’ve got a new “Christmas” EP out now, btw, entitled Dread Nights — Jef With One F wrote up a nice review of it over at {Rocks Off}, so definitely check that out, or just download the thing for yourself right over here.

This’ll be the band’s last H-town show of the year; after this they head back to New Jersey to visit the fam, and they’ll be opening for Pat DiNunzio(!), of Smithereens fame, in Garwood, NJ. Which is really, really weird, yet still cool, a line you could pretty much use to sum up the band in general…

Plus, there’ll also be appearances by new side-project from Fernando of {Somosuno}, {PAPAYA} (which I think is meant to be in all-caps, but I’m not positive) and {Christopher Cascio}, neither of whom I’ve heard much by but both of which I’ve heard good stuff about. And yes, it’s all free. Not bad, eh?

Metal Summit 3, featuring Humut Tabal, Plutonian Shore, The Nephilim Terror, & Spectral Manifest @ Sound Exchange (8PM; free!)
Writer Becky D. already hit this one earlier in the week, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but it sounds pretty neat. It’s a “Summit,” not a straight-up show, which apparently means it’s supposed to be more like a meeting-of-the-minds thing to figure out how to revitalize the local metal scene. I dunno most of the bands playing, but I’ve heard {The Nephilim Terror}, and they’re surprisingly badass, even to my metalcore-skeptical self.

Row Zero/Winter Wallace/The Kimonos @ The Mink
This is a cool one in part because ’til recently I was pretty sure two of the bands playing were dead & buried, never to return. I figured Gina Miller of {The Kimonos} was way too busy over at Sugar Hill to ever get that band back together, and I hadn’t heard a thing about {Row Zero} for a really long time, so… And yet, here they are — The Kimonos are definitely back together again, and I guess RZ never actually broke up(?). All of which is cool, particularly on the Kimonos side of things, ’cause I always enjoyed them the first time ’round.

On top of that, husky-voiced songstress {Winter Wallace} will be playing in-between the two reunited/rejuvenated bands, and she’s pretty great so far — still need to check out her latest release, Holiday, but I’m betting it’ll be good…

Runners-Up:
Rusted Shut/Landfill/Redriver/Burial @ Vinyl Junkie
A Very Tejano Christmas Toy Drive, featuring Negami, Promesa Mortal, Ligado, Ojala, Overtone, & DJ Gabe @ Joyce Zotz Education Center (13801 Holly Park; 12PM, bring unwrapped toy/donation to get in)
Girls Gone Wild, featuring Dev Electric & Chrome 44 @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)