Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Muhammad Ali + Hell City Kings + White Rhino + Darwin’s Finches + Billy Wayde + ECHO Opening + More

Night #2 of a pretty darn good weekend coming up — even if it’s no NYE, Saturday, January 8th, still has plenty of good shit going on. Here goes:

Hold Tight!/Muhammad Ali/football etc./All At Sea/Chalk Talk @ Vinyl Junkie
Stop #1 on the {Muhammad Ali} evening of madness — apparently those crazy MA guys have the magical ability to be in two places at once, somehow… But hell, I’m not complaining; the more Muhammad Ali, the better. Every thing I hear from ’em impresses the hell out of me, and their devil-may-care, let’s-get-drunk-and-party live ethic makes things all the more entertaining. Fans of late-’90s droney (but still raw) indie-rock, you need to check these guys out.

Plus, this show also includes a bunch of out-of-towners about whom I’ve heard good things, like New Yorkers Hold Tight! & Massachusettsians Chalk Talk, and local indie-pop/rock folks {football, etc.}, who I’m warming to as time goes by. They’re not love-at-first-listen, at least not for me, but it’s growing on me. (Sometimes that’s how it goes, y’all…) And hey, any excuse to go by Vinyl Junkie is a valid one, right?

Hell City Kings (split-7″ release)/White Rhino/A dream Asleep/Southbound Saints @ Rudyard’s
Want heavy? Well, here you go — I’m digging the {Hell City Kings} more & more these days, particularly their 7″ The Wolf, and I’ve heard tell that they put on an utterly badass live show, so that’s a big gold-star right there. Austinites White Rhino I have actually seen, and they are really freaking good, right in that Priestess/Red Fang heavy-rawk/leather-metal vein. Sadly, the one time I saw ’em they were playing to a small crowd that didn’t seem real into it; hopefully playing with their Houston compatriots will work better.

And hey, {A dream Asleep} are no slouches, either (although they’re a little different, style-wise), and this’ll be the debut of new, promising-looking/sounding band {Southbound Saints}, too…

The Transco Empire/Muhammad Ali/Darwin’s Finches @ Fitzgerald’s
And here’s Stop #2 on the {Muhammad Ali} Express, as it were, this time with quirky, rootsy/countrified, Galveston-dwelling oddballs Darwin’s Finches sharing the bill (I think, anyway; it’s on their Myspace, even if their name’s not on the flyer) — and who happen to be a band I seriously need to pay more attention to…

On top of that, the show’s also apparently some kind of celebration of Elvis‘s birthday, so there’ll be a real-live Elvis impersonator, one Billy Wayde, whom I think I’ve actually seen, at an Elvis-themed show that was running for a while down at Sea World in San Antonio. If this is the guy I’m thinking of, he was pretty good, although he caused me a bit of cognitive dissonance by declaring that he was going to do some “patriotic songs”…and then proceeding to sing “Dixie,” which at the very least sends some mixed signals (although there were apparently both “Northern” and “Southern” versions of the song). Anyway, it promises to be entertaining, at the very least.

ECHO Grand Opening Party, featuring The Selfless Season, Spain Colored Orange, Finnegan, Good Job Underground, Bunny Talk, Dirty & Nasty, A Sundae Drive, & DJ Melodic @ ECHO (1515 Pease, formerly Jet Lounge; 6PM, $8)
Once upon a time, there was a place called Jet Lounge…and lo, now it is no more. From what I can gather, a group that may or may not include Gilbert Alfaro of {Spain Colored Orange} is now running the place, and so this’ll be the grand opening for the newly-rechristened ECHO, over off of Pease.

Dunno what the place is like — never went to the Jet while it was around — but I’m pretty psyched for the kinds of music the place’ll most likely be playing host to, considering who’s involved. I mean, just look at the lineup for this one show; beyond the ever-present indie-pop/lounge of SCO, there’s also {Finnegan}, another band I like (and which includes at least one of the guys from {The Literary Greats}, if memory serves), plus Dirty & Nasty, about whom I’ve heard excellent things. Should be a cool deal.

(Oh, and you may’ve noticed the original flyers for the show listed “The Swell Season” as playing, and while that would be fucking great, sadly, that was just an error. It’s actually Austin band The Selfless Season, whom I’m sure are nice, good-hearted people themselves.)

Runners-Up:
Catalepsy/Beneath the Surface/All the Way to the Bank/The Nephilim Terror/Kingdom Come/Suspect Terror/Carry Your Ghost/Doomsday Brigade/When Men Became Gods @ Numbers (4-8:30PM)
Grind365online.com Hip Hop Rocks Jam Fest Vol. 1, featuring Mr. Wire Up, 20Grand, K-Reno, Droop Dizzle, Woodro Slimm, Prez-D, Dougie D, Lil Tec, Derrick Allstarr, Tank Dawg, D Bo & D Blo, Black Force, Hood Loyalty, Asunder, Sons of Blackwaters, House of Griffin, & Radoz @ The Mink
Organ Yank/Only Beast/Dug Falk Quartet/Organ Failure @ Super Happy Fun Land
Come See My Dead Person @ Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe (Galveston)
Sunset Yoga Groove, featuring DJ Sun @ Yogaone Studios (6:30-8PM)