Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: This Year’s Tiger + Born Again Virgins + Holy Fiction + The Canvas Waiting + Upcoming Stuff + More

Heading on into the weekend, y’all, so here’s our semi-regular rundown, again in its kinda-sorta-expanded form. (Although I have to admit that I did like doing last week’s quick blast-out of everything…)

Before I get into it, though, I’ve been going through ye olde shows list and run across some cool/noteworthy upcoming stuff that’s a wee bit further out than the next few days:

• On March 3rd, Warehouse Live is hosting the second installment of the Canned Acoustica show it ran last year, which is very cool.
• Hrm. On March 6th, I’m seeing listings for excellent trad-ska guys The Slackers at both Warehouse Live and Fitz…and since I doubt the band’s going to be playing two sets at two different venues, I’m guessing one of ’em’s incorrect. Anybody know?
• The Mink‘s definitely got some good stuff coming up, like Damien Jurado, David Dondero, & Franz Nicolay (aka That Guy With The Insane Mustache Who Used to Play in The Hold Steady) on March 16th.
• On March 25th: holy shit, Devo! Plus The Octopus Project! Sweeeeet.
• Warpaint are coming back through town (yet again) on April 8th at Fitz (where else?).
• On April 9th, Maserati are playing The Mink.
• For those with tickets to see Willie Nelson last weekend, the show’s been rescheduled for April 28th at the Verizon Wireless Theater.
• In bad news, it looks like Freelance Whales won’t be playing Fitz on April 19th like I’d been told; instead, it’ll just be Foals (who are still very cool) & The Naked and Famous. Dang.
• What the…? Yes, it’s true: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are playing Warehouse Live on May 5th. Now I need to go dig out Orange…
• And pegging the needle right to the top of my Excite-O-Meter, The Raveonettes are playing at Fitz on April 13th. Hell, yes.

phew. Okay, enough of that; on to the more immediate stuff going on tonight, Friday, February 11th:

This Year’s Tiger/Born Again Virgins/The American Heist/All At Sea @ Rudyard’s
Melodic, rough-edged punks, here you go. I’m psyched as hell that This Year’s Tiger is playing again (hopefully regularly?); they’ve been seriously way too quiet, esp. for such a badass band. Raw, fists-in-the-air, hearts-on-sleeves punk rawk that brings to mind the rootsier side of Avail or a less rockabilly Social Distortion.

There’s also full-on rawkers {Born Again Virgins}, who rock a murky, Barkmarket-like bassline and graft it onto slashing, howling, metal-tinged rock that’s reminiscent of Federation X or Red Fang in the best possible way. Keep an eye on these folks. And I can’t leave out {All At Sea} or {The American Heist}, both of whom I’ve heard good things about…

The Canvas Waiting/Holy Fiction/Finnegan/The Shallows/Education @ Fitzgerald’s
It’s a hard call which of tonight’s shows is my favorite — TYT, above, are pretty great, but so are {Holy Fiction}, albeit in a totally different direction. The Holy Fiction gang make this amazingly laid-back, “world music”-y, almost spiritual-sounding rock that’s epic and beautiful and everything else, and their full-length from last year is in my top-ten list of everything I’ve heard from that twelve-month stretch. It’s seriously that good.

Beyond that, Austinite headliners The Canvas Waiting aren’t bad themselves, by any stretch — I’ve heard Chasing Color, their latest, and it’s cool in a shy-boy post-emo rock kind of way (think Copeland, maybe). Well worth seeing/hearing.

Atarimatt/The Caprolites/Perseph One/Female Demand @ Walter’s
An odd, odd, entertaining bill, right here… There’s College Station-dweller Atarimatt, whom I’ve encountered a few times & who is extremely bizarre (yet still kinda neat), plus scummy noise-punks {The Caprolites}, plus heavy-ass, melt-your-brain instro-prog duo {Female Demand}, plus — last but definitely not least — whip-smart rapper {Perseph One}. Something for everybody at Walter’s, tonight.

iFest Concert Series 2011, featuring Joe Ely Band with David Grissom & Mike Stinson Band @ Rockefeller Hall (3620 Washington)
I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of Joe Ely or the Mike Stinson Band — nothing against either of ’em, mind you — but I am a fan of iFest, and I think it’s cool to see a show like this that’s aimed at raising money for the festival’s educational aspects. The festival’s one of H-town’s truly great institutions; help keep it running.

Runners-Up:
John Evans/Johnny Falstaff/Hank Schyma (CD release) @ Heights Live!
Robin Trower @ House of Blues
Big Freedia/DJ Rusty Lazer/DJ Good Grief @ Fitzgerald’s
Continental Graffiti/Picture Book @ The Continental Club
Big Sam’s Funky Nation/Zwee @ Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar
Blaggards @ R&R Sports Bar (Friendswood)