Tonight: Parts & Labor(!) + Black Congress + Davila 666 + Muhammad Ali + Toro Y Moi + Cloud Nothings + More

Busy night for a Monday (March 14th), and there’re some very cool shows going on, especially the Parts & Labor show up at Fitzgerald’s (which also happens to be the first show in booking crew Pegstar‘s SXSW Ingress series)…

I fucking love-love-love this band, I swear — haven’t heard new album Constant Future yet, unfortunately, but I’ve loved everything I’ve heard from P&L, from the harsher-sounding, more paranoiac stuff on Stay Afraid and Mapmaker to the more gloriously melodic, smiling, Secret Machines-esque shine of Receivers. And live they’re honestly one of the best bands I’ve witnessed, blasting out this absolute wall of sound that’s at once overwhelming, massive, and beautiful as a flight straight into the heart of the sun. Afterwards, my ears ached for days, but it was awesome.

I’m not super familiar with the other out-of-town folks playing the show, but I have it on good authority that fellow noise-rockers Pterodactyl are pretty badass themselves, and what little I’ve heard so far has been impressively propulsive and frantic. Plus, local in-your-face rawk dudes {Black Congress} are now on the bill, as well, and that’s never a bad thing (well, unless Bryan steals your shit, anyway).

The P&L show’s not the only game in town this evening, mind you… There’s a big pile of snotty punk goodness going on at Rudyard’s, too, with Puerto Rican band Davila 666 (who happen to be signed to the In The Red label, which is quite a recommendation in itself) headlining and awesome locals {The Mahas}, {Funboys}, and {The Busy Kids} all tearing up the stage beforehand.

Then there’s the big-ass free show going on over at Mango’s, which features — among others, the awesomely awesome, drunk-as-fuck indie-rock blaze of {Muhammad Ali} and the wholly opposite dance-y electro-pop sweetness of Torontoans Young Empires. It’s looking like a big ol’ grab-bag of music, so there should be something to appeal to everybody floating around in there.

One last one that I really wasn’t expecting to like is the “other” Fitz show tonight; if you need to get away from the ear-destroying noise, you’re in luck, because Toro Y Moi‘s gently bumping, delicately tuneful indie-electro-pop is surprisingly neat, as is the more guitar-heavy, speeding pop crafted by one-man-band(?) Cloud Nothings. Honestly, I wish I’d had a chance to get better listen to these folks sooner…

Anyway, here’s the “big” list (more, hopefully on the SXSW Overflow Fest show tonight very, very soon):

Parts & Labor/Pterodactyl/Prince Rama/Amen Dunes/Black Congress @ Fitzgerald’s
Davila 666/The Mahas/Funboys/The Busy Kids @ Rudyard’s
SXSW Overflow Fest, featuring The Demon Beat, Blastoids, The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt, Janka Nabay, Rich Aucoin, Aficiondo, Lost Coves, & The Fireship @ Super Happy Fun Land
Young Empires/The Yes Way/The Handshake/La Catrin/Muhammad Ali/The Courtesy Tier/Chicken & Whiskey/Tam Tam @ Mango’s (free!)
Toro Y Moi/Cloud Nothings/Reading Rainbow @ Fitzgerald’s