Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: BestFest + Literary Greats + Wine Fest + Peloton + Moon Tower B-Day + Mix Master Mike + More

Holy shit, there is a lot going on tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 24th. I can barely wrap my head around all of it, seriously, so I’m going to have to just hit the highlights, y’all.

The biggie, of course, is the Houston Press Best of Houston BestFest over at the “Superblock” at Travis & Main; it’s not the cheapest show in town, no, at $25 a day or $40 for two, but heck, they’ve got the biggest-name lineup of the bunch.

Personally, I loathed Cake for a long, long time, but new album Showroom of Compassion has been seriously growing on me, and anybody who listened to rock in the ’90s and didn’t like the Toadies wasn’t really paying attention. Plus, there’s always Florida punks Against Me!, who are pretty mindblowingly great, and then a good-sized pile of local folks, including {The Tontons}, {the last place you look}, and {Hell City Kings}.

If that’s a little over-the-top/high dollar, of course, you can always head on down Main to The Continental Club, where awesome, awesome band {The Literary Greats} will be playing with {Brent Nettles} and similarly excellent dudes {Poor Pilate}.

If you’d rather get your drink on, there’s always the Houston Wine Fest in Sam Houston Park, the lineup for which includes avant-garde chamber music group {Two Star Symphony}, jazz singer {Kristine Mills}, and current personal singer/songwriter heroine {Sara Van Buskirk}. Or you can go counterculture with No Power Fest 2 at the Ponderosa — more in on that over here.

Excellent proggy metal gang {Peloton} will be playing free at Vinyl Junkie, while prog-metal pioneers Queensryche will be at the House of Blues. Then there’s Moon Tower Inn’s Big Ass Birthday, with fellow proggy instro-metallists {Cavernous}, wild two-man destructo derby {Female Demand}, and oddballs {Wicked Poseur}.

I can’t forget Fitzgerald’s, of course, as they roll on through their “Grand Re-opening Anniversary” weekend. Tomorrow night they’ll have Mix Master Mike, one of the two DJs (along with Peanut Butter Wolf) who truly opened my eyes to the level of skill it takes to DJ well, badass alt-rockers {American Fangs}, rapper {Nosaprise}, and {Stephen Farris} (of {Ghost Mountain} fame).

There’s also the return of The Caroline Sessions over at the Caroline Collective work/art/etc. space, with the excellent {Yello Echo} stepping up on the stage, and the Building Temples From Death Fest, which was at Walter’s but is now — since Walter’s, sadly, has yet to move/reopen — over at Mango’s. Lots and lots and lots of bands with terrifyingly goofy names who will bludgeon you into submission.

Okay, so that “pop” sound you just heard was my brain exploding. My eyes are swimming on the screen, and I need sleep. Hugely massive list, right here:

Houston Press Best of Houston BestFest 2011, featuring Toadies, Bun B, Slim Thug, Against Me!, Chamillionaire, The Tontons, Althea Rene, Los Skarnales, the last place you look, Texas Brass Band, & Hell City Kings @ Superblock (McGowen light rail stop)
Mix Master Mike/American Fangs/Nosaprise/Awesome New Republic/Stephen Farris @ Fitzgerald’s
Brent Nettles/The Literary Greats/Poor Pilate @ The Continental Club
Houston Wine Fest, featuring The Westbound Band, Two Star Symphony, DJ Nimbus, Graham Wilkinson, Kristine Mills, T Bird and the Breaks, Matt Wilson, Gina Chavez, Sara Van Buskirk, Richmond Punch, & Van Lang @ Sam Houston Park
No Power Fest 2, featuring Chicken Little, Jessie Williams, New York Taxi, Travis James, Petal Shop, Grog, Hunger Artists, Ari & Her Banjo, Troothless, Aaron Goldman, Lafayette, Carter, Joe Ray, Avacado Hand Grenade, Bobby Whittenburg, U Not I, Days N’ Daze, Radio Flyer, Kim Champion!, Adam & The Ancient Gods, Marissa, Cory Derden, & Dead Energy @ Ponderosa (1503 Nance; $5, 12PM)
Peloton/Harold Borup/The Swamps @ Vinyl Junkie (free!)
The Caroline Sessions, featuring Yello Echo @ Caroline Collective (3-6PM)
Moon Tower Inn’s Big Ass Birthday, featuring Wicked Poseur, Female Demand, & Cavernous @ Moon Tower Inn (3004 Canal; free!)
Houston Zombie Walk Benefit for Houston SPCA & the Texas Wildlife and Rehab Education Center After Party, featuring Five Eyes Wide, Silenced Within, & The Abyss @ Jones Plaza
Sleazefest: A Tribute to The Cramps, featuring Johnny Hootrock, Peasant, The Alley Queens, Chelsea Hotel, & DJ Hex @ The Mink
Space City Beat Battle, Episode IV: The Last Hope, featuring Jett I. Masstyr, Black Rose, & more @ Warehouse Live (Green Room)
Queensryche @ House of Blues
The Aggrolites/Brothers of Brazil/Peelander-Z @ Warehouse Live
Maroon 5/Train @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Erasure/Frankmusik @ Verizon Wireless Theater
Building Temples From Death Fest, featuring Beaten and Butchered, Blast Perversion, Diminished, Disfigured, Engaged in Mutilating, Eviscerated, Funeral Rites, Gored, Grotesque Formation, Human Chunks, Ingurgitate, Insidious Decrepancy, Perversum, Prolicide, Scattered Remains, Sculpting Atrocity, Severance, Spectral Manifest, Vaginal Bear Trap, & Venomous Supremacy @ Walter’s
Texas Childrens Hospital Benefit, featuring Black Orchid Ritual @ The Press Box (209 Jackson)
Randy Travis @ Arena Theatre
Radiation Fest, featuring Oh, Sleeper, Playing For Keeps, Frontlines, Silence The Messenger, Carry Your Ghost, Beneath The Veil, Artifacts, manVSmachine, Unto Acheron, Wake Into The Nightmare, The Tempest, Rise From Your Grave, Flowers In The Attic, The Circadian Effect, PFK, Gods Of Death Screw, The Nephilim Terror, Caches The Ghosts, Breath By Breath, Tyranny of Bella, Shopping for Death, Altered Minds, Our Every Move, Fallacy, Proliferate, Doomsday Brigade, Chocolate Fetus, Carry The Storm, Sands, Blind Sanctity, Beaten To The Punch, Old Men Die In New Suits, & To The Depths Of Atlantis @ Baytown Youth Fairgrounds (Baytown)
Wild Texas Galveston Island Shrimp Festival, featuring Bob Schneider, Nakia, 6 to Midnight, The Line Up, Those Sun Giants, & Honeybrowne @ The Strand (Galveston)
Benefit for Red Cross & Montgomery County Firefighters, featuring The Glenn Bryant Band, Wild Rabbit Salad, & Beryl Grady @ RAC’s Ice House (Conroe)