Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: Concrete Blonde + Anthrax + Ghetto Dinner + Fiskadoro + Boots Electric (MP3!) + More
Not entirely sure why — because it’s Halloween weekend, possibly — but tonight, Sunday, October 30th, is no ordinary Sunday, I swear. There’re a slew of good, good shows going on this evening, and I’d be remiss if I let ’em slip past without any kind of shoutout.
First up, there’s an excellent show (well, pair of shows, really, but I’ll get to the second in a minute) up at Fitzgerald’s, where the legendary Concrete Blonde will be playing. I’ll be at this one, so I’m a bit biased, but I think it’s going to be damn cool, both because of Johnette Napolitano & co. and because of openers Girl in a Coma, from San Antonio, who I also like a heck of a lot.
This is apparently a special show for Concrete Blonde, btw; in addition to the regular nighttime show, it looks like they’re doing a pre-show-slash-soundcheck around 6PM and streaming it live online, and there’ll reportedly be some kind of pumpkin-carving thing going on, to boot. You have to buy a ticket to watch/listen, but it’s a pay-what-you-can deal — head on over here for that.
A close, close second, at least for me, is the throwback metal thing going on over at Warehouse Live, with old-school thrash dudes Death Angel, Testament(!), and holy-fucking-yes, Anthrax.
Out of all of the metal bands I used to listen to religiously Back in the Day, Anthrax is the one that’s always held truest, to me. Metallica went off and got poppy and lawsuit-happy, the glam-metal bands all broke up (and then reformed this decade, sadly), GN’R splintered into half-a-dozen projects that never sounded anywhere near as awesome as the band itself, and on, and on… Anthrax is the only one that’s kept playing, kept releasing albums, the whole damn time.
Granted, I’ve been somewhat out-of-touch with ’em since the early ’90s — 1993’s Sound of White Noise was the last of their albums I bought — but when I listen back to Among the Living (which inadvertently got me reading both Stephen King books and the Judge Dredd comics) or Persistence of Time, hell, I feel like a kid all over again, freaking out anew. I’m especially psyched that they’ve finally brought Joey Belladonna back, despite the bad blood; John Bush was/is a fine singer, but Sound of White Noise just didn’t click the way the previous albums had.
Oh, and {Houston Calling} has a very cool interview with drummer/guitarist/main man Charlie Benante, done by Ken Sarmiento — check it out over here…
Where was I? Sorry, got derailed into Teenage Metalhead-Land there for a minute… Ahhh, yeah — there’s a cool thing going on tonight at a restaurant in the Heights called Stella Sola, with a “Ghetto Dinner Halloween Party” and some very cool bands.
Specifically, {Finnegan} are playing, and I’ve been loving the heck out of their full-length, What Happened To Jacqueline? — I could literally listen to “B-Team Squad Leader” on end for hours, honest — but I’m also intrigued by the whole Ghetto Dinner concept (see the {Houston Press} article on the duo behind it, here). $15 for what sounds like a damn good meal.
What else? Well, experimental heads can rejoice to hear that the Binarium Sound Series is back on tonight at 14 Pews, with a big list of folks that includes {Chris Becker}, whom our own Robin Babb interviewed a while back.
Rudyard’s has a good one tonight, too, with sleazy, glammy rockers {The Wrong Ones}, whose most recent release, Deceiver, is pretty dang cool.
I mentioned above that there were two cool shows at Fitz, and that’s the truth — not only are Concrete Blonde & GIAC on the one floor, but on the other they’ve got Boots Electric, which is the solo project of Jesse Hughes, from the excellent Eagles of Death Metal. I’ve only heard a little of his solo stuff so far, but it’s interesting (and fairly distinct from EoDM); check out a track here:
Even given that, though, I have to admit that the real draw for me is local-area strange people {Fiskadoro}, who’ll reportedly be opening; those guys/girl are always interesting in their oddball, end-of-civilization kind of way…
Here’s the pile:
Concrete Blonde/Girl In A Coma @ Fitzgerald’s
Anthrax/Testament/Death Angel @ Warehouse Live
Ghetto Dinner Halloween Party, featuring SoulDig & Finnegan @ Stella Sola (1001 Studewood; 7PM-12AM)
Binarium Sound Series 039, featuring Ronsen/Armistead, The Core Trio, Chris Becker, Bell Toll, & Lori Obscurecinema @ 14 Pews (7-10PM)
The Wrong Ones/Modern Primitives/Modfag/The Freak Outs @ Rudyard’s
Boots Electric (mem. of Eagles of Death Metal)/Fiskadoro @ Fitzgerald’s
Paige Lewis @ The Usual
Another Run (video release)/Dreaming of June/The Trimms/Shopping for Death/Coastal @ Numbers
Halloween Freakout, featuring The Impalers, Cast Away, & Peasant @ Mango’s ($5)
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