Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: Titan Blood + B L A C K I E + WHAM Preview + Fat Tony + Blistering Speeds + More

Crazy, crazy weekend on the way, y’all, but I’m going to have to keep this brief for the moment, ’cause I’m feeling fried already. Tonight, obviously, is Friday, November 18th; here’s what’s going on this evening that I happen to think looks/sounds good:

The Energy/Titan Blood (7″ release)/Weird Party/The Mahas/Sam Ackerman/Aaron Danger @ Rudyard’s
Alright, so this one pretty much wins by sheer weight of the collected badassness alone. See, I’ve witnessed the fury of stomping, snarling punks {The Energy}, {Weird Party}, and {The Mahas} previously and have been bowled over pretty consistently (after a false start w/The Mahas, but eh).

Then there’s {Titan Blood}, whose 7″ release this show also happens to be; I’ve only heard title track “Too Much Talk,” but it’s an excellently raw, fiery facepunch of a song that awesomely incorporates some Jerry Lee Lewis-sounding barroom piano and makes me want to jump around the room. This show promises lots of blood, rawk, broken glass, and bleeding ears. If that doesn’t sound good to you, well, you’re too far gone to need my help.

B L A C K I E (tour kickoff)/LIMB/Daphne/Fucks @ Notsuoh
Yes, yes, yes. {B L A C K I E} reportedly killed it and blew minds at Fun Fun Fun Fest (hell Bru‘s photo of him alone scares the shit out of me), so I’m damn glad to see him capitalizing on that fame/notoriety by hitting the road yet again. This time he’s headed out west, bouncing up to Austin and then over to San Diego, L.A., SF, and Oakland before veering back through Phoenix, El Paso, & San Antonio. And hey, tonight’s got the added bonus of fellow noisemaking electro-destroyers {LIMB}, who I also happen to like quite a bit.

6th Annual Winter Holiday Art Market Preview Party, featuring Yello Echo & Andrew Karnavas @ Winter Street Studios (6-10PM)
The Caroline Sessions folks are apparently partnering with the {Spacetaker} crew for the entertainment for this year’s Winter Holiday Art Market, which is very cool, to my mind, because there’ve been some excellent, excellent folks playing at the Sessions in recent months, of which {Yello Echo} and {Andrew Karnavas} are two. (Well, four, but you get my meaning.) Check out interviews with ’em here and here, respectively.

41st Annual University of St. Thomas Shadwell’s Wake, featuring Fat Tony, Free Radicals, The Beans, & lots of bad poetry @ Malloy Hall (3815 Mt. Vernon)
{Fat Tony} (congrats, btw, on the bump in SPIN)! {Free Radicals}! And I seriously need to check out {The Beans} some more; what I’ve heard so far has been damn promising. Not a clue who Shadwell is, or why he’s having a 41st(!) annual wake (and yes, I’m being lazy and refusing to Google it), but hell, this sounds cool even still.

Sausage Fest, featuring The Blistering Speeds, Northern, & Big Drunk and the Bad Sammich @ Valhalla (Rice Univ. campus)
Dunno a whole lot about this show, I’m afraid, except that it’s at Valhalla over on the campus of my alma mater, Rice University, and includes Austin band The Blistering Speeds, who come off nice and Arcwelder-y/early Smashing Pumpkins-y on the songs I’ve heard so far. Interesting stuff…

Runners-Up:
Sphynx/The Illegal Wiretaps @ The Mink
Trapped Under Ice/Hundredth/Backtrack/Betrayal/Take Offense @ Mango’s
The Vaygues/Technicolor Hearts/Reverberation DJs @ The Big Top
Rebirth Brass Band @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
Sting @ Verizon Wireless Theater
Kuumba Freeque/Picture Book @ The Continental Club