Yr. (Belated) Weekend: The Suffers B-Day + Beer Fest + The Illegal Wiretaps + Mama Tried + Holder + Peloton + More

Damn. Blew it completely last night, sorry; I’m currently in the midst of handling some family-related things, and while I’d planned to post something for Friday, it sadly just didn’t work out. sigh. So here it is now Saturday, June 9th, and I’m tapping away on the laptop in a hotel room in the middle of the afternoon, trying not to wake up the napping two-year-old in the next room and hoping that housekeeping doesn’t decide that “can you please come back later to change the sheets?” means “come back tomorrow” — who says blogging’s not glamorous?

Anyway, there’s plenty going on today/tonight, so I figured to hit up a few of the highlights, at least. Here goes:

The Suffers Birthday Party, featuring The Suffers, Khruangbin, Equals, Third World, & Allen Garland @ Fitzgerald’s
The main attraction of the evening, at least for yours truly. I’ve been mightily, mightily impressed with what I’ve heard from relatively-new reggae/rocksteady supergroup {The Suffers}, who effortlessly blaze through songs that come off as classic without being a retread, and it’s cool to see that they’re working their way steadily onwards & upwards. They’ve been here a year now — as should be obvious from the “Birthday Party” title to the show — and figured hey, let’s celebrate! Kudos to ’em; they’re definitely a band worth keeping an eye on. I’m not super familiar with the openers, unfortunately, but I’ve heard good stuff about {Khruangbin} and Austin band Equals, so I’d get there early…

Houston Beer Fest, featuring New Birth Brass Band, DJ Tantrum, Nightbird, Weird Beard, Square and Compass, Maximus, Liquid Peace Revolution, Rai P, The Chee Weez, Dana Abbott, Mike and the Moonpies, A Bitter Season, DJ Lindsey Rae, DJ Mpulse, Fish Fry Bingo, D.R.U.M., The Scorseses, Luther and the Healers, CB Kings, Dunville, Ill-Set-Dee-J, DJ Aural, Adamantium, Caddy Kartel, Lost Element, The Canvas Waiting, Otenki, Flow Tribe, Thunderosa, Second Lovers, Chris Luera/JJ Malave, Allison Thrash Blues Band, Jason Bancroft and the Wealthy Beggars, Step Aside, Skeleton Dick, Five Eyes Wide, Lyric Michelle, & Sundrunk @ Hermann Square Park (900 Smith; 11AM-10PM)
Not being a beer drinker myself — on the relatively-rare occasions when I do drink, it’s generally Murphy’s or Jameson — I have yet to visit Houston Beer Fest, but dangit, I applaud it anyway, because I like the idea of folks converging on City Hall & the surrounding area to hang out, drink beers from all over, & listen to music.

And yes, music there is — I don’t know a lot of the bands playing, but I dig {D.R.U.M.} & {Second Lovers}, have liked what little I’ve heard from The Canvas Waiting, {Skeleton Dick}, and {Otenki}, and love {Square and Compass}, with their throwback, smart, loud-emo sound, especially since I finally got to see ’em at Summerfest. Oh, and the place looks to be pretty well-run, getting bigger & better from last year, which is always cool. Go, drink some beer, rock out, and then get a sober friend to drive you home, eh?

YACHT/Onuinu/The Illegal Wiretaps @ Fitzgerald’s
Confession Time: I dunno a damn thing about YACHT; I seriously, seriously don’t. Nothing against the band, but I just never got around to listening to ’em. I have listened to local boys {The Illegal Wiretaps}, however, and I’m liking their Brit-/Goth-tinged post-punk sound, which bounces from dispassionate, jagged-edged guitar rock to flat-out electronic tracks, quite a bit. Take a listen to the band’s most recent “real” full-length — I swear, the band’s tossed out more releases in a year than most bands ever release in a lifetime — Jesus, What Have You Done?, right here:

We’ve got a review up of that one, btw, right over here, and there’re more on their way…

New Birth Brass Band/Mama Tried @ The Continental Club
Okay, so if you miss the New Birth Brass Band — which is one of the newer/younger bands on the NOLA brass band scene, apparently, and includes the younger brothers of a few of the guys from the Rebirth Brass Band — over at Beer Fest, well, you’re in luck, because those energetic bastards are also playing tonight at The Continental Club. Better still, they’re playing with local dudes {Mama Tried}, whom Chris MacGregor, a music-loving friend I tend to trust (we bonded over Billy Bragg, back at my first post-college job) has raved about to me multiple times. Sadly, I can’t be there to see this one, either — sorry! — but I’m taking Chris’s word for the band’s awesomeness, and so should you.

Holder (ex-The Tie That Binds)/Peloton/Smooth Sailing/Last 2 Weeks/[Insert Name Here]/Eagle Eggs @ The Hive (413 CR 28, Angleton; free!)
Yes, yes, yes. I’m psyched as hell to see that {Holder}, the new band from Steve& Rudy Duarte, formerly of {The Tie That Binds}, are sticking around and not falling into the short-lived-reunion-type-project trap so many bands like this seem to hit. The teeny-tiny bit I’ve been able to hear of ’em so far has been pretty promising… Plus, they’re playing with one of my favorite bands in town at the moment, {Peloton}, a heavy-yet-raw quartet(?) that bridges the gap between gnarly instro-metal and scraping, clawing noise-punk. Think what it might sound like if the guys from Mastodon formed an Unsane tribute band, and you’ll be close.

Runners-Up:
Cindy’s Birthday Bash/Friends For Life Benefit, featuring Skyblue72 @ Smiley Face Records (3507 Graustark; 5-10PM)
World Naked Bike Ride Houston, featuring RU-486, Glasgow Smile, Priest In Shit, Future Blondes, & Nautical Almanac @ Super Happy Fun Land
Honky @ Big Woodrow’s
Gritsy, featuring Goth Trad & Truth @ Warehouse Live
Runaway Sun @ Cactus Music (3PM)
Jason Eady/Folk Family Revival @ Hardy Street Tavern (21119 West Hardy)