Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: The Manichean at The Alley + Free Radicals + The Tyburn Jig + Sheer Terror + More

It’s Saturday, June 16th, and unfortunately, the little guy decided not to take a nice, long nap this afternoon, so I’ve got to keep this one a little on the brief side, too. I didn’t want to miss out on tonight’s shows, though, because there’s some awesome stuff going on. Here we go:

The Manichean @ The Alley Theatre (11PM; $10)
Alright, so here’s the “marquee” show, at least in my book. I’ve talked about it before, but it’s well worth mentioning again — cool, cool band of drama-rockers {The Manichean} will be setting the Neuhaus Stage of the august Alley Theatre afire tonight, blazing away with their strange, murky, yet gorgeously intense song-cycles (just calling ’em “songs” seems inadequate).

I don’t entirely know what all’s going to go on, but there’ll be a bunch of special guests, including {Two Star Symphony}, Mills-McCoin, {Tyagaraja}, & Asli Omar of {The Tontons}, and I know for a fact that the band’s been building a special set to perform on/in tonight. Yeah, you read that right: there’s been actual freaking carpentry involved in this show, people.

Sadly, I can’t be there tonight — the wife previously committed both of us to going to a birthday party — and it kills me, because this promises to be one hell of a unique show, a once-in-a-lifetime deal. sigh.

Oh, and the band’s been putting up some entertaining little “preview”-type video clips, some goofy and some beautiful. Check out a couple, right here:

The Manichean “Lovers” Preview with Tyagaraja from Adorable Creative on Vimeo.

Free Radicals (CD release)/Samba Soul/Soular Grooves Collective/Havikoro/H.I.S.D. @ Fitzgerald’s
Ah, the {Free Radicals}; damn, I love those guys. Nick Cooper & his crew are like the collectivist Energizer Bunny of the Houston scene, just always playing and recording and whatever else — and if there’s a political cause, you can bet they’re involved, too. It helps, obviously, that they’re all stellar musicians… And hey, they’re playing tonight’s CD release show with ultra-cool hip-hop crew {H.I.S.D.}, so that’s a very cool little bonus.

The Tyburn Jig/Fox & Cats/Shadow Hounds/BrokenQuote @ The Mink
A little more low-key than the other featured shows here, but still a damn good one. I like {The Tyburn Jig}‘s spooky, windswept merging of surf-rock, spaghetti Western themes, and Nick Cave murkiness quite a bit, and I ran across Fox & Cats recently and was very impressed by their sweet-voiced indie-pop goodness. Well worth checking out.

Sheer Terror/Tried and True/Tread/Will to Live @ Walter’s (1120 Naylor)
This is a serious slate of throwback hardcore bands, both from here — Tread and {Will to Live} — and elsewhere — Brooklynites Sheer Terror, who broke up back in the late ’90s and reformed in 2010. Expect a raw, heavy, violent mass of sweaty, belligerent dudes, so if that’s your sort of thing, there you go…

Runners-Up:
Amplified Heat/Espantapajaros/Angwish @ Mango’s
The O’s/Jon Dee Graham @ The Continental Club
Chase Hamblin @ Phul Court (1311 Leeland)
White Ghost Shivers @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
The Thing and Joe McPhee @ Studio 101 (1824 Spring St.)
Hounds of Jezebel/Morgue City/Days Before @ Rudyard’s
Come See My Dead Person @ Union Tavern (Webster)