Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Pride Festival + Sk8 & Rock + Spain Colored Orange + the last place you look + Swap Meet + More

It’s Saturday now, y’all (June 23rd, to be exact), and holy-freaking-wow is there a lot going on, folks. Here goes:

34th Annual Houston LGBT Pride Celebration, featuring Sarah Golden, Jenna Drey, The Sexual Side Effects, Hoja Lopez, Nina Lombardo, Lauren Miller, Brittani Collins, Ashley Hennessy, AJ Cabrera, Second Lovers, & more @ Various spots in Montrose, mostly along Commonwealth & Yoakum (1-7PM)
Pride Party, featuring Eleven:Eleven, Young Girls, La Catrin, Max Xandaux, Branagan, Haters Make Us Famous, Bombon, GRRRL Parts, Ceeplus Bad Knives, Bobby DJ, Hyro, Tangled Shadows, Best Legs, & Bagheera @ Boondocks (2PM-2AM)
Pride Fest 2012, featuring Mikey and the Drags, Caddywhompus, Beach Day, Oh Look Out, Scientist, Day Sailor, Gatlin Elms, DJ Neon Jungle, & Senior Jukebox @ Mango’s (6PM-2AM)
2nd Annual Pride at Royal Oak, featuring Glasnost, Brandon West, Josh Dupont, James Reed, Henry Chow, Chris Calix, Oz de Funk, Jonathan Sewell, & more @ Royal Oak (1318 Westheimer)
This is by far the biggie of the day, this year’s Pride Festival, and while I think the entertainment’s kinda-sorta all supposed to hang together, I frankly have no clue where a lot of these folks are playing, just that the’re scattered around Montrose.

There are plenty of good, good bands playing, though, notably {Young Girls} (who I’d thought were moving up to Austin…?), NOLA-by-way-of-H-Town duo {Caddywhompus}, sweet-voiced, melancholy dream-pop outfit {Day Sailor}, nu-New Wavers {Glasnost}, serious indie-popsters {Second Lovers}, and McKenzies (R.I.P.) offshoot Mikey and the Drags, whom I really, really need to see sometime soon, not to mention more DJs than you can shake a stick at. Head on up to Montrose any time between now and tonight, and you’re bound to see/hear some good bands.

Scion’s Sk8 & Rock Free Concert, featuring The Dead Revolt, Omotai, & The Hates @ Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark (103 Sabine; 7-9PM)
I keep meaning to check out the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark, even though I don’t ride (and haven’t ever really ridden) a skateboard; I see the place across the bayou every year at Summerfest, and it just looks like a neat deal — I mean, c’mon, it’s a free, public skatepark; how awesome is that? And these free shows they’ve been having have looked pretty damn cool, too.

The latest installment has not only punk stalwarts {The Hates}, who are thirtysomething years young, band-wise, but also murky indie-rock band {The Dead Revolt}, about whom I’ve heard good things, and earth-crushing, giant-monster-music trio {Omotai}, who are probably my favorite of the current gang of loud/heavy bands in town right now. Can’t beat that for free…

Murder The Stout/Spain Colored Orange/IAMDYNAMITE/Handsome Ransom @ The Continental Club
This one’s a mixed bag, that’s for sure, but it’s one that looks darn good, even still. I’m not real familiar with {Handsome Ransom} or out-of-towners IAMDYNAMITE, but I really like shiny-soulful pop band {Spain Colored Orange}, and Celtic folk-rock group {Murder the Stout} have been pretty col when I’ve seen ’em in the past, too.

3 Doors Down/the last place you look @ Bayou Music Center
Okay, so this kind of a weird one, at least to me. I don’t really care one way or the other about 3 Doors Down — I can’t remember a single song they play/played — but holy crap, {the last place you look} got tapped to open for ’em, and that is flat-out awesome. TLPYL is a great, great band, equal parts post-hardcore fury and sweetly melodic gorgeousness, the kind that makes you want to punch the air, close your eyes, and how along, and they thoroughly deserve to get some more exposure like this…

Swap Meet, featuring excuseMesir & DJ Travis Smith @ Walter’s (6PM; free!)
And then there’s this one, which is less about the music (no offense to {excuseMesir}; I haven’t heard much from ’em yet) and more about the overall idea, which is, well, an indie-rock/punk/whatever swap meet for folks who love music to come & bring stuff to sell or trade, etc. It sounds like a very, very neat deal, to me.

Runners-Up:
The Caroline Sessions, featuring Yello Echo (album release) @ Caroline Collective
The Bouncing Souls/The Menzingers/Luther @ Fitzgerald’s
Ashbury Keys/three33/Wiretree @ Fitzgerald’s
S.P.E.A.K. IX, featuring Be El Be, FDS, Stockz, Onehunnidt, Twenty Eleven, Yung Truth, & Roosh Williams @ 2421 Bartlett
Blaggards @ Molly Maguire’s
Jetspeed Music Showcase, featuring Pale, Holly Hicks, Joe Blake, SixL6, Straight Laced Scarlet,& IDR @ Warehouse Live (Studio)
Candlebox/The Canvas Waiting @ House of Blues
Zero Heros (record release) @ Melrose Pub (Galveston)
Bands on the Sand, featuring Hamilton Loomis @ Moody Gardens (Galveston)
Texas Tornados/Jesse Dayton @ Crighton Theatre (Conroe)