Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Skatestock + The 71’s + Venomous Maximus + ZZ Top + We Scare Coyotes + More

On into Pt. 2 of our weekend, now, on Saturday, October 20th, with some weirdly warm but still pretty nice weather happening, to boot. Which is good, because there’re some cool festival-type things going on, among other musical-ness. Here we go:

Skatestock, featuring Something Fierce, Hell City Kings, Sanctus Bellum, No Love Less, Herschel Berry and The Natives, Bald Eagle Burger, Tax the Wolf, Pinky Lieder, Brother Roo, Ceeplus Bad Knives, & Cipher @ Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark (110 Sabine; 12-9PM, free!)
I dunno if this’ll be the big show of the day to anybody but me, but hell, I don’t care. Music + skateboarding + free = awesome. And even more awesome are the bands they’ve pulled together for this; at the top of the list sits great, great, sharp-as-a-razor power-pop/punk band {Something Fierce}, who’ve managed to veer from their initial blast of street-punk ferocity over into something more akin to The Jam or The Clash’s quieter moments, and they’ve pulled it off amazingly well. If you haven’t yet seen this band, trust me, you need to.

Plus, there’s punk/metal dudes {Hell City Kings}, who get better & better with every record — last year’s H.C.K. firmly cemented them into my personal list of Damn Good Bands (from Houston or Otherwise), with an awesomely gritty roar and the feel of a boozy, rough brawl at the kind of bar nice folks aren’t ever supposed to visit. And then there’s {Tax the Wolf}, a very cool prog-indie-rock outfit with intriguing detours off into the realm of salsa or rock en Español.

And again, free. The thing’s already started, and I’ve got no clue as to the schedule, so my advice would be to get out to the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark (right off the bayou west of Downtown) asap…

Oktoberfest Houston, featuring The 71’s, Luther and the Healers, The Scorseses, The Mighty Orq, Cosmic Bug Loaf, Rathcamp Dance Troup, & Enziam Buam @ Houston Community College West Loop Campus (5601 West Loop South; 1-10PM)
For more festival-type-ness, there’s also the official(?) Oktoberfest Houston shindig over at the HCC West Loop Campus all day today. I’m not real familiar with most of the bands playing, but I’ve recently fallen hard for one of ’em, The 71’s, after hearing recent full-length We Are The Seventy Ones.

The band caught me off-guard, honestly; I’d actually seen them live before and left with a grudging admiration, but for whatever reason, I’d been somewhat wary since. It wasn’t ’til this album that I realized I’d been doing it all wrong, looking at the band like some sort of pop-rock or post-emo thing, when really they’ve got a lot more in common with, say, Band of Skulls or Queens of the Stone Age. Well, well worth seeing/hearing.

Venomous Maximus (LP release)/Mothership/Hamamatsu Tom & The Drink Tickets/Brimwylf @ Fitzgerald’s
And speaking (sort of) of things metallic, heavy, brooding throwback-metal dudes {Venomous Maximus} are celebrating the release of their new LP, Beg Upon The Light; I haven’t heard it yet, myself, but it sounds pretty promising, and I really liked last year’s The Mission (check out Jason Smith‘s interview with the band a few months back, too)…

ZZ Top @ Constellation Field (Sugar Land)
Yep, that {ZZ Top}, the Houston legends, one of the very few rock bands ever to truly make it big from this city. Now, I won’t claim to be the band’s biggest fan — I leave that stuff to longtime SCR contributor Creg Lovett — but I definitely recognize that they’re titans in the musical landscape of H-town, even now. And yes, “La Grange” will be a classic until all evidence of mankind’s time on this planet has eroded into dust. So there’s that.

Acous’Mix Re*View, featuring Bloody Knives, Grey Hours, We Scare Coyotes, & FLCON FCKER @ Notsuoh
Some new-ish bands playing this one, and while I don’t know Austin-based headliners Bloody Knives at all, I’m liking what I’ve heard so far of the other three bands. {We Scare Coyotes} are interesting, almost meditative, shoegazery instro-rock with some seriously prog-jazz tendencies and beautifully busy moments; take a listen & download tracks right here:

Then there’s electronic project {FLCON FCKER}, which is strange, warm/fuzzy-sounding keys and samples and beats all swirled together to make something like a more-ambient M83, and {Grey Hours}, who are jangly and alternately countryish and in-your-face rawk, with high-pitched vocals that make me think of Four Non Blondes (except not annoying like 4NB). Damn promising.

Runners-Up:
Meat Puppets/Infinite Apaches/Phil Marshall @ Fitzgerald’s
Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Toyota Center (sold out!)
Pale @ Heights Vinyl (4PM)
Hudson Falcons/The Ballistics/Los Gritos/The Booked @ Mango’s
Letters to Voltron/Opposite Day @ Rudyard’s
Murder the Stout/Spain Colored Orange/Language Room/Days Drive @ The Continental Club
Norah Jones @ Bayou Music Center
J.W. American @ Khon’s Bar
Carolynn & Josh’s Wedding Reception, featuring Brian’s Johnson (AC/DC tribute), Chelsea Hotel, & The Last Cigarette @ Big Star Bar (8PM; free!)
Cassandra Wilson @ Cullen Center
Blaggards @ Ashford Arms (13308 Westheimer)
The Tomfooligans @ Molly Maguires (15945 Kuykendahl)
Southern Backtones @ Cash County (Humble)