Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Cheap Trick + Springboard South + The Uncluded + Invincible Czars + Nothing More + the last place you look + More

Moving on to Saturday, June 22nd, now, but before I get to the shows that are going on, there appears to be one that isn’t. I haven’t been able to completely confirm it, but it sure looks like the Pull The Plug Fest that’d been originally scheduled for the old Engine Room space downtown (and may have been moved to the BFE Rock Club after that) isn’t happening. Not sure what the reason is/was; maybe they didn’t sell as many presale tickets as they’d hoped or something. Either way, it looks like it isn’t happening.

Happily, some of the local folks who were scheduled to play have been rescheduled elsewhere, and hey, there’s still a bunch of good stuff that is actually happening. Like, say, these:

Cheap Trick @ Arena Theater
Yes, yes, yes. Weirdly, the older I get, the more I find myself liking Cheap Trick, for some reason. I honestly never thought I’d say it when I first heard the band in 1986, right when “The Flame” (which yes, I liked at the time) was hitting big, but these guys’ music has stood the test of time for me a whole lot better than I’d ever expected it to. I mean, c’mon, I can’t resist “Surrender” or “I Want You to Want Me” or “Southern Girls” or “Dream Police” no matter how I try, and every time I hear the band in their heyday, I’m reminded just how much all those power-pop bands that came after owe these guys.

Springboard South, featuring Hazy Ray, Jesse Roach, Clinton Ashley, VerseCity, Branden Mendoza, Celeste Kellogg, Mike Terror, Dewey Wayne, Sophi, Rainchild, Abby Gough, Celestial Centerfold, Black Queen Speaks, The Dead C Scales, Last Ones Left, Cosmic Bug Loaf, Lucas Eason and the Panhandlers, Knights of the Fire Kingdom, Griffen Swank, Chris Crump, Carlton Anderson, Brandon Matthew Band, Blushhh Music, & Sabrina Antoinette @ Warehouse Live
Alright, I have to admit it: I don’t honestly know what the whole Springboard South thing is for. Is it a music festival? Kinda; there’re definitely people performing, and some of ’em are very, very cool, like {Black Queen Speaks}, {Cosmic Bug Loaf}, and the freaking badass {Knights of the Fire Kingdom}, for three.

Is it a music conference? Kinda that, too; there are apparently a whole slew of “mentors” in different areas, from social media to entertainment law to tour promotion to management, all trying to impart their wisdom to young(?) musicians and bands who need to hear it. It’s an interesting idea, but I’m a little leery of it, even still — I think the number of bands & musicians out there who want information like this is fairly small, but hey, I certainly haven’t done any market research or anything. If this works, more power to the Springboard crew.

The Uncluded (Aesop Rock & Kimya Dawson)/Hamell On Trial @ Fitzgerald’s
Wait. Um. Okay…no, hang on — what the fuck is happening here? The Uncluded wins the award for Weirdest-Ass Collab of the Year So Far, pairing up sharp-tongued, fast-moving rapper Aesop Rock with quirky, strange, warbly-voiced freak-folkie Kimya Dawson to come up with Hokey Fright, which is a shambling, unkempt, sweatpants-wearing stack of songs that seem to bounce and crumble off of one another. Aesop & Kimya don’t really mesh, honestly — they’re just kind of doing their respective things together, sometimes (like on “Earthquake,” for one) right on top of one another.

Sometimes, though, it works. See “Delicate Cycle” for proof:

If that doesn’t sway you, well, I can at least tell you that there’s no way you’re going to see something that sounds like this anywhere else in town tonight. So there’s that, right?

Invincible Czars Olde Fashioned Pre-Fourth of July Picnic, featuring The Invincible Czars & more @ Avant Garden (1PM)
Yep, it’s the weekend’s second appearance of The Invincible Czars, who will also be playing in the evening out in Pasa-gitdown-dena (see below for that). They’re calling this a “family-friendly” party, and the time’s definitely friendlier to families like ours, at least, with a 1PM start time.

Plus, there will apparently be jugglers and food and face painting a hula hooping and who-knows-what-else going on, on top of the Czars themselves doing their crazed, wild-rumpus-like interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” Bring the kids, and they’ll probably be very confused the next time they hear the Overture performed somewhere else.

Nothing More (album release)/the last place you look/To Whom It May @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
I’ll freely admit I didn’t know San Antonio/New Orleans band Nothing More at all before today, but what I’ve heard so far, hey, it’s pretty damn good. They’re firmly on the metal/hard rock end of things, but there’s an intriguing prog bent to the music, almost a Tool-like tinge to the sound, and the near-falsetto vocals remind me (happily) of Billy Talent at points. I think I’m going to be coming back to these guys, so it feels appropriate that tomorrow’s show is their actual album release; if “Ballast” and “Sex and Lies,” in particular, are an indicator as to what the band sounds like as a whole, then I’m pretty well hooked.

Of course, then there’s local dudes {the last place you look}, a band who can literally do no wrong in my eyes, at this point. They play awesomely heavy alternarock/modern rock that verges on metal but never quite takes the plunge, with killer melodies and a shit-ton of passion and fire, and I swear, I could listen to ’em forever. If my entire music collection goes up in smoke tomorrow except for “Band to Save Me,” I’ll be alright. They’re playing with fellow local band {To Whom it May}, which is from Galveston and which includes {Good Job Underground} guitarist Robb Marshall…

Shifters Summer Sizzle, featuring Project Armageddon, Humut Tabal, Spectral Manifest, Plutonian Shore, Knocturnal Maddness, Whore of Bethlehem, Black Hole Caravan, Runes of the Evening, Sever The Silence, Downer, & Black Standard @ Shifters (Spring; 12:30PM-2AM)
And finally, right here is where some of the bands previously scheduled to play the Pull The Plug Fest have ended up, up in Spring at a place called Shifters, which has graciously opened its doors to a decent-sized pile of metal bands, who’ll be playing from pretty much noon on Saturday ’til 2AM the next morning. That’s a lot of metal, y’all…

Runners-Up:
Ian Moore & The Lossy Coils/Sundance Head @ The Continental Club
Royal Teeth @ House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room)
Mas Musica Fest, featuring Pxndx, Making Movies, Parrkos, Vitera, Paulette, La Skandaloza, Orbinautas, La Sien, & Cherize @ House of Blues
Dance Party, featuring Dave Wrangler x Chnnlz, Ben Aqua, & Bombon DJs (Gracie Chavez, Navo, & Panchitron) @ DiverseWorks (4102 Fannin)
Silk Knives (CD release)/John Lefler Band/Days Drive/Tom Lynch/King Finn @ Fitzgerald’s
Industry Nite, featuring Tuface Idibia, Ice Prince, D’Prince, Seyi Shay, Mista Marrix, Chukky-P, Vinnie Mac, MC Larry D, Mellissa, Determined, & Pascal Atuma @ Ayva Centre (9371 Richmond)
Surfside Beach Party, featuring Fault, Adamantium, & Saturate @ Pier 30 (Freeport)
The Grizzly Band/Jason Bancroft and The Wealthy Beggars/Come See My Dead Person/The Invincible Czars @ Da Pub (Pasadena)