Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: Title Fight + Balance & Composure + Bleeding Rainbow + Cool Piss + Infinite Apaches + Rivers + American Sharks + More

Hey, all — yes, it’s that time again: the weekend. It’s Friday, September 20th, and yep, there’s some truly excellent stuff happening tonight. And with that, here we go:

Title Fight/Balance & Composure/Cruel Hand/Slingshot Dakota @ Fitzgerald’s
It’s a big, big, badass-looking night at Fitzgerald’s tonight, so you’d do pretty well to hit both floors, in my book… I dunno which show will be where, but this first one’s a full slate of finely-honed melodic punk, with the two top-of-the-bill bands sounding pretty damn good.

Pennsylvania’s Title Fight is Social Distortion-/Alkaline Trio-esque, to my ears, while Balance & Composure‘s latest, The Things We Think We’re Missing, rides the line between Silversun Pickups’ head-nodding haze-roar and thundering, guitars-on-fire post-emo that Taking Back Sunday would be proud to call their own. I’m pretty bowled over by the new album, honestly, which is intense and melodic as all hell; don’t miss these guys.

Bleeding Rainbow/Twin Peaks/Cool Piss @ Fitzgerald’s
And then, on the other floor, there’ll be another Pennsylvania band, one that’s similarly loud and — surprisingly — heavy; Bleeding Rainbow‘s music is sunshiny and gorgeous, as befits the band’s name, but it drifts along in Jesus + Mary Chain territory, filling your skull just as completely as either of the punk-er bands mentioned previously. There’re some truly crystalline-sounding tracks, sure, but there’s also enough MBV-level guitar noise to make any old-school dreampop fan grin like an idiot.

Opening this evening, btw, is local crew {Cool Piss}, who I’ve wanted to check out for a while now. If memory serves, it’s the latest project of Jon from guitars/The Monocles (along with a good dozen other bands), as well as ex-members of {The Cutters} and {White Crime}. They’re buzzy and raw, but melodic all the same and ridiculously catchy for as noisy as they are; there’s a serious Ramones influence, to my ears, which is never a bad thing. They’ll be selling copies of their recent limited-edition cassette release tonight, so grab one while you can.

Infinite Apaches/Rivers/The New Mercies (Lucas Gorham) @ Mango’s ($5)
I finally got to give a good listen to {Infinite Apaches} back during the runup to FPSF 2013, and I was stunned but then happily won over by the band’s jazz-fueled, throwback psych, which drifts, jangles, and bumps along like something you’d expect to hear get played late at night on some college-radio ’60s show. It’s moody and fuzzy-edged and earthy, almost like music that’s fallen out of its own time.

Which fits nicely in this particular lineup, because they’re playing with {Rivers}, whose sound harks back to a bit closer of a time — the ’90s, to be precise, when grunge got big and playing heavy, sludgy, un-precise rock became an acceptable thing once again. I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: to me, these guys are the truest inheritors I’ve ever heard of the Mudhoney sound, and holy crap do I like that.

American Sharks @ Cactus Music (5:30PM)
Early of the evening, there’s also this one, which is the official-shmofficial Houston release show for Austin-Houston rawk outfit American Sharks, who’ve been getting some well, well, well-deserved press of late. I have yet to hear the new full-length, unfortunately, but I’ve heard the band’s (out-of-print?) WEEDWIZARD 7″, and it’s one mighty, massive, heavy-yet-sharp slab of stoner-influenced metallic rock, reminiscent of folks like Red Fang, Federation X, and soon-to-be-tourmates The Sword. After this they’ll be touring for quite a while with The Sword & Clutch(!), so get your fix now…

Runners-Up:
Lonely Giant/Starlight Cinema/Super Thief/Mellow Riot @ Notsuoh
Ancient Astronaut Theory/Sequoia/Lisa’s Sons @ Walter’s
John Evans/Jesse Dayton @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Empire of the Sun @ Warehouse Live
Kinky Friedman @ Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe (Galveston)
Blaggards @ Molly’s Pub (Kingwood)