Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: The Legends + Hanni El Khatib + Second Lovers + Waco Brothers + Cool Piss Video Shoot + Zombie Walk + Clear Lake Celtic Fest + More

Rolling on into Saturday, October 19th, and holy crap is there a lot going on. Seriously; tomorrow is like a nonstop buffet of badass music. Here’s what looks/sounds cool to me:

The Legends, featuring The Biscuit Bombs, Muhammad Ali, RIVERS, Talk Sick Brats, DJ Brother Roo, & Chingerson @ Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark (103 Sabine; 1-5PM)
Oh, wow. First, personal confession time: I always wanted to be a skater. We had quite a few in our neighborhood in Fort Hood, where I went to high school, and some of them seemed amazingly talented, at least to my untrained eye. I dearly, desperately wished I could do the tricks they were able to pull off, effortlessly flipping their boards and catching air…but I had an overprotective mom and, more importantly, absolutely zero coordination. The handful of times I tried to skate, I wiped out spectacularly after barely a few seconds.

I still look back fondly on those days, though, watching the local skater kids ride around our housing area and wishing I could be right there with ’em, so I’m psyched to see something like this show, The Legends, happen at the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark on the edge of downtown. The event’s bringing a ton of pro skaters, not to compete, but just to skate and do whatever the hell they want to do, and hell, even I recognize some of the names on the list, especially Tony Alva & Tex Gibson.

To make things even better, there’s also a slew of awesome bands playing, like noisy indie-rock throwbacks {Muhammad Ali}, fuzzed-out nu-grunge dudes {Rivers}, snarling punks {Talk Sick Brats}, and musical legends themselves, Austin’s Biscuit Bombs. Here’s hoping the rain goes away in time for this thing to kick off; if it does, get on over to Sabine St. Oh, and I think the whole thing’s free…

Hanni El Khatib/Bass Drum of Death @ House of Blues (Bronze Peacock)
Of course, once you’ve had your fill of skating, you obviously need to head elsewhere, like maybe over to the House of Blues. They’ve got a ridiculously great lineup tonight, with bluesy, gritty garage-rocker Hanni El Khatib headlining and similarly rough-edged rockers Bass Drum of Death (who I swear I thought were an EDM act for the longest time, based strictly on their name). Both El Khatib and BDOD make some of the best garage-y rock going right now, and that’s no mean feat.

Second Lovers (EP release)/Emily Wolfe/Matt Harlan/Yello Echo @ Fitzgerald’s (free!)
I’ve already talked up {Second Lovers} a bit this week, but they’re definitely worth talking about again; they’ve grown rapidly from a band I was kind of uncertain about into one of the absolute best of Houston’s crop of roots-folk-pop groups, sitting alongside {Buxton}, {Finnegan}, and {Folk Family Revival} at the top of my own personal list, at least.

The show’s a release for their new New Mexico EP, and it’s a darn good one — it’s a lighter, janglier, jauntier pair of songs than anything on their previous album, Wishers, Dreamers & Liars, but I find myself liking it even more because of that. They’ve got some darn cool people opening for ’em tomorrow up at Fitz, particularly {Yello Echo}; get there early…

Waco Brothers/Churchwood/Deano & The Purvs/Jon Langford @ The Continental Club
Jon Langford has always been somewhat of a confusing figure, to me. I knew him (well, okay, I didn’t know him, but knew of him) primarily for The Mekons, the seminal British punk band, playing their records pretty much at random during my shifts at KTRU and liking ’em but not loving ’em. Odd though they were, they seemed about as British as it was possible to be.

But then Langford moved to Chicago, and former Waco Brothers, and suddenly, he was an alt-country troubadour, playing countrified tunes that were still a little strange but fit nicely alongside folks like Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks. The music sounded literally a continent away from what I was used to, and while I liked some of the songs — “Walking on Hell’s Roof Looking at the Flowers,” in particular — I don’t know that it ever really clicked for me.

And yet, here we are, a full 20 years on from the Brothers’ founding, and they’re still trundling along, with musical/geographical expat Langford still at the wheel. And yeah, they still sound pretty damn good.

Cool Piss (video shoot)/Children of Pop/Jason Puffer/Hakeem/FLCON FCKER/Je$$o @ Houston House of Creeps (807 William)
Alright, so you, like everybody else, would probably love to be in a music video, right? Hell, I have, and that’s saying something; you should, too. And hey, here’s your chance, because local noisy, messy, kinda-threatening pseudo-punks {Cool Piss} are filming a “party video” over at the Houston House of Creeps.

It also happens to be a keg party for Andy Rodriguez‘s 21st birthday, so there’ll be plenty of beer on hand, not to mention other musical-type things from folks like {FLCON FCKER} and {Children of Pop}, plus stand-up comedy by somebody named Warren Urchin, all for a measly $4. If you’ve never heard Cool Piss before, btw, take a listen to their limited-edition, self-titled cassette release from back in August, right here:

2013 Houston Zombie Walk & Halloween Party, featuring Reverend Horton Heat & Dollyrockers @ Jones Plaza (2-9PM)
Interesting; my, how the Houston Zombie Walk has grown… The first time I ever heard about it, it was a mostly-informal deal that wound around part of Montrose and was mostly intended to let some of those crazy Montrosians scare the bejesus out of the straights roaming around the ‘hood.

Now, however, it’s apparently become a whole big production — which makes sense, given the current zombie craze that thankfully replaced the goddamn sparkly-vampire craze — with sponsors and a logo and a whole freaking Halloween party Downtown at Jones Plaza.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because the whole thing’s ballooned into possibly an ever more entertaining spectacle, and they raise money for some cool charities (the Houston Children’s Charity, the Houston Humane Society, & the Dove Key Ranch Wildlife Rehab). Plus, they’ve got none other than rockabilly icon Reverend Horton Heat playing the party tomorrow, and that’s pretty badass all by itself.

Clear Lake Celtic Music Festival, featuring The Dead Rabbits, The Traveling Murphys, Before The Devil Knows Your Dead, Celtic Voyage, Cass Irish Dancers, & Kilderkin International Dancers @ Landolt Pavilion (Clear Lake Park; Clear Lake, 12-10PM, $5)
And last but far from least, way, way down in the Lake of Clarity, there’s a cool-sounding festival going on tomorrow (assuming the weather doesn’t suck, I’m guessing): the Clear Lake Celtic Music Festival. Never heard of it before this year, so I don’t know if it’s new or not, but they’ve got quite a lineup, with Houston’s own burgeoning Celtic-folk-punk heroes {The Dead Rabbits} headlining. If you haven’t heard the band yet, you really, really need to; they’re the closest thing this city has to The Tossers or The Pogues, albeit with their own inimitable style…

Runners-Up:
Randy Newman @ The Grand 1894 Opera House (Galveston)
Oh Whitney/Cavern Hymnal/Adam Bricks @ Walter’s ($7)
East End Street Fest, featuring Bombon, Freneticore Dance Theater Co., Aztec Danza, Mariachi Youth Group “Juvenil Serenata,” Young Mammals, Ambassadors International Ballet Folklorico, Nick Gaitan & The Umbrella Man, Ruben Moreno, Los Guerreros de La Musica, The Love Tones, Los Pistoleros de Tejas, Hunter McKithan & The Offenders, Sister Sister, & Avizo Band feat. David Marez, Chente Barrera, & Chris Q @ Navigation Blvd. (between Jensen & Delano; 11AM-8PM)
The Flamin’ Hellcats/Hickoids @ Rudyard’s
We Came As Romans/Silverstein/Chunk! No Captain Chunk!/The Color Morale/Dangerkids @ House of Blues
The 11th Annual ZiegenBock Music Festival, featuring The Randy Rogers Band, Kip Moore, Sunday Best, Kayla Conn, Jeff Boortz Band, Chris Knight, Chase Likens, Folk Family Revival, Buck Yeager Band, Bleu Edmondson, Wild Feathers, The Cadillac Three, Ra
Jessie Ware/Mikky Ekko @ Fitzgerald’s
Yello Echo @ Cactus Music (1PM)
Blaggards @ Ashford Pub
Buffalo Bayou Brewery Party/Tour, featuring Chase Hamblin & The Roustabouts @ Buffalo Bayou Brewery (12-3PM)
Datsik/FuntCase/Antiserum x Mayhem @ Stereo Live