Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Featherface + New York City Queens + Something Wicked + Restorations + Tiny Empires + Days N’ Daze + The Dead Rabbits + More

Alright, so it’s Saturday, October 26th, and I’m already feeling fried from chasing the kids all around the ArBOOretum thing at the Houston Arbouretum, but there’s a big, big pile of things going on today/tonight. So many, in fact, that I’m going to have to breeze past some of ’em, but I’ll hit the ones I can:

Featherface (7″ release/costume party)/New York City Queens/Ranch Ghost/Infinite Apaches @ The Continental Club
Yep, this one wins for tonight, in part because I freaking love {Featherface} and was pretty bummed to learn recently that they call Austin home these days… I’d wondered why they hadn’t been playing as frequently around these parts, and I’d guess that’s at least part of the reason why…sigh. Anyway, even more reason to see ’em now and bliss out to their warm-yet-fragile, intricate-yet-familiar psych-pop haze. I haven’t seen this band play a bad show yet, and I seriously doubt they’ll start now.

Tonight’s the official release party for their new “Ourselves Together”/”The Cosmic Draw” 7″, by the way, which I already briefly mentioned a week or so ago. I’ve heard both sides of it, and trust me, it rules; it picks up nicely where 2012’s Actual Magic left off, and shifts things subtly so it’s more light than dark. Oh, and it’s also a costume party, on top of that, and wearing said costume will get you a $2 discount off the $8 ($12 for minors) ticket price.

And happily, they’re also playing with {New York City Queens}, who’ve been similarly scarce around town in recent months, although that’s not because they’ve moved (as far as I know, anyway) but because they’ve been touring nonstop. More power to ’em on that; the world at large definitely needs to hear & fall head over heels for their twitchy, desperate, ridiculously catchy take on indie-pop…

Something Wicked, featuring Tiesto, Adventure Club, Alex Young, Antiserum, Arnej, ATB, Cookie Monsta, Cosmic Gate, Crizzly, Cyril Hahn, Deorro, Dyro, Firebeatz, Figure, Herobust, Henry Krinkle, Liquid Todd, Luminox, Ryan Hemsworth, Sean Tyas, Shogun, Simon Patterson, Tommy Trash, Wolfgang Gartner, & more @ Sam Houston Race Park
If you’re a fan of EDM, odds are pretty good that you don’t need me to be telling you about this show, but I wanted to mention it at least briefly; it’s quickly becoming a fixture in the local festival scene, filling a void that even touring EDM festivals can’t seem to quite match. A lot of the names are pretty unfamiliar to my EDM-neophyte ass, but even I’ve heard of headlining DJ Tiesto, Ryan Hemsworth, Wolfgang Gartner, and Tommy Trash, and I actually like what I’ve heard of Adventure Club quite a bit. If bass drops and lasers and body-shaking beats are your thing, Something Wicked is where you need to be (and, probably, where you already are) today. The gates opened just a little while ago, so get on out to Sam Houston Race Park quick and enjoy some excellent music and this goddamn gorgeous day.

Restorations/Weatherbox/Tiny Empires/Hoofprints @ Fitzgerald’s
Damn; I hadn’t been real familiar with three of the four bands on this bill ’til very, very recently, but now I’m even more psyched than I was previously about this show. Co-headliners Restorations and Weatherbox are both pretty incredible, honestly, dipping back into that well of old-school, mid-’90s emo and merging it with more roots-tinged, anthemic rock sounds to make something that’s uniquely their own. There’s more of that rootsiness to Restorations, in particular, with parts that bring to mind Against Me! or Frank Turner’s full-band outings, while Weatherbox almost comes off like Rocky Votolato amped up and electrified, and none of those are bad things, by any means.

Plus, they’ve got supremely cool Houston emo-supergroup {Hoofprints} playing as openers, and I like those guys a hell of a lot, and a band that kind of came in out of the blue and surprised me, Tiny Empires, which is a Houston-and-beyond supergroup fronted by ex-O Pioneers!!! headman Eric Solomon and featuring members of New Bruises, Mid Carson July(!), The Grey AM, and Senders. Hot damn… They’re currently split between H-town and Tampa, and this is their very first show here (I think, anyway); hopefully there’ll be a whole lot more to come.

The Ancient Gods/Animal Crackers/BabelFishh/White House Party Crashers/Days N’ Daze @ East Side Social Center (8-11:30PM)
Okay, so this is actually an after-party of sorts, for the Houston Anarchist Book Fair that’s going on right freaking now over at the East Side Social Center; I’ve hit up the ESSC group’s anarchist-literature library in the past and have been pretty impressed, so I’m psyched about the book-ish part of this as much as the music, myself. They’ve definitely got some neat stuff to read & get & whatnot…

Of course, that’s not to say the music’s not good in its own right, because it definitely is. The Ancient Gods (formerly “Adam and…,” if I recall) are pretty dang cool, as is oddball, cLOUDDEAD-like rapper {Babel Fishh}, and I seriously, seriously love those anarcho-folk-punks in Days N’ Daze. The book fair runs ’til 6PM, the afterparty kicks off at 8PM, and both are free, which is always the best price.

Texas Roadhouse Live, featuring Days N’ Daze & The Dead Rabbits (video shoot) @ Texas Roadhouse Live (6000 N. Sam Houston Pkwy E #610; 6PM, $5)
Want to be on TV? Want to be in a video? Love yourself some raggedy-edged, half-drunken Celtic folk-punk? Well, you’re in luck, because tonight you can get in on all three at the same time. Excellent, excellent, fun-as-hell Irish folk/punk/rock band {The Dead Rabbits} are playing for an episode of Texas Roadhouse Live this evening, alongside the aforemention anarcho-folkies Days N’ Daze, and not only that, but they’ll be filming a video at the same damn time, which makes this at least a three-fer (or a four-fer, maybe, if you count the free drinks and BBQ the Rabbits are throwing in, to boot).

Houston Margarita Festival, featuring Houston’s Elvis & The Extraordinaires, Chase Hamblin & The Roustabouts, Texas Brass Band, Salmerum, Mambo Jazz Kings, Thunderpants, Mariachi Calmecac, Step Rideau & The Zydeco Outlaws, ChangoMan, The Bandulus, DJ Good Grief, & DJ David Cruz @ Discovery Green (12-10PM)
Last but most certainly not least, today/tonight Discovery Green plays host to the Houston Margarita Festival, which sounds extremely neat, even to a non-margarita-drinker like me. I’m more of a Bailey’s/Irish whiskey man, myself, on the rare occasions when I drink at all, but my wife dearly loves margaritas, more than any other alcoholic beverage on the planet, so I’ve tried my fair share; it’s kinda cool to see a whole damn festival dedicated to the drink.

The festival’s organizers have a mixed, mixed bag of musicians and bands playing throughout the day today, which is pretty appropriate given the varied appeal of the margarita. There’s Latin-jazz folks like the Mambo Jazz Kings, Latin rockers like ChangoMan, ska/rocksteady courtesy of The Bandulus, and badass, retro-ish power-pop from Chase Hamblin & The Roustabouts, just to point to a few of my favorites, and there’s plenty more besides. Get over to Downtown, down some frosty drinks (with or without salt and/or little umbrellas; that part’s up to you), and grin to some excellent music-making.

Runners-Up:
Hawkwind/Familiar Looking Strangers @ Fitzgerald’s
Galveston Island Oktoberfest, featuring Alpenfest, AlpenMusikanten, Midlife Crisis, Kevin Anthony, Das Ist Lustig, Kerry Christensen, The TubaMeisters, Fanfare!, & Deer Park Folk Dance Group @ First Lutheran Church (Galveston; free!)
Danzig/Doyle/Texas Hippie Coalition/A Pale Horse Named Death @ Warehouse Live
Ghouls Night Out, featuring DJ Mr. Castillo & more @ Clutch City Squire (410 Main)
Unearth/Nonpoint/Sylar/Dark Sermon/Nine Minutes/Man Meets Fate @ Walter’s
Music Nite on The Strand, featuring Come See My Dead Person @ The Strand (Galveston; 6-9PM)