Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: Via Colori Festival + CHVRCHES + Lindi Ortega + Brett Detar + Hardcore Matinee + More

On into Sunday, November 24th, now, and I’m trying to get this up a little bit earlier in the day, at least, since there’s some extremely cool stuff going on starting pretty early (and hey, the weather doesn’t look as terrible today). Here we go:

Via Colori Street Painting Festival, featuring The Suffers, DJ LilsMC, Ira Perez, Soul Track Mind, KIPP Dance Crew, Clory Martin, Lois Albez, La Sien, & Jealous Creatures @ Hermann Square & nearby streets (Downtown; 10AM-5PM)
I’d feared yesterday’s rain might’ve rained out Via Colori from its planned spot on the Downtown city streets, but it appears that didn’t happen — from pictures on the festival’s Twitter feed, at least, it looks like the street-art extravaganza went off mostly as anticipated.

Which is excellent news, because as I mentioned previously somewhere around here, Via Colori is a heck a lot of fun. Mind-blowing street art + Houston’s wholly underrated Downtown urban landscape + badass music = awesomeness. And the latter part of the equation is especially excellent today, at least to my mind. Right at noon rootsy, moody, Cowboy Junkies-esque rockers {Jealous Creatures} take the Main Stage, with excellent Latin rock dudes {La Sien} at 1:15PM and great, great rocksteady/soul crew {The Suffers} closing out the day at 4PM. Husky-voiced singer/songwriter {Clory Martin} will be over on the Lounge Stage at 1PM, and I’d heartily recommend checking her out, too.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free to get into the thing? Seriously, brave the weather & go; you won’t regret it.

CHVRCHES/Basecamp @ House of Blues
I’ll admit that I’m kind of over the whole electropop thing in a lot of ways; by now it all seems to’ve been done to death, to the point where if I hear another ultra-melodic, beat-happy band with tons of synths and gorgeous vocals, I’ll just about turn off the damn radio (er, Rhapsody/iPod/whatever). But then there’s CHVRCHES, who fight their way past my jaded shell and curl up in that warm, cheery place in my frontal lobe, smiling serenely as they bounce and drift along.

Maybe it’s because they’re just flat-out great at what they do, it’s true, but I suspect it’s also the fey-yet-approachable vocals of singer Lauren Mayberry, whose voice is beautiful and angelic without being distant or frozen. Whatever the real reason, I can’t help but love this damn band, and this year’s The Bones of What You Believe has surged up to near the head of my personal top-ten list for 2013.

Lindi Ortega/Brett Detar @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
There’s a nice, nice lineup tonight at the Mucky Duck, as well, with Canadian (really?) alt-country siren Lindi Ortega in the headlining slot and emo-gone-country guy Brett Detar opening up the night. The former I’m still pretty new to, it’s true, but I’m mightily impressed with her sultry-yet-countrified vocals on this year’s Tin Star; I’m gonna have to give a more in-depth listen soon. Here’s a pretty stunning live clip of her performing the title track to her new album:

Detar, though, I’m already familiar with and already like quite a damn bit, following 2011’s jaw-droppingly wonderful Bird In The Tangle; he’s left his emo days with The Juliana Theory far, far behind and reinvented himself amazingly well as the modern-day stepchild of Gram Parsons, defying easy labels while rambling down the backroads and byways. And he’s offering his whole new album, Too Free To Live, as a free download over on his Website, for the price of only an email address. Go and get it, alright?

H20/Will to Live/Chipped Teeth/Dress Code @ Walter’s (3PM; $12)
And then, all you hardcore kids who can’t stay up late, your prayers have been answered with today’s “hardcore matinee” show over at Walter’s. Get up to the club around 3PM to catch a full slate of mosh-pitting coolness, including local icons {Will to Live} and — holy shit, seriously? — New York punks H2O. Not bad for $12 on a Sunday afternoon, y’all…

Runners-Up:
CHVRCHES @ Cactus Music (4PM)
Kirk Franklin Gospel Brunch @ House of Blues