Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Keeton Coffman + Second Lovers + Less Than Jake + Anti-Flag + A Sundae Drive + Such Gold + More

Heading into the truly busy part of the weekend now, Friday, December 6th, and yes, there’s a crapload of awesome things going on (well, what I think are awesome things, at least). Here we go:

Acoustic Showcase, featuring Second Lovers, Jennifer James, Keeton Coffman, & Andrew James @ Avant Garden (8PM-12AM)
First and foremost, the folks at Mania Management are doing another of their acoustic showcase shows tonight up at the Avant Garden; they’ve done a few of these now, and there’s always a nice slate of excellent, supremely talented singer-songwriter types. Tonight’s no exception, either with cool, rough-edged roots-folk-pop crew {Second Lovers} and ex-71’s frontman {Keeton Coffman}, the latter of whom has been doing some awesomely heartfelt, folky songwriting recently.

Here’s Coffman doing a live performance of new song “The Prayer”; it’s beautiful and low-key but still practically exploding with barely-suppressed emotion. Check it out:

Less Than Jake/Anti-Flag/Masked Intruder/Get Dead @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Alright, so this one’s a little late notice, I’m afraid, since the doors opened at 7PM, with the show supposedly starting not long after. If you hurry, though, and get your ass down to the Scout Bar in Clear Lake right now, well, you might be in time to see two of my favorite, favorite bands ever.

At the top of the bill, there’s Floridian pop-punk-ska guys Less Than Jake, who thankfully survived the ska/ska-punk die-off of the ’00s and are still cranking right the hell along, putting out album after album of wonderfully melodic, ridiculously catchy, heart-on-sleeve pop-punk with serious ska tendencies. It’s been too damn long since I saw this band, honestly; when I last did, it was the ’90s, and it was freaking great.

And yeah, this brings me way, way, way back, and puts a grin on my face even now:

Plus, playing right before ’em are fuck-The-System anarchopunks Anti-Flag, who are one of damn few punk bands who can play and sing overtly political rants over sharp-edged three (okay, four) chord punk and make it work. Most bands come off sounding like preachy assholes, it’s true, but not these guys. Listening to an Anti-Flag album is like a tuneful crash course in activism and radical history, and to me, at least, that’s a very good thing.

Seanster McDaniel Band/Tera Ferna/A Sundae Drive/Stef White @ Notsuoh ($5/$10)
On the decidedly quieter side, then (not to mention the side much nearer in to town), there’s a cool little bill up at Notsuoh tonight. I don’t know a lot of the folks playing, it’s true, but I do know {A Sundae Drive}, and I’ve loved ’em more & more every time I’ve seen ’em. They play indie-pop that’s loud but never rough, and they’re serene but play with more energy I have, most days; unfortunately, they’ve only got one EP out, 2011’s You’re Gonna Get Me, but it’s stellar (check out “Alone Bad, Friends Good,” in particular). Followup soon, y’all?

The Story So Far/Stick To Your Guns/Such Gold/Rotting Out/Heart To Heart @ Fitzgerald’s
Finally, Fitzgerald’s has a pretty good lineup tonight of post-emo, melodic-rock-type bands. Frankly, I’m generally sick to death of most bands like this, but I’ve heard a fair bit recently from headliners The Story So Far and Such Gold, and I’ve been pretty damn impressed. The former are pretty straightforward, really, just Taking Back Sunday-influenced emo-ish rock with touches of Jawbreaker here & there, while the latter are a bit more proggy, almost like a less-hardcore A Wilhelm Scream; either way you go, I’m liking it.

Runners-Up:
Institute/Vacation Eyes/Mystic Inane/Breakout @ Mango’s
Will Van Horn/Bagheera @ MKT Bar (1001 Austin; 5-11PM)
The Devil Wears Prada/The Ghost Inside/Volumes/Texas In July @ Warehouse Live
Maximum R&B Christmas Party, featuring Picture Book & Von Hindenburg @ Jubilee (325 W. 19th; 6-10PM, free!)
Hickoids/Barking At Nothing/Shinta @ Rudyard’s
Ray Wylie Hubbard @ Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe (Galveston)