Yr. Weekend, Pt. 2: Roky Moon & BOLT! + Satellite D’Homme + Muhammad Ali + Rainbow Dragon + Project Grimm + SHFL 11th Anniversary + Roy Zimmerman + More

On to Saturday, y’all, March 29th, and oh, yes, is there good stuff going on. Tonight’s a tough choice, honestly; I’m hoping to get out myself, assuming the kids and wife don’t take a turn for the worse (again)… Here goes:

Satellite D’Homme/Roky Moon & BOLT!/A Giant Dog/Mikey & the Drags @ Fitzgerald’s
Alright, I know I’ve talked this one up once or twice already, but I figure it most definitely merits another mention, even still.

I mean, c’mon — not only is this the debut of brand-new quasi-supergroup Satellite D’Homme, which is members of {Juzcoz} and {Tax the Wolf} uniting Voltron-style to form something different but even more awesome, but it’s also the reunion show for the utterly badass Roky Moon & BOLT!. Who, if you’ve somehow forgotten, look(ed) and sound(ed) a little like this:

Roky Moon and BOLT! “Unhinge The Youth” from Zenfilm on Vimeo.

And to sweeten the deal a little more, they’ve got excellent, retro-ified garage-pop gang Mikey & The Drags as openers. All together, that makes a hard-to-beat combination…

Project Grimm/Rainbow Dragon/Muhammad Ali @ Rudyard’s
A close, close second is over at Rudyard’s tonight, where there’s a full-on bill full of heavy-yet-tuneful rawk. First up is a rare-these-days appearance by {Muhammad Ali}, and hell, that alone makes me psyched; the guys’ buzzing, ’90s-inflected indie-rock roar is completely great. Then there’s Rainbow Dragon, which is a throwback for me, personally, because the Austin band includes Hector Lanza, the former frontman for ’90s H-town band Big Top — my own (lame) band was good pals with the BT folks, and it makes me happy, happy, happy to see Hector back on guitar again.

Finally, the headliners are local legends (although they’d probably dispute the term) {Project Grimm}, the brainchild of longtime scene icon and über-misanthrope John Cramer, who’ve been around for as long as I’ve been paying attention to music in this city. And holy crap — they’ve apparently got a new song out, “You Bend, I’ll Slide”. Good to hear, y’all:

Roy Zimmerman @ Live Oak Friends Meeting House (1318 W. 26th St.)
Our own Creg Lovett wrote this one up the other day, as well, and it sounds pretty dang cool — erm, depending on your political persuasion, at least. Folksinger Roy Zimmerman writes and plays snarky, sharp-tongued songs poking fun at the current state of the right-wing in this country (which, you have to admit, makes an easy target these days). Fans of folks like Ted Cruz or Michelle Bachman, yeah, you should probably stay away; fans of Elizabeth Warren or Alan Grayson (or Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger), though, this should be right up your alley.

11 Years of SHFL, featuring Organ Failure, Poopy Lungstuffing, Black Magic Marker, Rusted Shut, Clockpole, Muzak John, & Ak’Chamel @ Super Happy Fun Land
Ah, yeah. I love Super Happy Fun Land — the place is just so laid-back and loopy and fun as a venue, so screw-the-rules wacky that I can’t help it. Tonight’s the official celebration of the place’s 11th anniversary, which is amazing and a testament to the never-say-die attitude of the folks who run the place, Brian and Olivia (seriously, they can’t make much of a living off the venue, right?). They’re good people who are in it for the love of weird, quirky music, no more and no less.

Naturally, for their anniversary party, they’ve recruited a whole gang of SHFL regulars, including eternally-hammered sludge-makers {Rusted Shut}, ukulele-playing kook {Poopy Lungstuffing}, and straight-up noise artists Black Magic Marker and {Muzak John}. Get on out and celebrate with ’em, alright?

Queensryche (w/Geoff Tate)/SUN/Hurricane @ House of Blues
Okay, so I’m of two minds on this one. I’m a long-long-longtime Queensryche fan, and dammit, I still love stuff like Operation: Mindcrime, Rage For Order, The Warning, and Empire. That said, I’ve watched, appalled, as the band I once loved disintegrated acrimoniously (and with a crap-ton of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits) into two separate “Queensryches,” one with lead singer Geoff Tate and one with, well, pretty much everybody else in the band.

The problem is, the two Queensryches aren’t the same thing. I’ve heard the latest releases from both, and…well, the Geoff Tate-fronted version isn’t that great; for my money, the other Queensryche is the one worth watching. And it’s the “Tateryche” version who’s playing tonight, so I’m a bit less excited about this show than I was at first.

But again, still: it’s Queensryche. And the less-good half of Queensryche is better than no Queensryche, at least in my book.

Runners-Up:
Lincoln Durham/Stukenberg @ Fitzgerald’s
Southern Culture on the Skids/The Ugly Beats @ The Continental Club
This Time I Brought Bombs/Letters to Voltron/Super Thief/Folly Collage @ Notsuoh
Superpalooza, featuring The Dead Rabbits @ The Corkscrew (sold out!)
Snit’s Dog & Pony Show @ The Big Top
Los Skarnales/La Sien/U.Y.U.S./Fuska/The Gutter Rats @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Alvin Music Festival and Cook-Off, featuring Donnie Vondra, Brandon Rhyder, The Bart Crow Band, Amber and the Old Rascals, The 4-Barrel Ramblers, & The Hook @ Briscoe Park (Alvin)