Yr. (Laaate) Weekend, Pt. 3: Bad Veins + Ian Moore + Kenyon White + Paul Pelc + More

Gah. Sorry, folks, for being so dang late tonight — I was out at Johnette Napolitano Thursday, then The Winery Dogs (in Clear Lake) last night, then spent the bulk of today roaming the halls at Comicpalooza, so tonight’s writeup kinda fell by the wayside.

At any rate, I’m just going to make it real quick, but there is some awesome stuff going on, even now. Here we go:

Bad Veins/Jeremy Carswell & The Nypmhs @ Fitzgerald’s
Okay, so this right here is the one that hurts the most, because damn, Bad Veins are amazing. I caught the duo very nearly by accident a few years ago at FPSF and was bowled over by them, completely and utterly. Singer/guitarist/pianist Benjamin Davis and current drummer Jake Bonta (when I saw ’em, Sebastien Schultz was on drums) play music that’s outwardly somewhat in the indie-pop realm but turns out to be a lot more “classic”-sounding when you dig beneath the surface. 2012’s The Mess We’ve Made is stellar and bright and desperate, with smart, self-effacing lyricism and just the right amount of production shine.

Here’s Davis doing “Don’t Run”, off that album; listen, then get on up to Fitzgerald’s, right damn now:

Ian Moore @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
I’m a new convert to Ian Moore, I’ll freely admit. My wife’s been a fan for nearly two decades now and has regularly sung his praises and tried to lure me in, but it never really took until we treated ourselves to a special night at mind-blowing restaurant Haven, a combination food-and-music thing where we’d get to eat some great food while listening to none other than Moore.

Put simply, it was incredible. Beyond the fact that the guy played awesomely rootsy songs that — again — were “classic”-sounding, more or less genre-less and just flat-out amazing songwriting, the whole thing was like witnessing a live VH1 Storytellers, with Moore explaining the genesis of each song and telling little stories about his life and career while we dug into our dinners. At one point he and his cohort were meandering around the tables, singing and playing like wandering troubadours. And afterwards, my wife and a couple of the other folks at our table got to talk with the man himself; it was really a one-of-a-kind experience.

Tonight’s show at the Mucky Duck won’t be quite like that, it’s true, but still, it’s well worth seeing and hearing.

notsuoH’s Songwriters Roundtable Vol. 2, featuring Kenyon White, Chris Goodwin, Paul Pelc, Ramses Garza, The Soapbox Revolution, & JBZ @ Notsuoh ($5/$10)
Last for tonight (like I said, I’ve gotta make it quick), there’s a very cool-sounding Songwriters Roundtable going on up at Notsuoh, one that features some truly talented local musicians, most of whom have their own actual bands. I don’t know everybody on the list, but I’ve liked what I’ve heard from two of these guys in particular, Kenyon White and Paul Pelc, who you might know from their “real” group, {A Thousand Colours}. Having liked the band-sized stuff, I’m pretty psyched to think about what they can do acoustic and in the round, y’know?

Runners-Up:
The Transferable Image, featuring Unforeseen Electric Arrival, Damon Smith, Your New Communist President, & Alex Tu @ El Rincon Social (3210 Preston)
Brown Whornet/Churchwood/Dead Mineral @ Rudyard’s
Birthdays Full of Metal, featuring Thraxis (covering Exodus), The Scourge (covering Overkill), F.Y.I. (covering Pantera), Atomic State (covering Havok), & Devil’s Holy Adversary (covering Lamb of God) @ The White Swan (free!)
Bassjackers/Surain/Vance Lawrence @ Stereo Live
Super Freestyle Explosion, featuring Stevie B, Expose, Shannon, Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, Stacey Q, Johnny O, Cynthia, Trinere, & Nu Shooz @ Reliant Arena