Yr. Weekend, Pt. 3: Knights In Satan’s Service + No Limits CityFest + Barbarella Benefit for Autism + Freda Payne + the last place you look + More

Well, if I thought yesterday was busy, I hadn’t yet looked at the pile of stuff going on today, Saturday, September 6th, because yeah, there’s a freaking massive number of good, good things happening. Here goes:

Knights In Satan’s Service, featuring Jody Seabody & The Whirls, Linus Pauling Quartet, Clockpole, The Freakouts, Funeral Horse, Hell City Kings, Cornish Game Hen, The Ex-Optimists, & The Swamps @ Fitzgerald’s
At the top of the list there’s this badass-looking lineup on both floors of Fitzgerald’s tonight, where the good folk(s) at Artificial Head Records are celebrating the release of their brand-new comp of KISS covers, entitled (obviously) Knights In Satan’s Service.

The Artificial Head guys managed to get a slew of excellent H-town bands to do their favorite KISS songs, including doom-metal guys {Funeral Horse}, stoned-out fuzz-rockers {Linus Pauling Quartet}, spazz-prog outfit {Clockpole}, College Station-dwelling indie-rockers The Ex-Optimists, classic-rock revivalists Jody Seabody & The Whirls, and punkish, in-your-face dudes {Hell City Kings}, all of whom will be doing those very songs (I’m guessing) tonight. Yes, this will be a whole hell of a lot of fun.

No Limits CityFest, featuring Nick Gaitan & The Umbrella Man, The Suffers, & Los Skarnales @ Discovery Green (10AM-2PM)
Alright, so this has been going on for a couple of hours already, but dangit, it’s still worth checking out, I think… It’s a very cool new music-and-other-stuff festival that’s going on in Discovery Green right now, with food, crafts, art, prize giveaways, and all kinds of other stuff, plus — derrr — some awesome sounds from a trio of awesome bands. There’s truly awesome rocksteady/soul band {The Suffers}, who are utterly mind-blowing, old-school Latino ska-surf-punk guys {Los Skarnales}, and Skarnales spinoff Nick Gaitan & The Umbrella Man, all of whom I like a whole hell of a lot.

The whole thing’s being put on as part of this Houston: The City With No Limits campaign (wait, isn’t that actually New Orleans?…), and while most things like this mostly make me shrug — remember Houston, It’s Worth It? — I can’t fault ’em for having pride in our oft-maligned, oft-misunderstood city and for organizing cool events like this. Hopefully there’s more to come.

Barbarella Benefit for Autism, featuring BLSHS (as La Roux), The Beans (as Nile Rodgers & more), & Yung Slutty @ Barbarella (2404 San Jacinto; $5 or donation)
This is a cool idea, if you ask me; relatively new venue Barbarella — which wins points for a clever pop culture referencing name, if nothing else — is staging a benefit show for the group Including Kids, which provides services for families with autistic children, including tutoring, interaction groups, and support groups for other family members. It’s truly a worthy cause, to me, and I’m glad to see a show like to help raise funds for ’em.

Of course, having good music helps, too. And on that front, they’ve got excellent, lush, gorgeous electro-indie-pop band {BLSHS} doing songs by La Roux, rootsy, gritty blues-soul rockers {The Beans} doing songs by Nile Rodgers (and others, it sounds like), and DJ {Yung Slutty} doing, um, pretty much his own thing. Which is also cool, mind you. Good all the way ’round.

Mary Wilson/Freda Payne @ Miller Outdoor Theatre
Whoa. Words cannot express how happy this makes me. Tonight at the Miller Outdoor Theatre, not only is Mary Wilson of The Supremes performing, but so is Freda Freaking Payne, the woman behind “Band of Gold,” which happens to be one of the most heartbreaking, most desperate soul songs ever written, and one of my favorite songs of all time. I lucked into a copy of it on 45 many years ago now, when I first bought a turntable of my own, and I’ve loved it ever since.

Dangit, now I need to hear it again, and so do you:

Otenki/the last place you look/Another Run @ Red Rock Beach Bar and Grill (Surfside Beach; 6PM-2AM)
Ah, crap — naturally, the one weekend my wife doesn’t suggest we go down to her dad’s place in Surfside Beach, and one of my favorite bands of all freaking time, {the last place you look}, will be literally right down the street from the house. sigh. Unfortunately, I’m stuck up here in The City, but if you’re down on the coast, get over to the Red Rock Beach Bar and Grill (formerly known as Castaways, for you Surfsiders) to catch TLPYL, entertaining alt-rockers {Otenki}, and surprisingly cool (if still odd) prog-funk rock guys {Another Run} as they bounce loud-ass guitars off the waves. Get on down there.

Cancer, You’re Drunk, Go Home!, featuring Baud Optics, Sloppy Joe, Jason Alan, Bart Black, When Darkness Lies, Kid Murdah, DJ Matthew Dunn, DJ Randy-V, Lost Prophet, Thor, & Jay Rawwar @ XL (213 Milam)
Okay, so I dunno a thing about most of the folks playing — although I have heard good stuff from {Bart Black}, for one — but who cares? It’s an EDM-ish benefit-type deal to raise money for a young lady who’s been diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of 29; she’s going through treatment, apparently, but that treatment costs a crapload of money, obviously

Poor Dumb Bastards/The Wrong Ones/Trukstop Assassins @ Rudyard’s
And last but very much not least, Rudyard’s tonight has a big, steaming pile of sloppy, loud, drunk-as-fuck rock sludge, with old-, old-, old-school dudes {Poor Dumb Bastards} — who I would swear have existed as long as this damn city has existed — and great, scuzzy glam-punks {The Wrong Ones}, who are like what Guns N’ Roses could’ve been if they hadn’t bloated alongside Axl Rose’s ego.

Plus, they’re playing with {Trukstop Assassins}, a new-ish hip-hop outfit that includes — holy shit, people — Billy Kinnamon from long-departed, much-loved rap duo/trio I-45. Well, damn; glad to see Billy’s back behind the mic, for sure.

Runners-Up:
Islands/TEEN/Children of Pop @ Walter’s
Free Radicals/Lisa Brady Family Band @ The Continental Club
Spiritual Bat/Pleasure 2/Future Blondes/DJ Dana Dark/DJ Ashe Ruppe @ Mango’s
Benefit for Spencer & Shannon Selph, featuring Series Six, Black Kennedy, Vessel, & Sexion @ BFE Rock Club (4PM)
The Witherees/Luca/TX. Special/Jake Robertson @ Notsuoh
The Ugly Beats @ The Big Top
The Soapbox Revolution/Trapdoor Social/Recovery Room/Potbelly @ Vintage Pub
Houston Brazilian Festival 2014, featuring Batala Houston, Choro Ao Ponto, Janete Silva, LadoBe, & Samba Soul @ Jones Plaza (2-10PM)
The Rads @ Timeout Sports Bar (Pasadena)
Starlight Cinema/Redeye Carl and the Pirates/Alton @ Alley Kat Bar & Lounge ($5)
A Really Kool Party Vol. 5, featuring DJ Day, DJ Sun, Dayta, & OG Bobby Trill @ The Flat (1701 Commonwealth)
Danseparc: The Wedding Party, featuring Allison, Shoe, Stacy, & Ceeplus Bad Knives @ Numbers
Bombon, featuring EL G, Bombon DJs, & La Comadre Mel @ Fox Hollow (4617 Nett)
John Evans Band/Reckless Kelly @ Redneck Country Club (Stafford)