Saturday: For the Community 8 Takes Over North Downtown

As I noted earlier, there’s a ridiculously large pile of cool stuff happening this weekend, especially tomorrow, Saturday, November 8th, but the biggest by far is the latest installment of For the Community.

This one’s For the Community 8, appropriately enough, and it looks really damn impressive, kicking off at 2:30PM and running ’til 2AM Sunday morning and spanning pretty much every venue in the North Downtown ‘hood, including the Last Concert Cafe, Eastdown Warehouse, and some place called Dance Party Warehouse.

There’s even a tie-in Creeperfest going on at the House of Creeps; all together, there’s a whole shitload of excellent bands playing. Those crazy kids over at Visionary Noise have definitely outdone themselves this time around…

I’m not going to go through the whole dang list right here — see over here for the full schedule (and here for the Creeperfest details) — but there’re a few bands in particular I want to point to and give a special thumbs-up…

I caught {Lion Among Men} at the most recent Yes Indeed! Fest, outside at the Pachinko Hut, and they charmed the hell out of me damn near immediately. Not only were they a bunch of genuinely friendly, sweet folks who seemingly just wanted to have a good time, but they played some truly fine indie-folk-pop with gorgeous, hummable melodies and low-key (but talented) instrumentation.

Then there’s {Only Beast}, about whom I’ve babbled a number of times lately but who deserve another mention; they play bluesy but sharp-edged rock that’s equal parts ’90s-vintage indie-rock and classic rock, and frontwoman Danielle Renee yelps and croons and howls like Corin Tucker at her best. No word yet about any recordings or releases, but I’ve got my fingers crossed…

On a different side of the rock spectrum lives {Fox Parlor}, a rough-edged band of Americana/roots-rock hellraisers that sound like the love child of Lucero and fellow H-town band the Born Liars. They’re garage-y and raggedy and roadworn but still tuneful and addictive. There’s a large group of electronicists, too, like INSERT CREDIT[S], whose laidback, often low-key compositions get your head nodding lazily while they creep inside your skull.

A little less laidback is the awesomely-titled {This Time I Brought Bombs}, who merge old-school synths with emo-dude yelling, raw guitars, and some nice electronic touches; for their part, {Ars Nova} go more straight-up screamo, albeit with a fair dose of melody thrown in.

In terms of out-of-towners, Austin band Wonderbitch will be down to visit, too, and bringing their funky throwback pop with ’em, and Connecticut band Empty Vessels will be in town, too, doing their messy, spazzy, sludge-drone-rawk thing.

All in all, it’s a damn interesting lineup — not a lot of “big” local names (although {Deep Cuts} and {Featherface} are at the House o’ Creeps), but a ton of truly promising new/less-well-known acts. Oh, and it’s all free. Cool? Cool. Now make plans and go, alright?