Tonight: Help Out Planned Parenthood at Friends With Benefits (and Check Out Some Awesome Music, Obviously)

So, there’s quite a bit going on today and tonight (Saturday, April 15th), and a whole slew of excellent, excellent shows I happen to think are worth seeing — The Maine & The Mowgli’s, Scott Biram, Foxygen, Jonathan Toubin’s Soul Clap, even freaking BuzzFest with Toadies & Filter.

With that said, though, there’s one show in particular I didn’t want to drop the ball on, because it’s especially, painfully relevant given the events of the past 48 hours or so. You see, tonight is also a show called Friends With Benefits, which is a benefit for Planned Parenthood, an organization that’s been under relentless attack for the last several years, culminating in President Trump quietly signing a bill allowing states to deny federal funds to groups that provide abortion services.

As far as I’m aware, that bill wasn’t even common knowledge back when the organizers of tonight’s show started setting up this benefit, but it makes it even more necessary than ever before, because GOP-controlled Texas will almost certainly jump on the new bill with both feet…seeing as, y’know, they tried to do the very thing it enables back in December, before being blocked by a federal judge. So Planned Parenthood in our big-ass state is in for a big hit, and that’s going to hurt a lot of people who utilize the organization’s services (and for the record, abortions account for only 3% of the services their clinics provide).

I say all that by way of prodding people into please, please getting out tonight and giving your support. As added incentive, the organizers at Dead Dialect Podcast have brought in a whole bunch of talented, talented people to lend their musical skills to tonight’s show, which will take place up at comedy/music/etc. venue The Secret Group.

Heading up the bill are truly awesome roots-rockers {Second Lovers}, who’ve long been a band with a serious social conscience (see their video for “Hold On,” which takes aim at Houston’s controversial no-feeding-the-homeless law) and who are one of the most energetic live bands I’ve ever seen.

Then there’s Whit, a band I keep meaning to check out & have heard great things about, and Whale Bones, for whom the same statement holds true (and yeah, I love the band’s name), cool-ass rapper Mark Drew, raw, in-your-face punks Bernie Pink, singer/songwriter Sherita Perez, psychedelic funk-rock dudes Handsomebeast, and Southern-fried psych band VaudeVillain. Phew. All together, that’s a darn good lineup.

As you can probably guess, all proceeds from the show go to Planned Parenthood — I’m assuming Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. The whole thing starts at 6PM; get on up there, alright?