Good Things Today: At the Drive-In + Football, Etc. + Ruiners + Saint Arnold 23rd Anniversary + Pop Shop Houston + More

Alright, folks — still recovering somewhat from last weekend (a combination of sogginess, tinnitus, and heatstroke), but there’s some truly, truly excellent stuff going on today/tonight (Saturday, June 10th), so I didn’t want to let ’em slip away. Here goes:

At the Drive-In/Le Butcherettes @ Revention Music Center
First up is the big name of the day, At the Drive-In, who are playing here in Houston for the first time since, hell, I’m not sure when. Now, I’ve got to admit that I was never a huge fan of the band — I’m not really sure why, especially because I like the bands that’ve come from ATDI. But even still, I can absolutely appreciate the band’s legacy; they inspired a whole lot of excellent post-hardcore bands, particularly those right here in Texas. Plus, I seriously like garage-y rockers Le Butcherettes, a band that ATDI’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez also used to be a part of.

Football, Etc. (album release)/Ruiners (tape release)/El Lago/Greg Cote & The Real Life Friends @ Rudyard’s
Now for a badass two-fer (okay, really a four-fer, but you’ll get what I mean in a second). Tonight’s a dual release show for two of my absolute-favorite bands — it’s the official album release for thoughtful, melodic emo band Football, Etc. and the official tape release for excellent indie-rockers Ruiners, who I’ve been dying to see live for a while now. Plus, they’re playing with cool Galvestonians El Lago and singer-songwriter Greg Cote, currently playing with a full band as Greg Cote and the Real-Life Friends, and that’s a good thing.

Saint Arnold 23rd Anniversary Party, featuring Bun B, The Tontons, 30footFALL, Buxton, John Evans, Say Girl Say, Ancient Cat Society, The Mighty Orq, Arthur Yoria, Genesis Blu, & We Were Wolves @ Saint Arnold Brewing Company (2000 Lyons; 4-10PM, sold out!)
This one’s sort of a good-news-bad-news situation. See, today’s the 23rd Anniversary Party for Saint Arnold Brewing, the original (I think?) Houston craft brewery and a local institution. It makes me feel a bit old, honestly, because I can remember when the brewery got started, but I’m happy as hell to see them still going strong, 23 years on.

That’s part of the good news, the other part being that they’ve pulled together a who’s-who of awesome H-town bands, including hip-hop legend Bun B, excellent soul-psych band {The Tontons}, punk heroes {30footFALL}, roots-rockers {Buxton}, trippy folk-popsters {Say Girl Say}, and a whole slew more. It’s actually one of the best all-around local lineups I’ve seen in a long while.

Now for the bad news: yeah, according to the event’s Facebook page, this thing’s sold out. Sorry ’bout that, folks…

Pop Shop Houston Summer Festival, featuring Nico Diaz, Will Van Horn Trio, Bayou City Swing, DJ Ceeplus Badknives, & Damon Allen @ Silver Street Studios (2000 Edwards; 11AM)
Last but not least, this is where yours truly is headed today with the munchkins; it’s a lot of fun to hang out & roam around at Pop Shop Houston events, trying snacks & drinks, buying cool artwork, watching bands play, and doing crafts with the kids. They’re seriously neat events, and well worth checking out, believe me.

As a bonus, today’s Pop Shop fest includes music by the very cool Will Van Horn Trio and DJ Damon Allen (who, weirdly, did one of the very few interviews we ever did for SCR, although back before he was really focusing on DJing).

Runners-Up:
The Phantom Royals @ The Big Top
Yngwie Malmsteen/Apocalyptic @ White Oak Music Hall
’68/Listener/the homeless gospel choir @ Walter’s