Yr. (Remaining) Weekend: Canned Acoustica + The Western Civilization + Common Deer + Shopping + Living Hour + Look Vibrant + More

Hey, y’all — been dealing with a puking kid and house/floor renovations all weekend, so I’m way, way behind on what all’s been going on, sadly. There’re still a bunch of awesome things happening tonight, however, Sunday, March 11th, and I didn’t want to let ’em all slip away. Here goes:

Canned Acoustica, featuring Rosewood Thievz, Sik Mule, The Wheel Workers, texture:Yellow, & Blaggards @ Discovery Green (5-9PM; free!)
First up by virtue of the fact that it’s going on right now — assuming it’s not raining right now over at Discovery Green, obviously — is the triumphant return of the Canned Acoustica showcases, where bands and people who might not always play acoustic, well, play acoustic. Which makes sense, given the venue, and it’s always a cool thing to see people expand a bit in terms of their sound, especially when it’s bands who tend to play heavier/louder stuff.

I don’t know all of the folks playing tonight real well, but I’m a big fan of The Wheel Workers, whose brand of fiery, smart, tuneful political-folk-rock probably kills acoustically just as much as it does with amps on 10; they’re damn good, one of this city’s true musical treasures, and you should hear them. Then there’s the(?) Blaggards, a hard-drinking bunch of Irish folk-rockers themselves, who are less political and more about drinking and dancing but still a hell of a lot of fun.
 

Common Deer/The Western Civilization @ White Oak Music Hall
This one kinda snuck up on me; I didn’t get a chance to listen to Common Deer ’til very late in the week, and I didn’t even know locals The Western Civilization were playing until singer/guitarist Reggie O’Farrell reached out to let me know…

I’m glad on both counts; for the former, it’s because the Canadians are pretty damn cool, playing a friendly-yet-solid kind of indie-pop that makes me think a bit of The Cranberries’ better moments. Check out the video below for proof — I’m seriously liking the band so far, despite the late introduction. And then, for the latter, I’m happy as hell for those rare occasions when Reggie and fellow Civvie Rachel Hansbro get back up on stage; even now, more than a decade on from when I first heard ’em, I still listen to the band’s old recordings regularly. I’m happy, too, that the pair have two new songs out as of last October, “Bible Verses for Kids” and “The Ocean’s On The Rise,” which you can also check out below:

 

SXSW Overflow Festival, featuring BRNDA, Leggy, Living Hour, Look Vibrant, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, & Poppies @ Super Happy Fun Land
I hang my head in shame as I admit that yes, I have totally and completely blown it for doing my mostly-annual writeups of the excellently-quirky SXSW Overflow Festival over at Super Happy Fun Land. It’s especially painful tonight because there’re some truly cool folks playing tonight, like Living Hour, Look Vibrant, and Nnamdi Obonnaya. All three are pretty radically different, at least to my ears, bit very much worth hearing. And as always, the crazy mishmash of artists is half the fun of SXSW Overflow Fest; you go on over, pay a couple of bucks, and see a bunch of random bands, some good, some not-so-good, and some amazing.
 

Shopping/French Vanilla @ The Secret GroupWalter’s
This one’s less about the band — although I have heard good things about Shopping — and more of a late eulogy to the sadly-departed Walter’s. Until today, I wasn’t actually sure if/where this show had been relocated to, but it appears that it’s found a home over at The Secret Group, which has graciously bumped a whole bunch of dates on its existing schedule to accommodate several Walter’s shows. Thanks for doing that, y’all.

As for Walter’s itself, I’ll miss the place dearly, although I’ll grant I had much more of an emotional attachment to the old location over on Washington. I saw a shit-ton of awesome shows there over the years, some with friends’ bands and some with big-name, out-of-town folks (Sharon Jones and The Hold Steady come to mind, in particular). I’m not going to say, “oh, no, it’s the death knell of the Houston scene” or anything dramatic like that, but it’s still a tough loss…
 

Runners-Up:
Dante Elephante/Mind Shrine/Arthur Yoria @ Satellite Bar
Starset/Palisades/Grabbitz/Year of the Locust @ White Oak Music Hall