Creeperfest 2012 Takes Over North Downtown, Today/Tonight

Meant to post about this last night, but sleep got the better of me… Today/tonight marks this year’s incarnation of Creeperfest, a cool, cool, fun-sounding mini-festival thrown by the gang of oddballs & scenesters who hang out/live at the Houston House of Creeps (which is apparently currently located at 807 Williams St.). I’ve meant to go for the past couple(?) of years now, but something always comes up, it seems like, and with me still recovering from the flu, that sadly looks to be the case yet again. sigh.

Which sucks, because this year the HHOC bunch are making things bigger & better, definitely. The music’s spread out between venues, namely the HHOC itself, which has two stages, a “folk stage” at 1301 Nance St., and J.D.’s Sports Bar (850 McKee), and there’re a ton of good bands/people playing.

On the louder end of things, Rocket From The Crypt-esque dudes {Knights of the Fire Kingdom} are playing, as is noisy, Mudhoney-like outfit {Rivers}, emo supergroup {Holder}, snarling “deathpunks” {Hell City Kings}, Braid-loving indie-rockers Square & Compass, and old-old-old-school ska-punks O’Doyle Rules, who I think are reuniting for this show.

Then there’s the middle ground, with mesmerizing, head-nodding crooner/musician {Benjamin Wesley}, murky night-rockers {Bang Bangz}, psych-pop heroes {Featherface}, Louisianans England in 1819, who aren’t from here but are pretty amazing — see the review from a while back over here — and excellent, starry-eyed pop-rock kids {New York City Queens}.

True to its name, the “Folk Stage” seems to have most of the quietest/most chilled-out performers, like B.E. Godfrey of {listenlisten} fame/infamy, folksinger {Adam Bricks}, & troubadour {Frank Freeman}, who I heard a while back & liked quite a bit. All in all, it’s a fine, fine menagerie of great music being cobbled together under the Creeperfest banner.

There’s other stuff, too, like an early (3PM) homebrewing class courtesy of the Backyard Home Brewers Education Center, and a screening after that (4:20PM) of Better Than Something, the documentary about the late Jay Reatard, who passed away in 2010 — haven’t seen it, myself, but it’s bound to be interesting, at the very least.

Anyway, there’s that early stuff, and then the music starts around 5PM — tickets are between $15-$20 to get in, which seems pretty worthwhile to me, considering the bands involved. Get on out & go, eh?