Tonight: Co-Pilot Tour Kickoff, at The Mink

Yeah, I know, I suck — I have been a complete and total slacker on the blog this weekend (and also on the shows list, it seems, since I completely neglected to put last night’s {Robert Ellis} show at Walter’s on there; sorry, y’all…not intentional, just lamebrained).

The last 30 days or so have been rough, and yours truly felt the need to get away from the lurid glow of the LCD screen for a little while, at least — so yes, when I probably should’ve posted about all the cool shows that were going to be happening Saturday, I was walking around on a rocky beach & helping Midget #1 catch a crawfish. And now I’m only online briefly, in-between prepping the grill and while everybody else in the house is asleep.

I didn’t want to neglect to mention yet another badass show, and that one’s the {Co-Pilot} show up at {The Mink} tonight (Sunday, July 4th). Yeah, yeah, I realize it’s also The Fourth, and lots of folks will be staring up at fireworks, hanging with the fam, and/or attending the concert extravaganza near downtown (Pat Green — er, woo?), but hey, this’ll still be going on after the smoke clears, and the music’s ridiculously appropriate, besides.

If you’ve never heard Co-Pilot, they’re yet another one of those melodic/moody, atmospheric, instrumental rock bands, close kin to Explosions in the Sky, but where EitS tend to linger on the mopey/melancholy side of things, the Co-Pilot boys seem to know just when to cut loose and roar with the guitars on 11. The new stuff I’ve heard — particular “This Means the End is Near” — makes me think more of Mogwai than anything else, and from where I sit, at least, that’s very cool.

The show also features a bunch of cool openers, including post-emo electro-rockers {Mechanical Boy}, who’re pretty amazingly good live, and seriously cool-ass, sludgy doom-metal dudes {Ghost Town Electric}. Then there’s {Young Girls}, which I’ve yet to hear but which I’m told is a new thing by Pete Tijerina of {Springfield Riots} (and the previous {Program}); Pete’s a darn talented guy, so the new band’s bound to be good, too.

And yep, as noted in the title, this is indeed the tour kickoff show for the Co-Pilot crew; they’re headed off to Washington, DC, next, followed by and handful dates in Canada (where they reportedly had a very cool time the last time they toured outside of TX), the Midwest, and then on back down home. They don’t tend to play very often these days, unfortunately, so seriously, if you’re at all into the spacerock thing, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, MONO, Red Sparowes, etc., you really need to check these guys out.

I, sadly (well, okay, not too sadly, or I’d be a genuinely horrible human being), will be witnessing actual skyward Explosions, having promised Midget #1 we’d go hang out on Brays Bayou in our lawnchairs and watch the bats eat bugs over the bayou as the country club nearby sets off their own light show…