There will be no weekly LOVIEE for this week (2011-03-28/04-03). It will return the following week. The monthly LOVIEE may not be posted until later in the day on April 1.
Better late than never. It’s tempting to make that the new slogan for this site. But I won’t, because I believe punctuality is a virtue, but sometimes stuff happens.
Wednesday 03-23
Round 34: Matter of FOOD (artists and community talk), Project Row Houses, 2521 Holman St., 7pm. See website for more info. 11-W12-1
Thursday 03-24 through Saturday 03-26
Kristina Wong: Cat Lady, DiverseWorks, 1117 East Freeway, pay what you can ($5/$10/$15/$20/$25). Described by the venue as “an interdisciplinary performance blending the parallel worlds of two pathetically lonely personas living at the margins of gender and society—musty cat ladies (who make solo performance for a living) and fast-talking male pick-up artists.” 11-CATLADY
Thursday 03-24
Twestival Houston, Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Center, 6500 Rookin, 6-10pm, $10+. Benefiting Neighborhood Centers of Houston. Food, drinks, raffle prizes, and live music from Luke Lukas, Tyagaraja, Benjamin Wesley, and Gretchen Schmaltz. 11-M03-7
Adrian Zavala Band/CHangoMan, Continental Club, 3700 Main, 10pm. 11-W12-2
Friday 03-25 and Saturday 03-26
Southern Culture On The Skids, Continental Club, 3700 Main, 10pm, $18 one night/$30 for both nights, 21+. Friday’s show also features The Light Rock Express; Saturday’s show will feature special guest The Ugly Beats. 11-CCSCOTS
Friday 03-25
Devo, Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, doors 8pm, show 9pm, $35 (GA)/$100 (VIP). Synthpop/New Wave heroes of the 1970s/1980s, probably best known for “Whip It” and their cover of “Workin’ In A Coal Mine” (the latter featured in the movie Heavy Metal) but may also be remembered for “Faster” and “Modern Life” (both featured in the Windows PC videogame Interstate ’82), and a cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (originally performed by The Rolling Stones). 11-M03-8
Graham Colton, McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, show 7:30pm, $20. American singer-songwriter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, best known for his hit “Best Days” as featured on American Idol and Kyle XY. 11-W12-3
Saturday 03-26
Super Happy Fun Land 8th Anniversary, 3801 Polk, doors 7pm. Featuring Darwin’s Finches, Giant Battle Monster, Muzak, Only Beast, Art Institute-Limited, Poopy Lungstuffing, Organ Failure, The Annoysters, and others. 11-W12-4
Opening Saturday 03-26
Round 34: Matter of FOOD (opening reception), Project Row Houses, 2505-2517 Holman St., 4-7pm. An exhibit addressing the issues of nutrition, accessibility, and sustainable urban farming practices, and celebrating food traditions. Exhibition continues through June 19. 11-R34MOF
Honestly, I’m not completely ignoring the rodeo on purpose. It’s over at Reliant Stadium if you want it, but you might have trouble getting in some nights this week. Of course Houston wouldn’t be Houston without the rodeo. But there’s plenty of other things going on this week, like these.
Continuing This Week
A Fertle Farewell, Radio Music Theatre, 2623 Colquitt, Thu-Fri 8:30pm, Sat 8pm & 10:30pm, $25. The final chapter in a staple of Houston’s theatre scene; performances will continue through April 30. 11-RMTFAREWELL
Snowman Poker League hosts free Texas Hold’em poker tournaments at bars and pubs across the greater Houston area. Featured games this week: Rookies Bar & Grill, 305-B Sawdust Road (Spring), Sat 1pm & 4pm; Griff’s, 3416 Roseland, Wed 7pm & 10pm; Deck House Bar & Grill, 5810 Beverly Hill, Sat 2pm & 5pm. Z-SMP
Wednesday 03-16
Dance Days at Discovery Green, 7pm, free admission. Three prominent Houston dance companies, the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, the Urban Souls Dance Company, and the Brazilian Arts Foundation, will be celebrating their respective career milestones with a free concert at Discovery Green (Anheuser-Busch Stage and Fondren Performance Space, northeast corner of the park). 11-W11-1
The Fleshtones/Ivan Julian, Continental Club, 3700 Main, 8pm, $10. The Fleshtones are a hard rock/alternative rock band from New York City; Ivan Julian is perhaps best known as the guitarist for Richard Hell & the Voidoids. 11-W11-2
Friday 03-18
The Boat Lights/The Pauses, The Mink, 3718 Main, 9pm, $6 (21+)/$7 (under). 11-W11-3
Saturday 03-19
Empty Bowls Houston, Lawndale Art Center, 4912 Main Street and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main Street, 11am-3pm, $25+. See On The Horizon feature about this event for more details. 11-M03-6
Canned Acoustica I, back in 2010 December, set the expectation bar rather high for its second incarnation, as one may have inferred from my recap of that event. One would probably hope for and expect great musical acts, great food trucks, and great times the second time around, just like we had the first.
I didn’t arrive at Warehouse Live until around 8:45pm, right as Young Girls was wrapping up their set. What little I heard of this act did have me wanting more, to their credit. So, not long after arriving, I’m off to see what food truck offerings we were to have this time around.
Or, maybe I should say, the distinct lack of food truck offerings thereof. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but the original food trucks that were lined up for this event were unable to make it. To his credit, this was announced this on the Canned Acoustica Twitter feed not long after the nominal start time of the event, however, I wasn’t keeping my eyes glued to it for late-breaking developments (I was too busy getting a last-minute haircut and making sure I had canned food handy for my donation) and so I didn’t find out until after my arrival.
However, it wasn’t a total loss in the end; Frosted Betty was on hand for those in the mood for cupcakes, at the standard prices ($3 for regular, $3.25 for specialty). They also had canned sodas; over the course of the evening I had two sodas for $1.50 each, because I wanted to support them somehow even though I was simply not in a cupcake mood. Incidentally, their cupcake van sells at the City Hall farmer’s market as well as various announced locations, mostly in the Heights. I recommend following Frosted Betty’s Twitter account to keep up with their schedule. If you’re not a cupcake fan, please pass along the info to someone you know who is.
With that, I’m sorry if the rest of this is a bit light on detail. This is from minimal notes and what memory I have left of the event five days later.
After Young Girls, the following acts played, in order: Lee Alexander, Finnegan, The Southern Backtones (with a surprise appearance by Tyagaraja), Roky Moon (solo), The Tontons, and Come See My Dead Person. This would imply that Erin Rodgers and Poor Pilate played their sets prior to my arrival. I might add with the sole exception of The Tontons, I was seeing every act live for the first time.
The stand-out moments for me were Roky Moon’s set (I hope I can make it to another of his shows with the full band), hearing The Tontons go acoustic (a different sound, but still spectacular), some of Finnegan’s set (another great band I’m going to have to make time to see), and of course Come See My Dead Person. However, I will note I did enjoy all of it; the omission of particular acts from this list should not be taken to imply the contrary. In fact, there’s not a single act I wouldn’t want to see and hear again out of the entire lineup.
Other notable differences: There was no merchandise table set up this time (at least a couple bands had CDs for sale but it wasn’t at all obvious unless you were looking), and surprisingly, no promotion of Empty Bowls Houston also benefiting the Houston Food Bank, which is now (as of the moment I’m writing this) less than two weeks away. And also, the crowd seemed a bit thinner this time around, which may explain the lack of an announcement regarding the food donation total (rather inconspicuous unless you were expecting one, like I was). Not that there was a visible shortage of food in the donation bins, mind you. Even if the total fell quite short of the rather impressive half-ton brought in by Canned Acoustica I, I don’t think this takes away from the success of the event at all; Canned Acoustica I was on the verge of overcrowded, so a slightly thinner crowd could be seen as a good thing.
In summary, I am anxiously awaiting a Canned Acoustica III, and hopefully Mark Austin has started something big and this series will go on for some time.
