1) The team to beat tonight (Friday, 4/1) is High On Fire at this new 500-person capacity venue on the Near Southside you might have heard about called APRIL FOOLS, MOTHERFCKER! Glad I got that out of the way! The real show for the first listing is Trashpockets’ and Marlin’s April Fools Birthday Extravaganza at Lola’s. The two Me-Thinks members may or may not have been born on this day of inventive office pranks, but their party will be loud and foggy – the Me-Thinks plus Pinkish Black, plus the Beaumonts is a lineup of pulled straight from the proverbial Stoner Uncle’s record collection. This Quilted Northern Rustic Weave commercial had me in stitches this morning:
2) If your Friday nights typically start with dinner and drinks, head to Pouring Glory around 8pm and grab a PG Philly sandwich and some craft beers – you’ll also be treated to a free performance courtesy Bobby Dade, the talented songwriter who regular hosts open mics at the Grotto. Serious about that sandwich, tho. Don’t feel silly if you have to eat with a fork, either! Check out Bobby Dade’s pipes on this Bill Withers jam:
3) Are you a nerdcore fan? On Saturday night, all your bases are belong to Brentalfloss, who will be joined by Mega Ran with Lynx Kinetic, Richie Branson, Doug Funnie, Crayondroids, Lindby, and 1-Up at Caves Lounge. Tear yourself away from League of Legends for an evening and git you sum dorky Arlingfun, featuring entertainers who rhyme about geek and gamer stuff. Brentalfloss adds lyrics to videogame tunes, as seen here with “Super Mario Land”:
4) The Grotto’s Saturday night show is a cool idea — all power trios, none of which I’ve ever heard. Actually, I think I listed Novokain once; per the Facebook invite, they “model themselves after Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.” Other lineup descriptors: Anthony Coker and the Majestics sound “…similar to what would happen if Boston and Led Zeppelin had a baby”; the Heavy Hands are “a good old fashioned blues rock trio from Denton.” Sunrise Pilots (also from Denton) test “the bounds of musical creativity in sound,” and later “early 2000s hardcore” is mentioned. Then there’s The Infamists, another Denton blues rock trio who claim to play “MILF rock,” apparently designed to get your mom drunk and laid. I’d argue that playing Def Leppard songs would do that just fine, but whatever – the event is actually called Three Way Fest, so the pursuit of getting laid seems to be part of the subtext. Also, does Denton have a burgeoning “blues rock” scene or are all these bands crewed by the same 3 to 9 guys? Because they’re power trios, you see. Anyway, here’s Amplified Heat (who are not playing this power trio show), the best modern power trio I’ve ever seen in my life; the Grotto show starts at 8:30:
5) Dreamy Life is putting on a show at the Chat Room on Saturday night, headlined by Vicious Firs, with Siberian Traps, Earthchild Imperius, and the Fibs playing before. Tone geeks will dig the difference in sonic choices across all four of these bands, which range from the Fibs psychedelic reverb freakouts, to Vicious Firs high-gain Gibson crunch. Earthchild Imperius kind of reminds me of a druggier take on Midlake, and Siberian Traps’ countrified psych jams are both hooky and hypnotic. The Fibs start the night off at 9:30, and cover is $5.
