It's no great secret that the live-music scene around Houston can be a little, well, dead around the holidays. There are enough "thank God we're off tour" shows by local and regional acts to make it worth fans' while, but because the music business is generally among the first to shut down for the year and the last to get going again, in late December you almost never see a genuine A-list star venture this far from either coast.

Saturday, one does. Twice in one night. Most of our readers probably need no introduction to Kendrick Lamar, the 25-year-old Compton rapper who has been tapped by no less than Dr. Dre as a once-in-a-generation talent. Both VIBE and Pitchfork named Lamar's moody, sensual debut LP g.o.o.d. kid, m.A.A.d city (released on Dre's Aftermath Entertainment) their album of the year, and he has been anointed music's top 2012 newcomer by just about everyone else with a trophy on hand.

Those lucky enough to go to TSU's homecoming in October, shortly after m.A.A.d city came out, might have seen Lamar perform with Erykah Badu. He was also supposed to perform at Warehouse Live earlier that week, but postponed that show until Saturday "so that he could give the city of Houston something special," in the words of Mike Meegz, Houston ground-operations manager for ScoreMore Shows.

ScoreMore, the Austin-based company founded by then-UT student Sascha Guttfreund, has brought dozens, even hundreds, of hip-hop shows to Houston in the past two years or so. The "something special" turned out to be two separate performances Saturday night, Warehouse Live early and House of Blues late. Rocks Off couldn't think of something like this ever happening on our watch, and we know it doesn't happen often anywhere, so we emailed Guttfreund earlier this week to see what was up.

Rocks Off: When did you realize you needed a second show?

Sascha Guttfreund: We had a feeling this was going to happen once we found out we needed to postpone our original date. Kendrick has so much momentum right now... He's making incredible music and people support him for it. Just the way it should be. I had the idea of announcing a second show and I asked Kendrick's manager about it, and he liked the idea.

RO: Are there any tickets left for either show?

SG: Right now both shows are SOLD OUT. With that being said, there is a total of 20 tickets left for both shows combined, and we'll make them available over the course of the week leading up to the show. We like keeping our supporters engaged.

RO: Is ScoreMore offering any last-second giveaways or anything?

SG: You'll just have to wait and see! Anything like that would be offered via our Twitter (@wescoremore) or our Facebook.

RO: Why do you think there's such demand for Lamar right now?

SG: Kendrick has talent that we (as hip-hop fans) have never seen before. He's a breath of fresh air. He released a classic album... With a lot of acts today, there's some kind of gimmick. With Kendrick, there is no angle besides pure talent, great stories, timeless music. People like that, and I'm thankful for that.

RO: How excited are you guys to be doing this?

SG: Incredibly excited. Kendrick is a close friend. So is the whole TDE [Lamar's Top Dawg Ent.] crew. We've been doing their Texas shows for three years, dating back to the first Houston show we did, which had 300 attendees.

This guy is never going to play rooms this small again. He's an arena act for the rest of his career... So to be able to bring the city of Houston two intimate shows with a superstar like Kendrick Lamar is truly an honor.