Stampeding Providence, R.I. noise-rock duo Lightning Bolt, a two-piece as loud as it is heavy, destroys an otherwise quiet Monday night at Fitzgerald's behind its forthcoming Load Records release, Oblivion Hunter, which the label describes as "amped-up and free, with an ear on the railroad tracks to the big sounds of industry and clamor." Opening is Houston's Giant Battle Monster, no slouches in the racket department themselves. Sometimes you can get a glimpse of how a band views itself by its Web address; Lightning Bolt opted out of the obvious and can instead be found at laserbeast.com.
Stoney LaRue was born in Taft, near Corpus Christi, to a family of musicians and spent part of his formative years in Oklahoma, eventually settling in the Stillwater of Cross Canadian Ragweed and Jason Boland. So guess what he does for a living now? If you can get past the silly name, which you should, you'll find that LaRue is one of the strongest young talents in the Red Dirt/Texas Country arena, and such a seasoned road dog that two of his first three records were live sets.
His most recent studio set, Velvet, came out last year, most of it co-written with Houston expat Mando Saenz. We're happy to welcome LaRue to the Houston Press Concert Series at Pub Fiction this Wednesday, with a minor warning: Get there as early as you can, because it will be packed. Best to RSVP on Facebook. Doors open at 4 p.m., no joke -- the music should start around 9, but any chance of finding a place to sit will be long gone by then.
Speaking of Texas country/Red Dirt, Radney Foster is one of the godfathers of that whole scene, which means back in the late '80s, he was just a regular old country and Western singer. He had a few hits to match, many of them off his 1992 album Streets of Del Rio, Texas 1959; hopefully "Just Call Me Lonesome" rings a bell. Foster visits Dosey Doe in the Woodlands Thursday night, and tells Rocks Off's Eric Woods tomorrow morning (6 a.m.) how, when he was thinking about reissuing Del Rio, it instead became an unofficial live album.
