—————————————————— Westheimer Block Party News and Notes - It's The Last One (For Now), Y'all | Rocks Off | Houston | Houston Press | The Leading Independent News Source in Houston, Texas
Navigation
Support Us

Houston's independent source of
local news and culture

Breaking News

Westheimer Block Party News and Notes - It's The Last One (For Now), Y'all

November 13, 2009 5:00PM

Update: In a Facebook note Friday afternoon, Free Press Houston editor/publisher Omar Afra announced that this weekend's Block Party will be the last one in its current form due to safety reasons surrounding to his inability - or the City of Houston's unwillingness - to close down Westheimer during the festival.

"The streets must be shut down, the city must get behind the event, and I can no longer personally foot the bill," he said. "Our staff can no longer handle the capacity of the growing festival and squeezing all of these people into the same block is becoming hazardous."

According to Afra, he has an on-camera commitment from Houston runoff mayoral candidate Annise Parker to lobby the city to shut down Westheimer and bring back Block Party as, once again, the Westheimer Street Festival. Rocks Off hates to say we told you so, but in this case we support Afra's efforts 100 percent and urge our readers to do the same. Stay tuned... - Chris Gray

This weekend's Westheimer Block Party is already going through some minor scheduling changes, just less than twenty-hours away from the time Bryan Jackson cracks open his first Modelo on Taft. Facebook and MySpace (yeah, we know) have been awash the past two days with changes to the lineup and set times. A recent Facebook status update from WBP sponsor Free Press Houston said this: "I don't know when your band is playing. Bands keep on trading slots like trading cards. It is what it is."

FPH is also supposed to have a Block Party announcement at 5 p.m. today - as in, now - on KTRU's Revelry Report. Stream it here.

Let's break some of it down for you before you head down to the event tomorrow afternoon. And as always, make sure to follow us on Twitter at @hprocksoff for all the breaking news related to the event, and ya know, drunken bons mots about douchebags and jerk-offs.

  • Tonight at Mango's, be sure to catch the unofficial official kick-off show for this weekend, with Seattle punk band Snuggle, Grandchildren, Limb and the mighty Caddywhompus on board, starting at 8 p.m. Snuggle is a pretty tight little punk band in the vein of early NOFX and Descendents.

  • First off on Saturday, make sure you show up early around noon to see 10th Grade Cutie do something interesting. We talk about them a lot on here, and we want you guys to share the magic that we feel when we see Lil' Blaine get whipped by a tranny onstage. They are scheduled for right before 1 p.m., but get there early in case something catches on fire. Also, have you noticed that Blaine looks like a Mini-Me version of Domokos from Future Blondes?

  • The Jacob Calle project Fucking Thief was forced to cancel its set due to a death in the family and will not be playing Saturday afternoon. Back in April, they played in the street next to La Strada and someone stole our pain pills out of our man purse when we were still nursing the broken elbow. Good times!

  • It's going to be odd as hell seeing Robert Ellis playing outside during the day, considering we have only seen him in a haze of Pearl Beer over at Mangos on Wednesday nights. We'll see if we can manage when he plays in the parking lot next to Numbers at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday.

  • Hell City Kings debut their new lead singer Josh Wolf during their set Sunday night at 7:15 p.m. at Mangos. If you know Wolf from the Homopolice and the Secret Prostitutes, then you are already salivating at this news. It sort of makes up for the Homopolice not playing this edition of Block Party, because if you were there in April you will understand.

  • Mike Kilun of roots reggae band Indiginis wrote us this morning worried about his band's slot upstairs Sunday afternoon at Avant Garden, considering they are an eight-piece crew. "There's no way we could possibly fit up there and the mix would be very poor for the many many layers and dynamics of the sound of the group" Kilun said in a e-mail a few hours ago. His band is a pretty massive operation live, and his fears aren't for naught, as the space upstairs is very tight. We saw a pre-glam Bolt up there in April during the spring Block Party, and they were about to bust at the seams.

  • We will keep you up to the minute on anything else that comes up around town tonight and the next two days, barring any police action. Look, we don't see a sign anywhere that says you gotta wear pants on the street.

KEEP THE HOUSTON PRESS FREE... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" program, allowing us to keep offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food and culture with no paywalls.
Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1.
Craig Hlavaty
Contact: Craig Hlavaty

Trending Music

More »
California Privacy Policy California Collection Notice
Do Not Sell My Info
Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy The Houston Press may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. ©2024 Houston Press, LP. All rights reserved.
Powered By Foundation