Ah, Easter, that most inscrutable and confusing of holidays. The good news is that you didn’t miss it, as Easter falls on Sunday, April 9, this year. So why is it on a different day each year? Bypassing a complicated explanation, here is a simple answer: A. the Bible and B. the motion of the sun and the moon. And what about the symbols associated with this holiday? As comedian Bill Hicks wondered, how did it happen that we established a tradition “commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling our children that a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night.”
Ticket Alert
Do you need more funk in your life? Are you feeling funk deficient? Do you both want and got to have the funk? Good news! George Clinton, the Grand Poobah of Parliament and / or Funkadelic, will be at the House of Blues on Sunday, August 6, with his “Just for the Funk of It” tour. The presale starts this morning, with general ticket sales on Friday.
Tears for Fears never got around to ruling the world, but they have assembled a summer tour, which stops at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Sunday, July 16. The presales are in progress, with the general ticket sale beginning on Friday.
Singer, songwriter, sage and former gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman will perform at the Mucky Duck on Friday, May 5. Tickets are still available but going fast, so get a move on if you want to experience a live performance of “Asshole from El Paso” (and who doesn’t, really?) by the man who once said, “May the God of your choice bless you and keep you. I respect Him as long as he does not circumcise me anymore.”
Concerts This Week
Since 1972, the O’Jays have been telling their listeners, “Please don’t miss this train at the station, ’cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you.” In this case, though, their entreaty is more of the literal than the metaphorical variety. The O’Jays’ “Last Stop on the Love Train” tour steams into the Smart Financial Centre this evening, in what the band says will be the last go-round. And as a bonus, the Spinners are opening! Good tickets are still available, so dust off your platform shoes, “join hands” and “start a love train, love train” (repeat ad infinitum!).
Speaking of a last trip out on the road, Skinny Puppy is in the midst of what is billed as its “Final Tour.” After 40 years of fake blood, mock executions and generally icky onstage stuff, the industrial pioneers have decided to hang up the prop corpses (on meat hooks, natch) and sail off into the gory sunset. Check it out on Friday at the Bayou Music Center. ‘Cause Knowledge is Power: When Skinny Puppy found out that its music was being used to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the band sent the U.S. government an invoice for $666,000.
Movie vixen Lana Turner was discovered sipping a Coke at Schwab’s drugstore in Hollywood, or so the legend goes. The Houston version of that story involves Blue October. In 1998, the band members were performing at a Pappadeaux restaurant when they were discovered by Kid Rock manager Michael Rand, who shepherded Blue October to stardom. The band’s album Foiled went platinum in 2007 on the strength of the single “Hate Me.” The homeboys will play on Friday and Saturday at the 713 Music Hall, no doubt with a celebratory shrimp cocktail at Pappadeaux’s after the gig.
Years before the Tubes, GWAR and Marilyn Manson, the Residents were staking their claim as fathers of theatrical rock and roll. The band will set up shop at the Heights Theater on Saturday to present a double feature of sorts: a screening of the new film Triple Trouble followed by a greatest hits concert, all in celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary. The Residents aren’t wearing their iconic eyeball masks (see video above) these days, but if you have one, pull it out of the closet for the show. Just be sure to wear a tuxedo with tails for the complete and authentic look.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
