This Week's Best Concerts

For many years, going back to my high school days, I have utilized a Thanksgiving playlist to mentally prepare for time with the family. That and chugging a couple of beers on the way to my grandparents’ house.

This playlist contains three components. First, it’s side 1 from ZZ Top’s Fandango, a brutal slice of Texas boogie recorded live at the legendary Warehouse club in New Orleans. This is in recognition of my first “real” concert, ZZ Top at the Summit on Thanksgiving Day in 1976. Second is the Rolling Stones live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, much of which was recorded at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day in 1969. The musical triptych concludes with “Alice’s Restaurant,” a side-long ballad by Arlo Guthrie which, among many other things, references “a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat.”

It is with some sadness, then, that I must report the passing of Alice Brock, the “Alice” from “Alice’s Restaurant,” who shuffled off this mortal coil a few days ago at the age of 83. She ran three different restaurants over the years, none of which was (as the song reminds us) actually called “Alice’s Restaurant.” Fare thee well, Alice. We’ll be thinking about you tomorrow.

Ticket Alert

Good tickets are still available for the annual holiday extravaganza from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which will play two shows, a matinee and an evening performance, at Toyota Center. The shows are on Thursday, December 26, the day after Christmas, but for head bangers who wants to keep the party going, this might just do the trick.

If you’re looking for some hardcore Texas honky-tonk music, get your tickets now for Dale Watson at the Dosey Doe Big Barn on Saturday, March 15. And keep in mind that the kitchen will be open prior to the show, which is a handy thing, particularly if you have a hankering for a chicken-fried steak.

Tickets are on sale now for St. Vincent’s concert on Tuesday, April 8, at the White Oak Music Hall. In 2016, she designed a guitar for the Ernie Ball company that looked like nothing which has come before or since. The body shape is kind of radical, it’s available in a number of distinctive colors, and its ergonomics are, shall we say, accommodating to the female form.

Concerts This Week

Well damn, Usher! Three nights at Toyota Center? That’s heavy. Approaching Taylor Swift territory. And it should be noted that the only reason that it’s not three nights in a row is because Usher is giving his crew the day off for Thanksgiving. A very few tickets remain for each show – tonight, Wednesday, November 27; Friday, November 29; and Saturday, November 30 – but they won’t last long.

Hometown heroes Hanna Nicole and Ashley Grace Pérez Mosa, better known as Ha*Ash, will perform tonight at the Smart Financial Centre in support of their latest album, HAASHVILLE. The sisters have sold over 20 million records over the past 20 years, with no signs of slowing down. For more on Ha*Ash, check out Jesse Sendejas’ recent interview with the duo in the Houston Press.

Texas traditionalist band Midland combines music of the western plains, Laurel Canyon, Bakersfield and the Lone Star State into a mix that comes close to balancing out most of the crap that passes for country music these days. Midland will perform at the 713 Music Hall on Friday in support of the just-released album Barely Blue.

Freddie Steady Krc has been around the Texas music scene since the ‘70s, when his band The Explosives backed former 13th Floor Elevators vocalist Roky Erickson. More recently, Krc (rhymes with “merch”) has been heading in a country direction, but with his eclectic musical tastes, you never know what you’ll get at a Freddie Steady gig. However, you do know that it will be a rocking good time. The Freddie Steady Wild Country review will be at the Big Top (just a couple of doors down from the Continental Club) on Friday for a “happy hour” show that begins at 7pm.

Jimmy Webb is one of the greatest songwriters of the twentieth century. Hold on there, you may be thinking. What about Cole Porter? The Gershwins? Leiber and Stoller? Yes, they are also “A-number one, king of the hill,” but Webb is the guy who gave us “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “MacArthur Park.” Catch the living legend on Sunday at the Dosey Doe.