Mastodon, with Burning Brides
There was a while there in the late ’90s when it looked like metal was in big trouble. That whole nü-metal fiasco replaced the heaviness with whiney posturing and gimmickry. Thank God (or Satan!) for Mastodon. But really, who would have expected that these could-be saviors of the Sabbath, Maiden…
Capsule Reviews
“Amy Blakemore: Recent Pictures” Amy Blakemore has photographed her subjects with a delicate, subtle skill, capturing lovely images that feel like accidents and have a warm, faded nostalgia about them. Blakemore uses a plastic Diana camera, whose low-tech cheapness imparts a hazy aesthetic to her subjects. Diana cameras tend to…
Glory Days
In honor of its 25th anniversary, the strip-club-for-gals La Bare held a reunion March 18, inviting former dancers back for one more night of jock-strapped glory. Alumni, according to club management, include “doctors, lawyers and police officers.” Somehow, no Methodist Hospital open-heart surgeons showed up on this Friday night with…
The Mountain Goats, with Crystal Skulls
John Darnielle is the Mountain Goats in the same sense that Dwayne Johnson is the Rock. But whereas the WWE star has lately de-emphasized wrestling and action-hero posturing in favor of embarrassing stabs at “comedy,” Darnielle has given up his impassioned yet impersonal lo-fi habits for greater sonic clarity and…
My Favorite Restaurant
“What’s your favorite restaurant?” is the second question I get when I meet someone at a party, after they ask me what I do. I generally filibuster with a long and complicated yarn about visiting chefs from New York who were unimpressed by Houston’s best restaurants but blown away by…
Manning the Booths
Every pop scene has its utopian leanings. It shows up when John Lennon reimagines (or is it cribs from?) Karl Marx or when Ice Cube sails through a good day and has no need of his AK. When it comes to diversity, dance music has always been especially noble-minded. Take…
Southern Culture on the Skids
After 20 years of white trash revelry, SCOTS (who really calls them Southern Culture on the Skids anymore?) have aged like…well, like fine moonshine. They continue to brew up a potent mix of rockabilly, surf, rock and roll, country and what-have-you that’ll get your chicken wing flappin’ and tail feathers…
The Thin Gray Line
Jason McKee and Sammie Valero are back on the streets, looking for a stripper who sidelines as a thief. She works the pole at Caligula XXI, a club on Winrock, but a sweep of the place doesn’t turn up anything fruitful (at least in terms of their investigation). Next up…
Letters
Safety 101 TSU security concerns: I’m a student who attends Texas Southern University. I thought this story [“Books, Bullets and Guns,” by Mosi Secret, March 17] was a wake-up call. Thanks for writing about it. Some of the things in your story I didn’t even know until I read them,…
Elton John
The shimmering sequins of Sir Elton’s stage show and his persona in general can sometimes blind us to the fact that he, along with writing partner Bernie Taupin, is one of the master songwriters of the age. Yeah, “Candle in the Wind 1997,” his Princess Di salute, might be a…
Lotta Lobster
The new Tony’s (3755 Richmond, 713-622-6778) may look different, but the menu is still familiar — full of highfalutin but darned tasty food. Take the LBLT (that’s a lobster BLT), which at $24 may be the most expensive sandwich in town. Is it worth it? You be the judge. We’ll…
In the Cards
In 1995, well before Tobey Maguire, Bravo and your grandmother jumped on the poker tip, Patrick Marber penned the play Dealer’s Choice, the story of six men, their weekly poker game and the dreams they keep up their sleeves. The play was a success when first produced, but the recent…
Jason Moran
Ever meet a jazz snob, the fan or musician who maintains the “obvious” superiority of jazz over other genres? Pianist, Houston native and HSPVA grad Jason Moran is the polar opposite — an uncompromising jazz musician unashamed to draw inspiration from areas considered sacrilege by purists. He reimagines works of…
I Love Me
Joseph Arthur appears Friday, March 25, at the Rhythm Room, 1815 Washington Avenue, 713-864-6962. Polly Paulusma opens.
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, March 24 Dance fans will be all aflutter this week, as it’s time for the Dance Salad Festival. Eleven of the world’s most cutting-edge, prolific dance troupes will descend on Houston for the three-day fest, which includes special classes, outreach activities and forums for local and international students. The…
50 Cent
On the original cover for The Massacre, 50 Cent rocked a fly suit, a hat and a crossbow. The image was less threatening than absurd — he might as well have been holding an angry cobra — but that’s pretty much how 50 rolls. His multiplatinum debut, Get Rich or…
Murder, He Wrote
At first read, Jack Taylor is hardly a unique literary creation: a cop-turned-PI with an unorthodox work ethic and a drinking problem. But Irish author Ken Bruen further imbues his creation with a love of cocaine and pills, not to mention enough moral ambiguity to drown his former best friend…
The Mars Volta
If Frances the Mute were a horror movie (and with its ominous imagery, that’s not much of a stretch), it would thrive on gotcha moments, those sudden shocks that make viewers spill their sodas or otherwise soil their seats. In the past, The Mars Volta has bungled this approach, either…
French Kissed
SAT 3/26 Yeah, we know. As those “W” sticker zealots gorged on their freedom fries and boycotted French toast, you made sure they overheard you ordering the 2000 Château Latour à Pomerol. You’ve never been shy about enjoying all things French, no? Neither have the folks at Hollywood Frame Gallery,…
Los Super 7
The third time is quite the charm for ever-morphing Mexican-American musical confederation Los Super 7. With 1960s Texas border radio as the concept, this already Grammy-winning supergrupo delivers an album that’s, well, super. Charlie Sexton proves himself Mr. Texas Record Man as producer. Calexico and sharp players from the Austin…
Beach Balls
SUN 3/27 If you fancy yourself someone with David Beckham or Mia Hamm-type skills, grab your balls and head to G-town for the Fiesta de Agua beach soccer tournament. More than 100 teams will play in men’s, women’s and coed divisions, but even if you don’t dribble ‘n’ kick, you…
Hacienda Brothers
For today’s musical physics lesson, we have an example of the whole being far less than the sum of the parts. The eponymous Hermanos de la Hacienda are two (usually) highly charged atomic particles: border and roots music raconteur and Dave Alvin sidekick Chris Gaffney and Dave Gonzalez of the…
Righteous Party
Typically, Easter morning is ushered in by ringing church bells. But there will be pulsating backbeats at the Salvation After Hours party, just one of the events planned for the infamous Jungle 13 weekend. The annual event is one of the hottest gay happenings of the year, drawing folks from…
Kasabian
If you believe the British music press, Kasabian is the most incendiary band to emerge from the UK since the Stone Roses. It’s not hard to understand the critics’ enthusiasm: The band is named after Manson-family-member-turned-state’s-witness Linda Kasabian; vocalist Tom Meighan is a font of quotable quips; and the band’s…
Big-Brother Ballet
FRI 3/25 Hmmm, an administration that feeds its public lies and uses scare tactics to enforce blind conformity…Sound familiar? Well, it did — at least a little bit — to Robert Thoth and Rebekah French of Freneticore, who are presenting a multimedia/dance version of George Orwell’s 1984 this weekend. “As…
Stay Young and Stupid
We begin with the greatest lyrics ever written: “Somber songs of the plaid bartenders / Western Unions of the country Westerns / Silver Foxes lookin’ for romance / With the chain-smoke Kansas flashdance ice pants” Beck “rapped” these words in 1996, the artistic apex of “Hotwax,” the artistic apex of…
Ugly Duckling
Before walking out the door to see Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, a colleague sneered, “Why do you even bother with that shit?” It’s a question one’s tempted to ask of its star, Sandra Bullock, as well. (Surely, our answers would be the same: The paycheck, pal.) Hers is…
Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey! Bands, Bands, Bands!
Thursday, March 17: My friends and I roll into Austin around 2 p.m. to the majestic strains of the Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” After registering at the Convention Center, where Harry Shearer brushed past me with his entourage, and picking up my Robyn Hitchcock-designed swag bag, I head over to…
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu. With Yagira Yuya, Kitaura Ayu, Kimura Hiei, Shimizu Momoko and You.
I See London, I See France
It’s a Channelview Tuesday night. At Big Dog’s Ice House (214 Sheldon), we take some seats next to big men in working stiff’s coveralls. Across the way are two women with tight, toothpick-rolled perms eating steaks and Cheetos, stopping occasionally to coo into a baby stroller. Just past these lot…
Ordinary People
The title of Craig Wright’s Orange Flower Water is a very pretty lie. It promises a sweet, even lyrical, evening of theater. But the playwright’s 90-minute one-act, now running at Stages Repertory Theatre, is anything but pretty. This dark drama about the brutal whipping adultery inflicts on the human heart…
Underoath, with Fear Before the March of Flames, Hopesfall and the Chariot
Any band that metamorphoses from a metal/hardcore hybrid to a more melodic outfit attracts “sellout” shouts from former fans. Scorned as it might be, this evolutionary process produces bivocal groups that have learned how to croon but still speak shriek fluently. Been-brutal bands sell their heavy segments more convincingly than…
Capsule Reviews
Bad Dates An icky date can happen to anyone. But Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman show is a reminder of how hilarious they can be in retrospect. The whole production takes place in single-mom Haley’s bedroom, where she primps and dresses for several dates as she tells us about her life. The…
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
When Austin’s …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead left us with the stupendous Source Tags and Codes a few years ago, the hungry masses ate it up and spat out words like “genius” and “masterpiece.” Of course, the praise made it tough for Worlds Apart, their…
Living Color
Through April 30 at Sicardi Gallery, 2246 Richmond, 713-529-1313.