Less Than Jake Scout Bar, December 6
Any band cool enough to admit an obsession with that chalk-like candy Pez has our devotion. Less Than Jake's "Pezcore" focus, along with their enduring ska-punk style, makes it worth the lame five-year hiatus between albums. We're stoked that they've finally put out new music with ninth album, See the Light, and can't wait to see them bust out those tongue-in-cheek anthems with a vengeance. "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts" needs to happen Friday, or we're throwing out our Pez dispensers in protest. ANGELICA LEICHT
Alejandro Escovedo Continental Club, December 7
A roots-rock poet with a passionate punk heart, Austin's Alejandro Escovedo is doing some of his finest work as he enters his sixties. Each one of them excellent, thoughtful and crackling with electric-guitar energy, his albums Big Station, Street Songs of Love and Real Animal have all been released since Escovedo received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
Earlier this year he reunited with his legendary '80s group the True Believers (issuing the limited-run Dedication EP in the bargain), but even that band's three-guitar musculature can pale in comparison to the steely, experience-tempered noise of Escovedo's current outfit the Sensitive Boys. CHRIS GRAY
Fallcore 13 Walters, December 7
Hatetank Productions' thirteenth installment of Fallcore promises almost 12 hours of nerve-deadening aggression and brutality; it's easily one of Gulf Coast hardcore's biggest red-letter days. Dallas thrash-devils Power Trip headline behind recent Southern Lord LP Manifest Decimation, but hometown metalcore outfit Die Young (TX) could be an even bigger draw considering it's their first local appearance since 2009.
Houston is likewise well-represented on the undercard with the likes of Will to Live, Back to Back and Black Coffee, who are pitted against acts from Dallas and Midland (among others) in an autumn musical ritual weeding out all but the most worthy. CHRIS GRAY
More shows on the next page.
