Sadly, this annual party hosted by KPFT “Rock and Roll Revue” DJ Rad Rich sounds more like a wake this year. It’s one of recent Houston Press Music Award winners Poor Dumb Bastards’ first shows after guitarist Hunter Ward’s death, as well as a benefit for the family of popular Houston/Austin musician and writer Damon O’Banion, who, like Ward, allegedly fell victim to drugs earlier this year. (Read between the lines, y’all.) Ah, well. We all know what happens at a wake: Everyone gets twice as hammered, and judging by the devil-horn potential of this 14-band riffathon, neither Ward nor O’Banion left this world in vain. Besides an indoor skate area — bring your board — the Bastards and HPMA Roots-Rock/Rockabilly winners Flamin’ Hellcats strut their stuff, alongside the reunited After Shock and ’80s skate-rockers Bark Hard, plus Donkey Punch, Morgue City, DollyRockers, Bowel, Luxurious Panthers, Brians Johnson, Peekaboo Theory and the Drunks; Turbonegro disciples Oklahomos and boogie-chillun Amplified Heat make the drive from Austin. See www.meridianhouston.com for stage times.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2007.
