Debonair Lounge Cafe 4212, January 27
For the past few months, the only way to get each week off on a good foot has been at this Museum District oasis of cool. Debonair Lounge has already welcomed a who's who of Houston's hottest young hip-hop and R&B performers -- this week features the AFTERVIBES, Anzeo David, Sho Stoppa and always that smooth-ass Debonair house band -- strutting their stuff for one of the most stylish audiences in town.
Hosted by local scenesters Tay Mitch and Brad Gilmore, whom Channel 39's Newsfix called "ebony and ivory at its finest," these few hours will have you looking forward to every Monday... just not Tuesdays. The party never stops on Instagram at @DebonairLoungeHTX, too. CHRIS GRAY
Little Joe Washington Boondocks, January 28
Out of a Third Ward blues-guitar school that has now graduated to the great beyond Albert Collins, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Johnny Guitar Watson and Joe Guitar Hughes, Little Joe Washington is the last man standing. And he's hardly standing still: he's also pedaling his Schwinn from gig to gig, Fender strapped to his back, doing things with it you've never heard before and never will again, and then passing his hat around for tips. After Joe's hospitalization for liver and kidney trouble last fall, he's back playing gigs... again. JOHN NOVA LOMAX/CHRIS GRAY
Jake Bugg House of Blues, January 29
Critics are over the moon about Jake Bugg, heaping the kind of praise on the young British lad that would suffocate most performers of his age - or worse, cause them to believe their own hype. But the Nottingham native, whose eponymous debut LP appeared on the radar in late 2012 before last November's followup Shangri-La, has thus far handled his ascent to the top tier of young singer-songwriters with humility and self-deprecating charm.
Whether delicate, introspective ballads or hard-strummers somewhat reminiscent of Arctic Monkeys, Bugg's songs contain a depth and originality that have easily established him as a talent to be reckoned with. Next month he will turn 20. With the Skins. CHRIS GRAY
More shows on the next page.
