Houston Press Awards! Who Won? Who Cares! Let's Have a Party!

Well another Houston Press Music Awards Showcase has come and gone. This year’s took some force of will to attend as I was a bit under the weather. Mercifully my fever went down and with a Camera and an icepack-ready Gatorade I was prepared for a day of music, beer and friends. Now, mind you, Steve and I were the only LP4s representing but that ended up working fine as I was able to pass my VIPs to other worthy people like Mara and Kurt. I mean chillin’ with free beer at the Rice Hotel is half the fun isn’t it?

4PM

First show at the brewery tap was Whorehound who rocked so hard that Trevi’s head blew within minutes of my walking inside. You have to love a heavy ass band like this with a short cropped drummer who wears Buddy Holly glasses. Hooray for Heavy Nerds!!

And speaking of heavy, Gods Temple of Family Deliverance was playing as a club called the Office. Now I’m not sure who the cartographer at the Press was but that person needs to realize that if the club is on Main Street, you just might consider putting the little numbered circle representing a club on Main Street. [Now one error would have been fine but I stopped counting after the third fuck-up on the map and ended up relying on my eyes.] Thanks to this idiotic map, I and about 10 other people were trying to find the office for a good 10 minutes to no avail. Finally I found it just as GTOFD was hauling it’s amps out! Awesome! So best amp haulers of the day goes to GTOFD!

Break at The Rice Hotel

Hey free food! Free Beer! This must be the place! Spoke with Lance and a few others about my morbid fascination with the depth of Million Year Dance’s suckitude. During that conversation Lance told me to catch rapper Cliché which I forgot to check out but later regretted when Mara and Kurt described their show. The woman supposedly was one of the highlights of the showcase with this super funky live band.

5PM

Walked over with Danny to see Dizzy Pilot. I’d mentioned how I’d seen the guitarist for Dizzy Pilot in Motion Turns It On but was somewhat underwhelmed by the latter. Danny was a bit more positive about MTIO so he figured he’d check out Dizzy Pilot. There’s not much to say about DizzyPilot. They do a poppy alternative thing and they do it well. The guitarist is really good and the songs are really catchy. Hey it works for me.




Break at The Rice Hotel

I was telling Chris Ryan that the Gay Marriage EP it was easily the best local release I’d heard to date. Rosa had left it in the car and I was blown away by it as I drove to the Showcase. As it turns out, Chris recorded it. Go Figure! Great CD all around – now if I can just hear the rest of tracks not included in the EP.

6PM
4 bands 40 minutes – ready set GO!

A Pink Cloud was easily the wrong band to see when you have a tight schedule. The 10 minutes of the set I saw consisted of Dom mumbling into the microphone, the rest of the band battling sound issues, and an impatient MC waiting to introduce the band. By the time they did get started, I had to go or miss everyone else I wanted to see.

I raced down to see Rotten Piece and was well rewarded with the most inspired bit of Anti-art of the evening. First off Carol Kelly refused to perform because it was her birthday so she just sat there with a drink in her hand enjoying the show. Shawn simply Karaoked Scratch Acid and Culturecide to the rest of the bar’s disinterest. Shawn triumphantly closed with a rousing “We are Rotten Piece! Do not vote for us!” Easily one of the best shows of the day!

From there it was off to catch Drop Trio and The Jonx at two clubs I’d likely never be allowed entrance were it a normal evening. Drop Trio did their funky jazzy thing and the nice thing is that they clearly had a big crowd which was well deserved. When I first saw these guys I was just stunned that anyone could be playing this in Houston. Thank the gods that, even after Ian moved to Austin, the band has kept together.

After a few minutes of Drop Trio I race over to see the Jonx only to catch the last 30 seconds which was a bummer as the sound was massive but for some reason they simply played a 30 minutes set. Had I known I would have reversed my route.

7PM

The Medicine Show was a bust because the idiots at this Red Cat restaurant (this was a restaurant right?). Red Cat left these tables crowded along the entrance guaranteeing that nobody could dance, stand or do anything near the band. To me it looked like a big giant fire code violation. The result was that many people, like me, couldn’t see the band. Lucky suck-o-rama was just around the corner as Million Year Dance was starting up but that is another blog.

8pm

Holy Fuck the Satin Hooks were on Fire. I’m not sure if it was their being nominated for best “Experimental” and Lucas having a field day with that goof or what was up but they played with this force I’d never seen them do before. The soundman had the sound all fucked up at first – the bass was dirty, the guitar was loud, the drums were out of control. It went to eleven! It was loud dirty and it was unstoppable. It was easily the biggest surprise of the day. Later, about the time I began to be hit with fatigue, the soundman evened out the sound to my dismay.

Break at the Rice Hotel

Ran into Steven of Something Fierce - He is much better at Halo than I am. [I don’t get those controllers; I need a keyboard.] But during the game he got a text from his girlfriend saying how much she missed him and how she wished she could be there with him. Awww! They are so sweet! Er…I mean Punk Rock! Bad news for Steven was that the food was gone and the bad news for everyone was that the only beer left was this Miechlob Ultra! What the fuck is that? Like Musicians are working out and checking their carbs! C’mon guys!

Oh and then there was Million Year Dance…oh wait that’s the next blog.


9pm

What can I say? The Fatal Flying Guilloteens frikkin rocked the house. I was freaking beat from an entire day of walking and running around. I was so tired that I blew threw my film towards the beginning of their set just so I could sit. My cold probably wasn’t helping much. But dem boys done brought it home. If you weren’t at The Guilloteens at 9pm you simply missed the epicenter of the showcase. I swear everyone was there in the crowd. The guilloteens sweated, thrust, crowd-surfed, missed notes, dropped beats, the amps crackled, the lighting threatened to topple, and the heat from the crowd was making the AC work overtime. To me it was a perfect close to the Awards Showcase. Are the Guilloteens going to win best whatever? Who the fuck cares! It’s a party! Let’s rock!