Tagged: houston

show recap: alkaline trio + bayside (may 3, 2013)


photo credit: weworemasks

I might’ve jumped the gun when I ballooned up The Gaslight Anthem show last week. It just so happens that Alkaline Trio is exactly the same type of band, with the same type of effect between my friends and our respective circles — to an even bigger extent. After all, Alkaline Trio are one of those bands that have been releasing music (now on their 8th studio album, My Shame is True) throughout every phase of punk rock that’s been moderately popular in the 2000s.

Throughout the years, both Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano have broken off and meddled in other bands (Heavens, Dan Andriano solo, etc) but their anchor has always been firmly planted in Chicago’s Alkaline Trio, who brought their new album, Bayside and Off With Their Heads to the House of Blues on Friday night.

-grizzly
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show recap: the joy formidable (may 1, 2013)

I can’t believe that I actually worried that The Joy Formidable would falter in recreating the sounds of their grandiose sophomore album Wolf’s Law. There’s some gentle harp pluckage here, electronic squiggles there – a more textured, layered sound than their wall of guitar-noise debut album. But at Wednesday’s jam-packed show at Fitzgerald’s, the Welsh trio took all that refinery and exploded it into a lead-heavy, pulverizing set that required no particular nuances – just pure grit and bombast and the manic pixie charisma of lead singer and guitarist Ritzy Bryan.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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show recap: the gaslight anthem (april 26, 2013)


photo credit: weworemasks

Anytime The Gaslight Anthem tours, it’s an event for us. They’ve maintained the status as one of our favorite bands – putting out some of our favorite records since 2007. A core group of our friends always find a way to set aside an entire night to buddy up, throw our arms around each other’s shoulders, enjoy libations and sing along to some hearty and soulful punk rock songs.

And Thursday night’s stop of the Handwritten Tour at the House of Blues was no different.

Hit the jump for the review.

-grizzly
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WEWOREMASKS PRESENTS: A JOY FORMIDABLE GIVEAWAY

here we go again with another weworemasks giveaway! the joy formidable, whose grand-scale sophomore album wolf’s law is out now, is hitting houston’s fitzgerald’s on may 1st with goth glam act io echo, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets.

want to win it? all you have to do is follow weworemasks on twitter and retweet THIS MESSAGE.

the joy formidable ticket contest will run until the end of this weekend (4/28) when we’ll randomly select a winner, who must be able to attend the show in houston, and whose eardrums will probably not forgive us for the explosively loud show the band puts on. good luck to you all, and we’ll see you at the show.

- sunbear

show recap: crystal castles (april 20th, 2013)

You’d get the sense, watching nihilist, banshee-woman Alice Glass perform that Crystal Castles were bred for smaller, less-restrictive concert venues than the mighty House of Blues Houston. The band sure have had a meteoric rise in recent months, most likely due to our culture’s embrace of EDM, which Crystal Castles are not, however you dissect it, but their sudden stadium-status seemed counter to the band’s early

DIY ways. At Saturday night’s sold out show however, the duo, Glass and stoic synth/beat conducter Ethan Kath, alongside touring drummer Christopher Chartland, unequivocally flourished in the sold out 1,500 capacity setting, charging the crowd with an intense, hedonistic energy that made for one of the most memorable shows in recent memory.

hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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listen: beyonce – i been on [houston remix; feat. z-ro, bun b, willie d, scarface, lil keke and slim thug]

as if beyonce’s two snippets in “bow down” weren’t #FLEXIN’ on all of rap music, she fucked around and got a remix for the ages. putting all of houston on the map was a priority here, enlisting some of our city’s finest hip-hop royalty from years and generation’s past.

being from this city, trying to wipe this shit-eating grin off my face after i listened to this track was impossible.

download:

-grizzly

the week in sports: 2/11 – 2/18 (2013)

All-Star Weekend went off with plenty of craziness and traffic that my hometown got to soak up and enjoy. With celebrity sightings and parties across the city, it was hard not to be excited and have a little pride. Other than that, plenty of news in the sports world, especially in terms of basketball.

Hit the jump for all of this week’s biggest sporting news.

-grizzly and thevhb

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show recap: underøath’s farewell tour (with mewithoutyou, as cities burn and letlive.)


photo credit: anibyte

When news broke out of Underoath’s farewell tour, their fanbase shared mixed reactions. For the nine cities that were lucky enough to get tour dates, sheer joy and excitement. Especially since they were bringing (current and former) labelmates As Cities Burn and mewithoutYou along for the ride, and threw some letlive. in for good measure. Now, for the rest of the contiguous United States, the band was met with “wtfs” and “how dare yous” at the audacity of ignoring their friends out west.

The reasons for this, however, seemed obvious. The band was done. Why else only announce 9 dates, which I’ll refer to as “the bare minimum?” Lucky for Houston, we were one of the nine cities, and Underoath brought a fantastic night of heavy rock music to the House of Blues.

Hit the jump for the recap.

-grizzly

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video: noisey’s ‘the backdrop’ feat. bun b, the niceguys, fat tony and more (2012)

this is a great look for our town. uncle bun, scareface, fat tony, uzoy, the niceguys, doughbeezy, rob quest, and much more in this clip – as they take you through a quick oral history of our wonderful city. check out this neat write up by brando (of day and a dream) for rocks off.

-grizzly

show recap: converge (november 3, 2012)


photo credit: weworemasks

After plans of seeing Converge perform at Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest fell through, our contingency plan was put in place. And it wasn’t too shabby – seeing a band we’ve been a fan of for years perform in an intimate setting (Fitzgeralds, Houston, TX) to a dedicated fan base sounded like a pretty good way to spend a Saturday night. Converge was on a full scale headline tour with Miami’s Torche and Norwegian metal outfit Kvelertak, supporting their brand-spankin’ new album All We Love We Leave Behind, which is a follow-up to 2009′s Axe to Fall. The band hasn’t hit Houston since 2009, and the thrill of seeing them for the first time is enough to build anticipation for what ended up being one of the best shows we’ve seen all year.

Hit the jump for the recap.

-grizzly
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show recap: band of horses (october 24, 2012)

It had been a lengthy six years since Seattle’s Band of Horses had been in town. Then the Railroad Revival Tour was announced and BOH’s destiny was locked with that of Willie Nelson’s with a performance in the historical Old Town Spring just north of Houston.

And just like that, plans for the trek were derailed (ha!), ol’ Willie’s health speculated as the cause, and BOH shouldered the weight and announced their own replacement tour to buck up the spirits of those who, in the wake of the band’s commercial success with the Grammy-nominated Infinite Arms, cozied up to the rootsy Americana of the band and the warmth of Ben Bridwell’s canyon-echo vocals.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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show recap: the shins + white rabbits (october 10, 2012)


photos courtesy of Lesli Kalohi of Never Cool In School.

Last night, the latest incarnation of The Shins brought their tour in support of their first new album in five years Port of Morrow to The House of Blues in Houston. Having rebuilt the band after several lineup changes, James Mercer enlisted Beck guitarist Jessica Dobson, Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer, Crystal Skulls bassitst Yuuki Matthews, and indie-renaissance man/producer Richard Swift on keyboards to tighten up the Shins’ classic jangly pop sound into the slick, organic sound Mercer has been aiming for since 2007’s Wincing the Night Away.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

- sunbear
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show recap: the walkmen + milo greene (september 22, 2012)


photos by weworemasks

The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser has got one great big blustery voice – a robust howl so striking and sonorous, it threatened to drown out the eardrums of the overly packed Fitzerald’s crowd last Friday evening. And what a diverse Houston crowd there was in attendance – from the hipster mainstays whose bathroom graffiti had long since been painted over by the venue’s posh makeover, to your beer-guzzling jocks, whose excess of front-facing camera photo opps exposed their greenness to the whole concert-going experience, a whole spectrum of Houstonian stereotypes saved the date and joined in for what was one of the most face-melting, eardrum-ringing shows in recent memory.

Hit the jump for the review.

- sunbear
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event: myth & symbol grand opening party [houston] (2012)

attention, houston folks! my very good friends are opening a women’s boutique in rice village this weekend, and are inviting you to their fine new establishment to help usher in the new store.

who: myth & symbol
what: grand opening party
where: 2537 times boulevard, houston, TX 77005
when: saturday, july 7 – 5pm-10pm
why: because stone cold said so

refreshments and h’orderves while they last; not to mention – 25% off all clothing! (sorry fellas, women only. that just means there will be tons of ladies there ready to grab your number — or something)

in the meantime, check out and follow them in all of their web presence glory:

homepage.
@mythandsymbol
facebook.

-grizzly