H-Town Rock Reviews: Westheimer Block Party

Writing this review could be fairly easy. We could simply post something akin to, “From Noon and deep into the night, at the corner of Westheimer and Taft, Houston residents of all manner of description laughed, drank, shopped, and socialized while listening to the music of the best and brightest bands our city has to offer and had a great time doing so,” and we would have conveyed a quite accurate picture of the festivities. However, since H-Town Rock is all about the music in our fair city, it would be remiss of us to not discuss all of the excellent music we partook of on Saturday. And please, if any of you would like to share your favorite music from the event, do so down in the comment section. Just because we didn’t see it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!

The Gold Sounds
1:45pm at Avant Garden (upstairs)

Our favorite barista has been raving about this group recently, so we decided to take him up on his invitation to hang out and watch them play. Suffice to say, we were pleasantly surprised, enough so to rank their performance as our favorite from the entire day. This hard driving three-piece bristles with indie rock swagger, but does so with a rough edge that’s reminiscent of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and filled with dirty blues touches. Featuring a great guitar player, a drummer on harmony vocals, and the impassioned (without being a sad-sack) lead vocals of the bass player, this band simply rocked.

BMC
2:30pm at Avant Garden (front patio)
Though we’re not club-goers in the slightest, H-Town Rock has been a fan of dance music in a variety of flavors for many years. Since our tastes as of late have run to the darker, richer tones of dub and dubstep, we thoroughly enjoyed this DJ’s set at the Ceeplus-curated Reprogramm Radio area of Block Party. Featuring Joe B with some vocals, and mixing together deep dub-y cuts with some occasional upbeat danceable sections (as well as some rocksteady), BMC and his beats had a great flow going.

O Pioneers!!!
3:00pm at Avant Garden (outdoors)

We’ve been listening to this band’s music since they were playing tiny community centers back in way North Houston, so it’s always great to hear how their music and talent level have grown over the years. Their accessible, yet still kinda dirty, indie-punk motif drew in a good crowd of active listeners and provided for a quality overall set. Eric, the lead singer and guitar player, keeps himself busy running Team Science Records and I Heart U Productions, so it's always great to see him contribute his own music to the scene.

Sideshow Tramps
3:45pm at Avant Garden (outdoors)
This band never ceases to satisfy their fans. No matter how many times we’ve seen them perform, The Reverend and Friends always manage to compel people up on their feet to dance with abandon. Whether it’s their addictive brand of folk/gospel/rock, their infectious stage presence, or their ridiculous energy level, people just love the Sideshow Tramps.

Tha Fucking Transmissions
4:30pm at Avant Garden (outdoors)

Where do we start with this group? Let’s see: there was a dancing yellow bear decked out in gansta gear, two battling MC’s, a guy bellowing through a megaphone, a solid drummer, and a guy who played bass and guitar simultaneously. And that doesn’t begin to describe how very into the music the band and their fans were for a solid 30 minutes (with very little rest in between tracks). Including, but not limited to, the moment that the bandana-bedecked lead MC covered himself in fake blood to emphasize the point of the concluding song, this was a highly engaging set from an up-and-coming musical collective.

Spain Colored Orange
5:15pm at Number’s (outside)

This was our second time in as many weekends to watch Spain Colored Orange work their musical magic on stage and they did not disappoint. Their bar-rock-meets-Cake brand of music is always entertaining, especially when the horn player and keyboardist/lead vocalist start jabbering back and forth in between songs. Their bright, upbeat music was a good fit for their early evening time slot, as it provided for a good pick-me-up after a long day standing out in the sun.

DJ Suma
6:00pm at Avant Garden (front patio)
For those of you folks who don’t regularly listen to Soular Grooves (Saturday nights on KPFT), you might not be familiar with the turntable stylings of this amazing DJ. If this is true, then you’ve been sorely missing out. Suma played a rocking, rollicking set while Joe B did a bit of rapping, as the patio morphed into a full-on dance floor at only 6 o’clock at night. Bodies were moving and the beats were grooving like it was 1am – even our non-dancing selves couldn’t keep still with all of the great music that Suma was spinning.

The TonTons
6:45pm at Avant Garden (outdoors)
This was quite the expectant crowd, filled with all manner of young, emo-clad youngsters, and the band delivered exactly what they wanted to hear. The group combines big, fuzzy ‘70s rock with a large-voiced soul singer, creating a curiously attractive dissonance between the musician’s aggressive testosterone sounds and her vampy R&B croons. There was a palpable buzz surrounding their set.

Tambersauro
7:45pm at Mango’s (inside)
It’s difficult to describe this band’s furious and kinetic pacing without actually seeing it performed live. This art-prog trio brought their intricate rock to an excited crowd and deftly wove their way between all manner of breakdowns, tight patterns, and sweeping, melodic sections with apparent ease, but with great intensity.

listenlisten
8:15pm at Austin Layne Hotel
Even as the four members switched instruments between each and every song, the band managed to put on a great show. Combining guitars, a banjo, a piano, drums, a trumpet, and trombone, this quirky quartet wove a spell upon the crowd with their sad, mournful folk music. Yet, instead of devolving into a tired modern musical cliché with all of their instrument shifting, the group was appropriately dreamy without ever becoming weepy or ethereal, matching their music to the mood of the crowd and time slot.

Buxton
9:00pm at Austin Layne Hotel
If you have yet to take in a show featuring the music of this driving country-rock four-piece, then do yourself a favor and do so in the very near future. These guys were bursting with passion on every song, complete with frequent ram-style head-butting between the lead singer and bass player, as the guitar player wowed the crowd with his skill on guitar, mandolin, and pedal steel. It was more than evident that these guys just love playing together and playing for their fans, openly welcoming frequent sing-alongs with the crowd. They ended their night by testing out two new songs on a throng who wouldn’t let them leave the stage. This was a great way to end our night as well.

Once again, our thanks goes out to Free Press Houston for hosting a great Westheimer Block Party!

The color photo comes courtesy of Houston Calling, while the black-and-white photos are from Marc Brubaker of Click. Wind. Repeat.