The weather is grey and chilly, the presents have all been wrapped and returned and we've watched the time-delayed ball drop from Times Square that can only mean one thing. It's Free Week!! That's right, it's that time of year when we can converge on downtown in mass and waltz into Austin's best music venues to experiences some of Austin's best bands. It's like a scaled-down locals-only SXSW. Alright, that's kind of a stretch but it's still cool and this year the week is 10 days and it includes more venues than ever before. There are lots of great shows every night with a cluster of some of the best happening on Friday. Here are some of my recommendations to help guide you in your free-spirited, Free Week meanderings. Let's go chronologically shall we?
My first recommendation for this evening is over at Cheer-Up Charlies. Regardless, Harlem spin-off band Grape St. headlines tonight and that's my top pick. They make quirky, spastic indie-rock and their album is only available on casette so you know they're legit.
My number 2 pick for this evening is a close second. Tiger Waves is headlining Holy Mountain tonight along with Holy Wave, Grandfather Child, Politics, Borrisokane. It's a very solid line-up from start to finish but I'm most excited about the indie-pop of Tiger Waves.
Let's move onto Thursday. My top pick for Thursday night involves a trip to Beerland for Foreign Mothers. They play the middle set between Ghetto Ghouls and The Dead Space so expect them to go on around 10:30 or so.
This Friday has the most heavily stacked line-up of good bands to see. In fact, I'm just going to end this post here and pick it up with Friday recommendations tomorrow. #CoitusInterruptus