A WEEKEND AT THE CITY BLOCK PARTY

After a slow, rain resistant start, a little bit of schedule shifting, and the sausage-on-a-stick vendors not quite ready as early as we would like them to be, Saturday’s Block Party kicked it up into a great afternoon. Along with hundreds of others, our staff wore a path into the sidewalks surrounding the intersection of Taft and Westheimer. Here are some of our highlights (you can check out all of our pictures here).

More than any act, we were determined to get out from behind the curve on Sabra and the Big Brothers. And for our awkward pacing around the venues, moments in the rain and missing of another act on our list, we were generously rewarded. ‘Gentle Man’, the one track we had heard up until the first pluck of the banjo, is far from a fluke (earlier, while conferring about schedule and stage changes, we asked “So, did you just decided to record one ACES song and say ‘ok, that’s enough, we can stop now.’?”). Her songs are beautiful lullabies of dread, spooky and sparse every one. And she’s one of the coolest cats we met up with all day long; every time our paths crossed it was like running into an old friend.


And speaking of cool cats, while waiting for Sabra to go on, we ran into Mlee (who we have decided is a prankster, but we have no proof for this) of Hearts of Animals/Mlee Marie (left). She dished us out the goods on tape on topics ranging from the benefits of solo-ism to her upcoming metal project Vaarg. She also introduced us to crooner Elaine Greer (center), a name we’re sure we’ll be typing more in the future, and artist Terry Suprean.


From Helios, we headed over to catch Flowers to Hide at the Numbers outside stage and then wandered around rather aimlessly as we tried to find something to catch our ears (Western Civilization cancelled, but they packed it in pretty good at Walters later that night for their CD release party).


At one point we happened upon the Medicine Show plying their olde-timey trade on the sidewalk as buses and beamers barreled.


And then caught some Satin Hooks – by this point in the afternoon, everything was running pretty fast – the loitering and rain and extensive note-taking of the noon hour was sliding off the bottle like a wet label.


The Riff Tiffs did not disappoint.


And neither did Spain Colored Orange.


Mega Dittos for the Scattered Pages and the cadre of dancing girls who are an apparition regardless of the setting in which they execute their decidedly unintentionally dancey poppers.


For us, the Party ended with only as long of a glimpse of the Generic Tribe’s set as we could squeeze in before heading the the Western Civilization show (and then from there to Balaclavas, whose CD release was also that night – OUR THOUGHTS COMING SOON). A good day, all told; more pink than red on the neck where the collar stops the burn; many suspicions confirmed, and several must-see-agains added to our calendar. Did you go? Did you take pictures? Did you catch .belville for crying out loud (we missed em, again)? COMMENT!