Photos by Jason Wolter

Making the relatively short trip to the Crighton Theatre can't help but feel a bit like stepping back a few decades, but with a contemporary twist. The Montgomery County fathers (and mothers) have invested no small amount of money into making Conroe much more than a sleepy bedroom community in danger of being subsumed by Houston's ravenous suburbia. Indeed, the town of some 60,000 people has nearly doubled in size since 2000, and renovated its quaint little courthouse square into a picturesque destination with enough nightlife options to make heading into the city on a Saturday night wholly unnecessary.

A handful of cafes, art galleries and antique shops now dot the square alongside bail-bond offices and law firms. This particular evening alone, within a stone's throw of the Crighton was a Waylon Jennings tribute show at the Corner Pub and former Nashville Star finalist Sheila Marshall at the Red Brick Tavern, plus whatever was going on at the Owen Theater across the way.

But it's the Sounds of Texas Music Series, presented by A&H Electric, civic nonprofit Friends of Conroe and Houston's own 90.1 KPFT, that brings top-shelf Americana talent to Conroe and makes it worth the 45-minute drive from "town." Even that might not be enough if the charmingly restored Crighton weren't, seriously, every bit the acoustic equal of the Wortham's Cullen Theater.

Photos by Marco Torres

SLIDESHOW: Summer Skate: The 2013 Zumiez Couch Tour Hits Houston

Music and skateboarding have always been interconnected. The influential 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys is remembered for both the skating featured in the film and the music included in the soundtrack. The widely popular Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of video games introduced punk, grunge, and metal (and, to a small extent, hip-hop) to a new generation of fans.

Every video of a skate session uploaded to YouTube is incomplete without a jammin' and energetic song to complement it. Last Friday afternoon, that allure of skateboards mixed with music attracted hundreds of young people to the Baybrook Mall parking lot in the triple-digit heat for the Zumiez Couch Tour.

Photos by Jim Bricker

On Sunday evening, the turnout for Ariel Pink looked pretty bleak.

The show, which was being held in the upstairs ballroom of Fitzgerald's, had a crowd of about 30 people. With the bar tables and stools set out in the middle of the floor and the upstairs balcony closed, hope for this show seemed to diminish by the minute.

Around 8 p.m., Purple Pilgrims took the stage. From the back, the noise looked like it was coming from nowhere. In actuality, it came from a sister duo, Clementine and Valentine Nixon, who were sitting side by side amid Ariel Pink's gear.

Photos by Marco Torres

SLIDESHOW: Good Kid, Space City: Kendrick Lamar (And Fans) at Reliant Arena, 6/11/2013

"I'll always have love for Houston."

Those were among the last words Kendrick Lamar told a raucous crowd inside Reliant Arena on Tuesday night, the final rung on Top Dawg Entertainment's good kid, m.A.A.d city tour ladder. He smiled, beamed actually, when telling the story about how no more than two years ago he came to Houston for the first time to headline a small show at Warehouse Live.

Section.80 didn't exist then, his deal with Aftermath Entertainment didn't either. All he had then was (O)verly (D)edicated and 200 rabid fans who probably saw the vision he saw -- that he would come back one day hailed point-blank as the most can't-miss rapper outside of Drake, Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Photos by Jim Bricker

Unplugged: to perform with acoustic rather than electronically amplified instruments. That is what Juanes' current tour is supposed to be. And when you think about it, taking a guitar player's axe away should severely diminish his or her effectiveness.

But Juanes is not your ordinary guitar player. This Colombian rock star has enough talent, charisma and energy to power and carry any stage he sets foot upon, seemingly with his heart alone. Plus it helps that he is, as one of my Twitter followers puts it, a "drop-dead sexy beast of a man."

Indeed, his current show may have been unplugged, but the energy at Bayou Music Center Saturday night was as strong and loud as I've ever experienced at a Rock En Español show. In fact, I would argue that this concert was more enjoyable than his show at Toyota Center two years ago. That show seemed like just another tour stop. Saturday night was magical.

Photos by Stephanie Truex/falloutboy.com

Since Fall Out Boy did not approve photos from Friday, please enjoy these stills from the band's new video, "The Phoenix."

I was telling someone on Friday, "I get to go to Fall Out Boy tonight!" Her reaction? "Ha! Is it 2004?"

I couldn't blame her for the response. Fall Out Boy's name prompts memories of bad piercings, worse haircuts and overly dramatic kids, aka the Era of Emo. Fall Out Boy was one of the most popular bands of the era, and for good reason. Their songs were super catchy and their lyrics were undeniably relatable, whether you were an emo kid or not.

It may not be 2004, but Fall Out Boy still makes super-catchy rock songs with great lyrics. Friday night at Bayou Music Center, they played the hell out of them.

Photos by Jim Bricker

Thursday night in Houston is usually a safe bet for music, and most any show at a number of venues will be packed. But this was not your typical Thursday, it was a few days after Houston's biggest musical weekend, Free Press Summer Festival. Despite a meager crowd in size Thursday at Fitzgerald's, the Thermals still brought their all to those lucky few in attendance.

The band's set started about ten minutes earlier than originally posted, giving them that much more time to rock the fuck out. They had no problem filling that extra slot of time with a set list of twenty-something songs to feed the fix of the peckish hipsters stalking the front rows.

The band is known for garnering a rowdy crowd, but it was actually quite subdued throughout the first half of the set. You could feel a bit of tiredness throughout the room from the staff to the patrons, which was evident until the music finally took over midway through the Thermals' headlining performance.

Photos by Jim Bricker

A few things occurred to me as a spectator at Wednesday Night's Fleetwood Mac show at Toyota Center:

• They are not in the touring game for a paycheck;
• This band has a ton of mutual respect for one another, and for good reason; and
• All of us could really take some good inspiration from this group, whether we are musicians or not.

In short, if you are a fan of Fleetwood Mac, see this band while you can. It will be worth every penny.

Photos by Nicholas Zalud

With the sweat and excitement of Summer Fest finally coming to an end, it's been understandably hard for most Houstonians to get back into the swing of things. But routines and normalcy are boring.

Perhaps that's why so many people showed up to Mango's Monday night to catch a show from Copenhagen-based punk act, Iceage.

The quartet took to the stage at 11 p.m., following Back to Back (Houston) and Lower (Denmark), who had both played at Austin's Chaos in Tejas with Iceage. And though the group seems quiet and composed, they launched into their first song with intensity and got the crowd moving.

Photos by Marco Torres

Perhaps the schedulers behind this year's Free Press Summer Festival know something the rest of us don't.

The rapper/DJ duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are at the peak of their careers so far, garnering more attention by the day. And the FPSF attendees were anxious to see and hear them perform late Saturday afternoon, as made clear by an enormous crowd that engulfed the entire hill and every possible vantage point in the area.