Photos by Marc Brubaker

Father John Misty & Har Mar Superstar
Fitzgerald's
May 24, 2012

"I'm going to be the first to combine sad bastard music and men's fitness, and maintain my integrity in each," said Josh Tillman, fronting Father John Misty, or inhabiting the Father John Misty, last night at Fitzgerald's, right before the band started in one another sad bastard song.

Between Misty and opener Har Mar Superstar, Fitz may have reached its allotted amount of male hip-shaking for the year, or at least this month. Misty's mountain pop and Har Mar's naughty dance-rock and R&B came with enough sass, yes sass, to make the weekend start in earnest.

After all, on White Oak, Thursdays are called "Little Friday" anyhow. Or at least they are to me.

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Photos by Jim Bricker

Dave Matthews Band
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
May 18, 2012

On the way to Friday's Dave Matthews Band show, the question was raised as to the difference between what Radiohead is doing now -- the improvised jams that were birthed this past year -- and what the DMB does on a nightly basis. The only difference that can be gleaned is that the DMB smiles a shit-ton more and for Radiohead it's still undefined country.

But to tell you the truth, both their audiences look the same about now.

Obviously the DMB couldn't do what Thom Yorke and their now-growing crew do, but they have perfected what they do best, now over the past 20-odd years. It's challenging to analytical listeners, a soothing painkiller for hardcore fans and background noise for half the crowd. That last part is the most tragic, I guess.

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Photos by Julian Bajsel

Stryper
House of Blues
May 18, 2012

A dedicated legion of Stryper fans cheered on Friday night to bang their heads to the band's greatest hits along with a few excellent covers.

Stryper came out in full yellow-and-black attire while lead singer and guitarist Michael Sweet crooned a version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Now, I must admit that I think it takes guts for any rock or pop band to even touch a hymn. Stryper has a lot of guts, which is what makes them one of the boldest Christian metal bands of all time.

The band's boldness about their faith seeped through their high-energy set with songs such as "Loud N' Clear," "The Rock That Makes Me Roll" and "More Than a Man."

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Photos by Brittanie Shey

Two browsers look at Marc Brubaker's concert photos during Thursday's Shot In the Dark event.

At Shot In the Dark Thursday night, it got back to me that the sister of a local musician who passed away a few years ago was there, and asking if someone at the paper had taken any photos of her brother onstage. Nine photographers were displaying pictures they had taken of concerts for the Houston Press (mostly this blog you're reading right here, Rocks Off), anywhere from four to a couple of dozen.

Unfortunately, we did not. It has been a little while since her brother died, but it happened after I moved to Houston, which means it has still been less than five years. (God.) Concert photography was not unheard of in the Press back then, but very rare.

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Photos by Marco Torres

Drake
Toyota Center
May 17, 2012

6:57 p.m.: Well, the plan was to be at Toyota Center by now to see opening act 2 Chainz, who has basically become the human form of an Internet meme. However, the school where I teach is having our athletic banquet tonight and I'm still here.

So instead of being at the show, I'm inside of a cafeteria with several other coaches handing out awards. When you train to become a correctional officer at a prison, one of the things they do is lock you in this box of a room and then set off a gas bomb inside, that way if you're ever on duty when something crazy happens and they have to gas everyone, you don't freak out.

This is like that, a little. Middle school boys FUCKING LOVE cologne. Cool Water and Curve x1000.

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Photos by Jason Wolter

Styx

Styx, REO Speedwagon
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
May 12, 2012

When dinosaurs roamed the earth, Saturday night in America was a pretty awesome place to party.

Considering how many times both Styx and REO Speedwagon must have been through Houston, this weekend's stop on their tandem "Midwest Rock N' Roll Express" tour couldn't help but feel haunted by the ghosts of Arrowfests past. Both bands are hard-rock groups that scored their biggest success with disgustingly maudlin radio-friendly power ballads, and both stubbornly refuse to acknowledge themselves as relics from another era.

Well into their second or even third generation of fans, why should they? The way the three kids in Styx shirts behind me, who couldn't have been older than ten or 11, were playing air drums during REO Speedwagon's set, both bands' appeal could be as strong as it ever was.

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Photos by Groovehouse

Marilyn Manson
House of Blues
May 13, 2012

See more Mother's Day Marilyn Manson photos in our slideshow.

"It's Mother's Day. Anybody here have my child, or is my child?" howled Marilyn Manson from the stage at the House of Blues Sunday, just as he and the band ended "Disposable Teens" in a flurry of fog and stomp. For a good number of fans in the crowd who responded with reverence, he is their father, if only because he gave them sight and identity so many years ago.

Manson hadn't been in the Bayou City in more than four years, making Sunday's sold-out show even more of an event for local Manson fanatics. He's touring behind this month's new Born Villain, an LP so lustful and tongue-in-cheek that it sounds like a 21st century retelling of David Bowie's Scary Monsters, albeit with his trademark snarl and sass.

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Photos by Jody Perry

Jane's Addiction
Bayou Music Center
May 9, 2012

Perry Farrell is a twisted freak. Of course that's intended as a compliment.

Farrell has become one of rock's most successful misfits of the past 25 years, combining an astute business sense with a sincere interest in the any number of alternative subcultures that fuel Jane's sound. The man knows how to sell records, concert tickets and most of all himself.

So of course he would imagine himself as a ringmaster, pulling the puppet strings and making all the clowns dance on cue. That's the theme of Jane's new album The Great Escape Artist, Farrell's love letter to L.A. that's more enthusiastic than Joe Ely's but about as noirish. It's a surprisingly solid Jane's album, better than good but less than great, and I found myself wishing they had played a little more of it Wednesday.

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Photos by Groovehouse

Creed
Bayou Music Center
May 1, 2012

Read our review of Creed's My Own Prison performance Monday night.

Creed fans were out in full force for the second night of the "2 NIGHTS" tour. The previous night the band performed their 1997 album, My Own Prison, from beginning to end. Tuesday night, it was 1999's multiplatinum Human Clay in its entirety.

Lead singer Scott Stapp and friends opened the show with the appropriately titled and ever headbanger-happy "Are You Ready." They continued their headbanger-friendly set with such songs as "What If," "Beautiful" and "Say I." Many times throughout the show, the crowd (myself included) had their fists held high.

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Photos by Jim Bricker

"Look! I can see the Galleria!"

Roger Waters
Toyota Center
May 1, 2012

It really is true what they say: You don't appreciate a performer until he's fired a machine gun at you.

They were blanks Roger Waters was firing during "Run Like Hell" Tuesday at Toyota Center. That's why this review isn't being filed from the Harris County morgue.

But it's almost overwhelming to imagine the kind of frustration and animosity both towards the audience and himself it must take for an artist to pantomime blowing us all away, so meticulously and realistically, as part of his performance. And that was probably the least overwhelming part of a production that requires 25 semis to ferry from city to city.

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