This show at Vapure Lounge, which is shaping up to be yet another promising and active DIY venue for the San Antonio music scene, features two of our favorite young bands in town. For starters, Baby Bangs is a rough and tumble bubble-grunge two-piece, led by gifted singer-songwriter Elena Lopez. If you like your lo-fi rock with plenty of pop smarts and raw energy, and maybe a dash of emotional catharsis, then you’ll love Baby Bangs. The Freebiez, on the other hand, are more of a no-holds-barred noise rock/experimental act. Still, for those who don’t consider themselves noise aficionados, there’s plenty of diversity to the Freebiez sonic palette, which also incorporates elements of pop, punk, and even folk music. The band’s live shows are particularly engrossing and punishing. Rounding out the bill will be Opaque Ghost, Mouton, and Prahnas. $5.00, 8:00pm, Vapure Lounge, 5431 Grissom Rd, (210) 455-8568, vapuresa.com. — James Courtney
MADD WOLF
Thursday, Jan. 12
A brand new project from ace jazz trumpeter Tony Romero, MADD WOLF is a loose, improvisational, jazz fusion collective. As a matter of fact, Romero, who, among other things, helms longtime SA favorite the Spiders Jazz Quintet (sometimes more, sometimes less), is set to debut this new project this Thursday at Ventura. MADD WOLF, which also features drummer Kory Cook (of Mockingbird Express and a million other things), guitarist Nick Long (of Lonely Horse) and bassist John Lewis Tyler, takes its jazz fusion inspiration from the likes of Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders. Romero promises that Thursday’s performance will feature two, largely improvised, 45-minute sets of music “that reflect the chaos of our modern world.” This special show is a must for local jazz fans, as well as fans of psychedelic music of all types, and the generally musically adventurous. $3.00-$5.00, 10:00pm, Ventura, 1011 Avenue B, (210) 802-6940. — JC
It’s easy to see that True Indigo has a power color: the San Antonio quintet plunges headfirst into a psychedelic pool of purple haze, spinning endless webs of noise in acid rock jams like “I Saw Purple.” They warmed the stage for Lonely Horse back in December, giving the popular duo a serious run for their money with improvisational works of free-form psychedelia. Now with a full length album on the violet horizon, the band is melding minds with the trippy heroines of Sailor Poon. Thick with smoky layers of feedback and distortion, it looks like indigo is back in style this year. 8pm, $7, K23, 702 Fredericksburg Rd — Abby Mangel
An amp-worshiping staple in the Alamo City, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy might just be the most relevant band heading into 2017. The subversive group borrows its name from a fictional novel within Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, a book that reimagines life if the Axis Powers had won World War II. Presumably of Biblical origins (“The grasshopper shall be a burden” reads Ecclesiastes), the hardcore outfit’s namesake whispers resistance under totalitarian rule. Now that we live in an upside-down world where the alt-right is a real thing, the postmodern landscape of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy takes on firsthand significance. The Forgotten Empire Records band experiments with cathartic explosions of percussion and guitar drones in the style of Fugazi and Quicksand. Intelligent and irate, they’re ready to dismantle the bullshit of the sinister master class with a crushing wall of sound. 8pm, $5, Imagine Books and Records, 8373 Culebra Rd — AM
Femina-X returns home after embarking on an international walkabout that climaxed in Podvyazye, Russia. The ambient-leaning group follows the otherworldliness of experimental icons like Björk (seriously, stop whatever you’re doing and listen their cover of “Hyperballad” on YouTube), but mutates tribal drums and Delphic vocals into psychotropic, dancey concoction. Now a world away from the frozen plains of Russia, Femina-X continues to push boundaries at the band’s first local show of the year. This intimate performance is definitely one to remember. 9pm, $5, Limelight, 2718 N. Saint Mary’s — AM
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