Seeing LIMB live is a religious experience

Last Friday I had the fortune of seeing LIMB play at El Rincón Social in the warehouse district to celebrate the release of their latest LP The Shape of Punk for Some and it only gave me more respect and admiration for their work. The band's set was surrounded by a plethora of surreal imagery that made it, for me, an almost mystical encounter. Featherface, an original experimental Houston rock band, opened with a relaxing ambient rock set that was only enhanced by the echoes of the cavernous El Rincón warehouse. Other performances of the night included trippy electronic artist Cosmic Sound, the fierce Somosuno, rapper BLACKIE, and finally, the immortal LIMB. Cosmic Sound played his set alongside a series of incredibly psychedelic, masterfully edited, video clips including appearances by various muppets. However, LIMB managed to up the psych ante by playing in pitch dark, with a flashing pyramid, naked band members, and painted dancers. At one point someone even did a handstand on the pyramid. It's hard to fully convey the mood with these words but hopefully some of the pictures will make up for that.

Free Press Summer Fest: Houston's most kickass music festival of the summer!

Being an intern here at Free Press I feel obligated to continue to promote our upcoming Free Press Summer Fest but even I weren't working here this event would still be incredibly noteworthy to me, given the incredible lineup.

It's only our second annual festival and we've already managed to book the Flaming Lips as headliners this year. That's pretty fucking cool if you ask me. I've wanted to see these guys play for a long, long, time and given that I am from Connecticut there were not a lot of opportunities. The Lips don't seem to like going all the way up to the east coast. It should be just as special for Houstonians as it will be for me, given that the Lips haven't played a show here in Houston since they opened for Beck over ten years ago. Even though every Lips album so far has been great, it sounds like the trippy, enthralling, Embryonic will really lend itself to a great live show.

Other headliners I'm looking forward to are American DJ Girl Talk (who else can combine hip-hop, Foreigner, and the Doobie Bros in one song?), Canadian electronic band Stars, classic southern rap artist Bun B, Ra Ra Riot, Lymbyc Systym, Mic Skills, punk rockers Cro-Mags, and dancy musicians Sugar and Gold. In addition to these headliners we've got a bunch of local Houston and Texas bands like Caddywhompus, Blackie, The Takes, The Gold Sounds, and a LOT more. You can get tickets at any Urban Outfitters in Texas, Soundwaves in Montrose, or here at the Summer Fest home page (where you can also see the full lineup). Tickets will also be available both days of the festival (June 5th and 6th) and there are no one day passes.