by Morgan Davis

The Holiday apocalypse is nearly upon us so you’ve got to get your non-relative dinner party jollies where you still can. And this weekend is a great one for live music in Austin, with a touching benefit at Red 7 all weekend, a warehouse punk party and more. Here are our top picks:

Friday

Back in August we reported on the tragic accident that put Vegatron’s Andrew Collins in a coma for a week and left him with devastating medical bills. Luckily, the Austin music scene has rallied together to do an all-weekend festival at Red 7 to help raise money to cover those medical expenses. The line-up has an impressive array of local talent, from Ovrld faves BLXPLTN to R&B enchantresses Keeper to BoomBaptist as well as rockers Wild Child and plenty more. Even if the festival wasn’t for such a great cause, we’d be urging you to go since it’s only $30 for the whole experience, and there’s a great raffle with goodies from local businesses like Frank, Amy’s, Dub Academy and more. Here’s some Keeper hotness to further entice you:

Saturday

Big Bill are spearheading a fabulous Winter Warehouse Party on Saturday with an eclectic array of Austin and Houston bands that we can’t recommend more, and not just because we’re all alcoholic at Ovrld and can’t say no to a $5 cover that also gets you free beer. The weirdo punk of Big Bill is always an excellent experience, but hey’re also flanked by some intriguing newer Austin groups like Madd Comrades, who just released their Brutalist EP, a work that combines the ferocity of PJ Harvey with the hooky, rumbly guitars of Belly and Throwing Muses. Houston vets the Escatones will be bringing their classic college rock sound along for the ride.

But if that’s not your thing, 101X’s annual Homegrown Holiday Party is a guitar slaughterfest this year with Leopold and His Fiction and Emily Wolfe co-headlining. It’s a good time to check out Leopold if you haven’t already done so, as the band has been touring basically nonstop this year and will likely be hitting the road even harder next year. Every Leopold show is an epic experience, and this homecoming of sorts should be particularly explosive.

Sunday

We’ve been enjoying The Valley Forge’s output this year so it’s nice to see them join Other Lovers’ residency at Scoot Inn just before the year closes out. The bands complement each other well, but since the Valley Forge have recently augmented their line-up we’re especially excited to see how their live show has evolved. The group’s sound has the road worn texture of classic era Bruce Springsteen, but stripped down and simplified in a way that recalls more alt-country leaning acts like Old 97’s or a more revved up Jayhawks.

Morgan Davis sells bootleg queso on the streets of Austin in order to fund Loser City, the multimedia collective he co-runs. When he isn’t doing that, he plays drums for Denise and gets complimented and/or threatened by Austin’s musical community for stuff he writes at Ovrld, which he is the Managing Editor of.