Why does this seem to happen so often? Two good, somewhat similar bands play different venues on the same night, and concertgoers are forced to make tough choices. Remember when Nashville Pussy and Honky played the same night a few months ago? Or Dead Confederate and Dead Meadow, both Nov. 4? This occurs more frequently than you’d think would happen in a small market like Little Rock.
Anyways, here we go again. While these headliners don’t really sound that much alike, a Venn diagram of their fan bases would probably have a significant intersection. What would be the linchpin band here? I’m gonna say Social Distortion. At least these two shows are in different towns. That might make it easier for some folks to decide.
The Street Dogs are a Boston punk act featuring Mike McColgan — one of the founding members of The Dropkick Murphys — on vocals. The band treads similar territory as the Murphys and Flogging Molly. Think The Pogues plus The Clash times The Replacements divided by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The band plays White Water Tavern at 9 p.m. and it’s only $5. The opening band is Murder the Stout, a Celtic act out of Houston.
Pop-punk legends The Queers are playing Maxine’s. The long-running New Hampshire act was one of the mainstays at Lookout Records in the 1990s (until everything seemed to fall apart at the label, with many of its top-selling acts — Screeching Weasel, Operation Ivy, Green Day, Avail, among others — rescinding the rights to their recordings and reissuing them on different labels, as The Queers did). Anyways, that’s neither here nor there. The Queers have been at this pop-punk thing since the early ’80s and it’s cool that they’re still going. The opening acts are Reno Divorce, Knock-Out and Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth. It starts at 8 p.m. and is $8 adv., $10 door.