Texas Showdown Tattoo and Music Festival - El Paso

This is for all you hardcore fans - tattoos, music, sideshows, and body suspension acts. Good music and over 300 of the world's top tattoo artists sounds like an interesting mix, but the body suspension stuff makes me queesy.

Friday, July 18, Deftones will headline, with The Casualties, Lower Class Brats, and Murder FM. I saw the Deftones a few years back, and unfortunately it was not a good show.

Saturday, July 19, Drowning Pool will headline, with 12 Stones, Crazy Town, Bridge to Grace, and more. I never got to see Drowning Pool with Dave Williams, but the newest lead singer Jasen Moreno is bringing high energy back to the band. After watching a few vids with him, especially how well he did on "Bodies", I plan to catch them the next time they're in Dallas.

Sunday, July 20 features Wu-Tang Clan, Snow Tha Product, Sheek Louch, and more.

Tickets for this 3 day event can be bought online at Ticketmaster, or save a few bucks by buying them directly from the El Paso County Colliseum box office.

Learn more about this freak show of an event at texastattooshowdownfestval.com or on their Facebook page.

Brazos Nights Free Concert Series in Waco, Texas - Doing It Right!

I've been a big fan of Cajun music and Zydeco music since accidentally wandering into a Cajun bar in the small town of Bandera, TX about ten years ago. So when I saw Buckwheat Zydeco is playing in Waco on April 11, I had to check it out. I've been wanting to see him for a very long time.

The event is a series of free concerts (yes FREE) held each year beginning in April and ending in July presented by The City of Waco Parks and Recreation Department. What an awesome thing for a city to do!

But Waco isn't far from DFW, and they've been doing this since 1987. Why haven't I heard about it before? From what I can tell, most of their advertising is local to Waco. And as far as internet advertising, the event does not have its own website, instead it has a dedicated area of the city's website (Brazos Nights Official Home Page).

Despite not having its own site, they do offer plenty of good info - click on Bands and you'll see the headliners for each of the 4 shows this year, complete with links back to the bands' websites. Besides Buckwheat Zydeco, they have great names for the rest of the lineup, including the Toadies on June 13.

I'm seriously impressed with this festival, as they appear to be doing a lot of things the right way. Hats off to the organizers - I'm a bit of a critic when it comes to small town festivals and I can find little to criticize here. You've done so many things right, including a page featuring Photos and Videos from Previous Waco Nights, and moving the April date to accomodate artist schedules.

My biggest nitpick of this event? That they don't give me any tools to help advertise it. If they had some downloadable banners or tile ads, I would likely put them on some of my music-themed websites. I'm sure some of the participating artists would do the same. I even checked the Brazos Nights Facebook Page. I found images for each of the 4 dates, but they didn't include enough info (like WHERE).

But that's ok - I'm going to promote this event anyway, because it's an awesome lineup of artists and bands, and because it's FREE. Way to go, Waco!

South By So What Festival - March 14-16, Grand Prairie, TX

This annual festival started 7 years ago as a small way for DFW to get a taste of South By Southwest bands, but this year they're really blowing it out with big names and expecting a big draw.

The festival is scheduled for March 14-16, 2014 in Grand Prairie, Texas.

This year's lineup includes headliners Taking Back Sunday and The Used.

Full line-up can be found here www.southbysowhat.com/home/2014-line-up/.

Single day tickets are $45 for Friday or Sunday, $55 for Saturday.

Three day passes are available in several packages, ranging from General Admission for $120 to the Elite VIP Package for $320. They say the Elite VIP Packages are nearly sold out, so if you want yours get it now!

Tickets can be purchased here : www.southbysowhat.com/home/tickets/