Health | Sydney Confirm | Stag Film | Pet Hospital (Club Dada)
Parade of Flesh founder John Iskander is celebrating his birthday tonight with Health, a band that seems to have been on constant tour for the past 7 or 8 months as their music has gained more and more visibility thanks to their Health Disco remixes album and their tour appearances with Crystal Castles. I feel like I've seen these dudes play like 8 different times in the past few months (and if you count SXSW, that number is probably fairly accurate), but it truly is enjoyable each time. Sydney Confirm makes sense in this line up when you consider Health' s tendency to flirt with dance music via their remix alliances, but the other bands here-- eh, not so much. Should be a fun show though, and if more than 50 people show up, it will help fuel the Observer's "Deep Ellum is making a comeback" storyline. And we all know how important THAT is!

Wolf Parade | Wintersleep (Palladium Ballroom)
Despite what you might have guessed, I am NOT a member of the "I hate Wolf Parade" club. I enjoyed their debut EP and full lengths when they came out way back in 2005 (feels like a different era, doesn't it?), and apparently a lot of other people did too: how many bands in the city of Austin alone right now sound like they created their ENTIRE sound by listening to Wolf Parade and the first Arcade Fire album on repeat? Wolf Parade could very well be the mid 00's answer to the early 90's Pearl Jam-- a lot of idiots have made a lot of bad music because of them. Anyway, their 2008 follow up, At Mount Zoomer, is certainly a decent indie pop record in most respects, and it even seems to have kind of a prog influence that makes things a bit more interesting. However, none of the material really comes close to the initial excitement and quality of their debut, despite the fact that the songs are arguably more interesting on many levels. Is Wolf Parade doomed to be a one album indie wonder? Uh, I don't know. Isn't everybody these days?

80's Night with DJ G (Hailey's)
I think I saw a dude dancing around with puke on his shirt the last time I was there, and for some reason this confirmed to me that 80's Night might be the most commercially successful weekly DJ residency in the history of Denton. Couldn't have happened to a more divserse and educated DJ either.