Since this year’s FPSF has so many bands, I’m sure it’s going to be overwhelming for a lot of folks so I’m going to try to help you out a bit by giving you some recommendations over the three days leading up to the big weekend for National, Regional, and Local acts. The idea isn’t to be all-inclusive but to just make a few suggestions and if you want to post your suggestions for each day’s category in the comments, please do.

Yesterday, we highlighted a few regional acts (link) and the day before, we spotlighted a few national acts (link). Today we’ll zoom in a bit more to some local acts and trust me this one was likely th hardest of all to pick JUST five acts from. Again, feel free to make your suggestions in the comments.

For the full schedule visit: http://www.freepresssummerfest.com/schedule.html

Fatal Flying Guilloteens

Reunion shows are always a sketchy undertaking but this one should prove to be a pretty worthwhile one to see. For those of you who missed out on this band in their heyday, the Guilloteens put on some of the wildest, most uninhibited, rock and roll shows you could imagine. I remember talking with Jordan Graber about how at one show I was setting up my camera on a beer bottle as a makeshift tripod to take a shot and some object came flying from the stage and my camera suddenly was eight feet behind me while my hand and the bottle remained untouched. Jordan just laughed and said “ha, yeah I’ve lost more than my fair share of lenses to those guys. Welcome to the club.”. Don’t miss this! Oh yes and don’t forget to duck!

Grandfather Child/ Robert Ellis

I’m so glad these are back to back because I was having trouble choosing and since Robert plays in Grandfather Child, it gives me a little bit of a way to cheat on this and still keep to just five pics each day. If you haven’t caught Grandfather Child’s neo-R&B, I suggest you do so. The band is a supergroup of local talent - the aforementioned Robert Ellis, Sideshow Tramps’ Geoffrey Miller, jack of all trades Ryan Chavez, and band leader Lucas Gorham. If you haven’t heard someone pull off a soulful falsetto backed with tight instrumentation that would make Booker T proud, you really need to catch these guys.

Wild Moccasins

The Moccasins are synonymous with upbeat, fun, youthful indie pop. It’s one of those times you can call a show a party and really mean it. Confetti, balloons, bubbles…it think they’ve done just about every silly stage gimmick there is but the music is no mere gimmick. The band has a great sense of melody and sharp musicianship that make them on of Houston’s best exports.

The Tontons

Also, in the toppermost of the poppermost and not to be missed is The Ton Tons. This band plays indie pop too but with Asli Omar’s silky, Jazzy vocals and Adam Martinez furious, Hendrix-like guitar, they have a sound all their own and a live show that leaves people with jaws agape.

Fat Tony

I’m not gonna lie. Solo rappers doing shows often leave me kind of shrugging my shoulders. It’s pretty hard to carry an energetic show by yourself but Fat Tony is someone who can. Not only are his albums fun, smart, and droll, but he carries that easily to the stage. Each time I’ve seen him its been a huge blast and the audience goes crazy all dancing and singing along. Houston is most synonymous with hip hop and talent like Tony is a perfect example of why that is so.