Who would have thought Two Gallants getting busted in Houston last Friday night would become such a big deal? It's a story that just isn't going to die. The Houston Chronicle today follows with a lengthy feature headlined, "Melee Could Put the Hurt on Houston's Music Scene," with the underline "Brawl between HPD, band draws national notice, may keep acts away, fans say." The story (here) says that Houston already has a bad rep among touring bands, and that the Two Gallants debacle is only going to make it worse. "Managers are trying to give their bands a chance in Houston. But there's absolutely nothing we can say to help our case to get bands into town when they're being attacked by cops. Whatever the official report is, there's no excuse for it," said local promoter Ryan Chavez, who booked the show. Two Gallants would be crazy to skip Houston now. Imagine the press coverage they'd receive, both locally and nationally, upon their return. The show would be huge. If they really want to make a statement about what happened, the best way to do it is from a Houston stage.

Doesn't sound like that will happen though, based on the band's interview with Pitchfork that went online yesterday afternoon (here). Adam Stephens' and Tyson Vogel's account of the situation is disturbing, painting a picture of a man-mountain strolling through the crowd brandishing a Taser like a cattle prod. "He was really focused on this one kid, who was really young," said Vogel in the article. "I think he was 14 years old. He kept Tasing him over and over again. The kid started having convulsions or something. It's so crazy. You can kill somebody with one of those things." If true, that's pretty creepy. The funniest line of the story comes from Stephens: "That guy was huge, and we're skinny little indie rocker kids. It's not like we go to the gym, and we definitely couldn't take this guy on in any way. He was a big dude and he was on top of us, pretty much had us down." So now the band is considering taking legal action, which would be a mistake. Says Vogel, "This is about a larger truth. We're not trying to get something else out of it. We just want what's right." Good luck with that one.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Thunderbirds Are Now! roll into town in support of their new album, Make History on Frenchkiss Records, a standard-issue indie rock album. With Rescue and Tie These Hands, $8, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, it's Mike Tulis' Rock Movie Night featuring the documentary We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen. Movie details are here. The film rolls at 9:30 and it's FREE.

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