Thursday show picks: All My Friends... are F&@#ing Dead

Tonight proves how spoiled we really are as music fans in Austin. See, in most cities and towns, on any given night the best available musical entertainment is provided by cover bands. Usually, these are middle-aged would-be rockers and weekend warriors playing "Dr. Feelgood" and "Cherry Pie" for the umpteenthousandth time in their life.

In Austin, meanwhile, we mostly have original bands playing good music in almost any genre you could want. But even on a night like tonight, when the best live music options are cover bands, it's not because the original bands suck. It's because our cover bands are inspired in their tribute choices; they're not cliche, instead choosing source material that we know and love but wouldn't expect to be covered.

At Speakeasy, Do512 is hosting a dance party with DJs, Deep Eddy vodka and All My Friends, a local LCD Soundsystem tribute band. Yeah, they play covers by a band who released a critically acclaimed album two months ago, as well as one of the best albums of 2007. Featuring members of SuperLiteBike and Peoplefood, this tribute band puts on a dance-punk show that would do James Murphy proud. Cover is $5 if you RSVP here. Band starts at 10.

Over at Mohawk, it's the debut of a tribute band that has punk fans excited: Refused are Fucking Dead. Refused, a Swedish leftist punk band steeped in lore, released what was arguably the best hardcore album of their generation. Then they broke up shortly thereafter, leaving lots of us fans starved for a live taste of The Shape of Punk to Come. Tonight might be the closest we get. More details here.