5 Great Things to Do in Houston This Weekend — From The Woodlands’ Wine Extravaganza to Great Under-the-Radar Concerts

Houston weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity‘s new events calendar offers a curated look at all the best things to do in the area. But everyone can still use a guru.

PaperCity’s Weekend Gurus Matthew Ramirez and Virginia Reynolds cull our calendar for your weekend must dos in this weekly series.

Wine Time in The Woodlands

If you haven’t had the chance to make it to the Woodlands’ Wine & Food Week, hurry over and get there before it closes this Sunday, June 9.  This is the 15th year of the wine and food extravaganza, and it only seems to get bigger and more prominent.

Wine & Food Week features a number of top chefs, including Victoria Elizondo of Cochinita & Co., pitmaster Wade Elkins of Reveille, Hassan Obaye of Le Colonial and former White House chef John Moeller. Plus so many more.

On Thursday, June 6, you can sip wines from around the world, watch live chef demonstrations and enjoy interactive entertainment and live music at Wine Walk. Or hit Sips, Suds and Tacos on Friday, June 7 to crunch on the best tacos in town, all while drinking your favorite wines or craft beers.

One of signature events of the week is the Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase on Saturday, June 9.  There will be chef demonstrations, food from more than 50 restaurants, and hundreds of wines.

Finally, you can wrap up the weekend with Sunday Sundown Closeout Concert and Poetry Reading at Sunset at Bernhardt Winery. There will be an outdoor lawn concert, tastings at Bernhardt Winery, and plenty of food and snacks (i.e. gourmet artisan cheese platters available to order).

Wine & Food Week’s events are held at various locations throughout The Woodlands.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

In Warm Blood

Natalie Mering is the creative force behind Weyes Blood, an increasingly ambitious California-based act that has with each successive release, grown more expansive, lush and immersive. From a lo-fi, bedroom-pop aesthetic through April’s Titanic Rising, Mering has steadily added more to her bag of ‘70s AM radio tricks.

She is no mere traditionalist, though — having collaborated with provocative songwriters such as Ariel Pink and Kirin J. Callinan. Mering places enough weirdness along the margins that underline the sweet nature of her writing (“true love is making a comeback” is one of the defining lyrics of “Everyday”).

Titanic Rising is a triumph, uniting the intimacy of the music of Karen Dalton and The Carpenters with a thoroughly 2019 outlook on life — from love in the shadow of climate change, human connection amidst the endless scroll, and a redemptive belief in art as the world falls apart in slow motion. See her this Friday, June 7, upstairs at White Oak Music Hall.

Doors open at 8 pm; tickets $15. — Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Art for a Cause

Want to make your weekend a charitable one? Consider the Three for the Show, taking place at Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH). If you are a lover of either art or animals – or perhaps both – this event is perfect for you.

Three for the Show was conceived by Doug Harris of Noisemaker Communications, and is a fundraiser for the Rescued Pets Movement here in Houston. This pet-loving organization works tirelessly to address the tragic number of stray and abandoned pets in the city that are at a high risk of euthanasia in overcrowded shelters. Three for the Show will raise awareness of these issues, and will ensure that the organization continues to receive funds for its life-saving work.

The evening will bring three dog-loving and well-known artists with ties to Texas to MATCH to sell their work. Painter Tra’ Slaughter, photographer Darron Franta and objects d’art creator Ted Edwards will all be in attendance selling their various pieces at the benefit, with prices ranging from $500 to $5000. Prints, limited edition T-shirts and other items also will be available starting at $50.

If these price-points don’t necessarily fall within the confines of your budget, fear not —you can still take in the fun. Admission is completely free, just be sure to reserve your ticket online beforehand.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Heavenly

The Chicago singer/poet Jamila Woods first came on my radar as one of the many hometown guests on Chance the Rapper’s underrated Surf, his overlooked collaborative album from 2015. In 2016, she released HEAVN, a freewheeling mixtape that interpolated Incubus (her tender reimagining of “Stellar” is great) alongside sparkling neo-soul cuts. (I saw her with fellow Chicagoan Saba at the KTRU Outdoor Show in 2017, and it was life-affirming.)

With this year’s LEGACY! LEGACY!, Woods leaned into her role as a socially conscious and political artist, naming each song after black icons (from Zora Neale Hurston to Sun Ra to James Baldwin), while deftly addressing the fraught relationship between the political and personal in the context of being a woman of color in America. She’ll be at Warehouse Live  on Monday, June 10.

Doors open at 7 pm; advance tickets are $15. — Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

This Old Dog

Anderson .Paak is a gifted singer, songwriter, rapper and composer, who probably invaded most people’s consciousness when given a prominent role on Dr. Dre’s 2015 comeback album Compton. With 2016’s Malibu, Paak proved he could unite hip-hop heads and Spotify browsers alike — his funky grooves were easy enough for passive listeners to enjoy, but his come-up and talent were earned enough to feel fresh for more discerning fans.

However the reason I think you should head out to Revention Music Center on Tuesday, June 11, is for co-headliner Mac DeMarco, who at this point in his career has proven himself as the millennial Randy Newman crossed with Harry Nilsson with a dash of Neil Youn, too. His record from this year, Here Comes the Cowboy, is a sleepy listen, as DeMarco confidently abandoned his party-guy antics and the self-serious (but still great) persona of 2017’s This Old Dog for something completely different.

It’s hard to imagine some of the whisper-quiet songs translating live, but DeMarco is a star worth checking out anytime he’s in town. The freakishly talented bassist Thundercat opens, too.

Doors open at 6:30 pm; tickets start at $59.50. — Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.