A New Houston Museum’s Big Debut, a College Rock Pioneer and Studio 54’s Bayou City Moment: Your Best Weekend Events as Picked by The Guru

Editor’s Note: Houston’s weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity’s Weekend Guru Matthew Ramirez cuts through the clutter to give you the best options in this weekly series.

The Menil Draws a Crowd

The grand public unveiling of The Menil Collection‘s Drawing Institute takes place today (Saturday, November 3), starting at 10 am and running through 4 pm. The first expansion to the grand Menil campus in 21 years, the new Drawing Institute is the only building of its kind in the world – a gallery/educational space/archive devoted exclusively for drawing.

For much more on the Menil Drawing Institute, read PaperCity‘s arts editor Catherine D. Anspon‘s preview here. And for a full list of Saturday’s special free events, click here.

Bombón Year Ocho

Bombón are easy to take for granted. After all, either the group, or its ringleader Gracie Chavez, is usually playing somewhere in the city on any given weekend (or weeknight for that matter). But let’s not overlook their quietly groundbreaking success.

Bombón is a group of Latinx DJs who mix traditional Latin music with dancehall, Houston rap, hip-hop low-end, Top 40 pop, even a dash of country, a gumbo of sounds that somehow remains distinctly Texan.

This diverse mix is a sound that is unheard of even in the multi-cultural night scenes in New York City or Los Angeles.

This Saturday, November 3, catch their eighth-year anniversary show at the chic confines of House of Blues’ Foundation Room, where they will play alongside other H-Town faves such as Gio Chamba, OG Bobby Trill and Jay Tovar. Tickets are $16; the party starts at 9 pm.

Avi Buffalo at White Oak Music Hall

When Avi Buffalo hit the indie rock scene in 2010, Buffalo was a 19-year-old kid with a high falsetto and a knack for song production, creating catchy pop songs that often obscured the fact that he was usually singing about awkward teenage sex. His self-titled 2010 record was a modest hit, receiving raves from places such as Pitchfork, and he followed it up with the understated but solid 2014 record At Best Cuckold.

The band folded in 2015, but Buffalo has rebooted the outfit, releasing a joint EP this year with ambient duo Black Lodge. Before Mac DeMarco, Rex Orange County, Steve Lacy, or countless other “regular dudes playing college rock” artists dominated Spotify playlists, there was Avi Buffalo. And he comes to town this Sunday, November 4, upstairs at White Oak Music Hall.

Tickets are just $8; the doors open at 7 pm; openers include Haunted Summer and Velveteen Echo.

I Feel Love – at Studio 54

The hedonistic and mythical Studio 54, located in New York City, was the heart of the disco era, full of celebrities, musicians and, um, party supplies. It’s also the centerpiece of a new documentary from Matt Tyrnauer, and its mark on pop music history cannot be undersold – disco, a frequently misunderstood genre that pushed pop music to near avant-garde limits, often highlighted and gave a mainstream avenue to black, female, queer, Latino and other marginalized people’s voices.

While Studio 54 was not the birthplace of disco, its extremely brief lifespan (from 1978 to 1980) nonetheless is the perfect flashpoint through which to analyze the genre, which came and went in the blink of an eye but created some of the most timeless music of the century, while also serving as a symbol of the era between free love in the sixties, the celebrity-and-excess uptown scene of the seventies, and the new wave era of the eighties.

The documentary makes it Houston premiere Sunday, November 4 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Showtime is 2 pm; adult tickets are $9.