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If you like music and don't mind a fair amount of chaos and debauchery, you should attend the South by Southwest Music Festival. This was my first time and I must say, it was more fun than most adults should be allowed to have. The chaos part is that it's 1000 or so bands/artists playing at 45 venues over the course of 4 days. There's absolutely no way that you can see every band you want to, so you have to accept that from the get go. The debauchery part is whatever you make of it, of course. If you're with a big group of friends, like I was, you tend to go with the flow and that works out just fine too. Here's what I saw, for the most part: Wednesday, March 13, approx 9PM: Darla Showcase @ Buffalo Billiards Flowchart: Guy in a George W. Bush mask with a permanent sinister grin on it, sitting on a lawn chair with an Apple Powerbook in his lap, doing the electronica thing. Interesting for a few minutes, but not that engaging. Holiday Flyer: From Sacramento. Kinda generic indie rock with off-key boy/girl vocals. They had a couple of good tunes. Mahogany: From NYC. Looked like a geeky indie rock band but had a lot more going on. Very droney and ethereal. Also very loud. Sounded like Bjork fronting My Bloody Valentine at times. I liked 'em. Suddenly, a bunch of my friends decided they wanted to go to Emo's and I decided to join them. When we got there, there was a band called Easy Action playing. My comment? BLAAARRRGGGHHH!!!! The reason to go to Emo's was to see The Dwarves . I now know why people said The Dwarves 15 minute sets were great. After 15 minutes of The Dwarves, I had had enough. Someone needs to tell "He Who Cannot Be Named" to put his pants back on. So back to Buffalo Billiards for the last 3/4s of:  My Morning Jacket: The first great set I see. These guys absolutely fucking rocked. The singer's voice is channeled through a chasm of reverb, the band sounds like the bastard spawn of Neil Young, Yes, Skynyrd and Humble Pie. And this is a good thing. Truly astonishing. Thursday, March 14, afternoon: New West Records showcase @ Club De Ville Private party, guest list, free food and, most importantly, FREE BEER!!! Even though the band that most of us wanted to see ( Slobberbone) weren't playing until the end of the showcase, a bunch of us decided to go early and take advantage of the hospitality. Good Mexican food and the Shiner Bock was flowing freely. Sat through a couple rather boring "AAA" radio type bands, then got an unexpected surprise 3 song set by Vic Chestnutt that was incredibly cool. Then, when I was waiting in line for the bathroom, Jimmie Dale Gilmore from the Flatlanders showed up looking perplexed: "We're going on in a minute and I have to pee!!!" I let him cut in front of me. The Flatlanders were cool, hell, they helped invent the alt-country thing, so it was cool to see them. Then Slobberbone came on and they RAWKED like they always do. Hell yeah. By this time it was about 8 PM and we were thoroughly polluted. So we went to: The Red Room The Mendoza Line was supposed to play, I didn't care. A bunch of us hung out on the outdoor patio shooting the shit for a couple hours. A little too much debauchery at the New West party maybe? I did, however, notice a poster for an afternoon gig there the next day featuring a couple bands I thought I was gonna miss at their main showcases........ About midnight off to: The 710 Club Lookout Records showcase First band was called American Steel and they were pretty decent. Good rockin' energy, reminded me of the Archers of Loaf at first, but kinda became a generic emo band as the set wore on. They have potential. Next up was Ted Leo, who was the reason I was there. Ted and his band tore it up. Totally great. Hard to describe the sound other than just really driving power punk-pop with really catchy tunes. Nice capper for the evening. Friday, March 15, afternoon: Thought my friends were joking about going to a restaurant called The Salt Lick. They weren't joking. This was not a place for vegetarians. We're talking serious BBQ. It was yummy, for a carnivore like me. Quite heavy for breakfast though.......On to: The Red Room, 4 PM Hedwig (or whoever was playing Hedwig in the production of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" in Austin at the time, in character) hosted an afternoon open to the public party with: The Bloodthirsty Lovers: Dave Shouse's (from The Grifters/Those Bastard Souls) new band. Dave played keyboards/guitar and sang. There was another keyboard player. And then there was this shit-hot drummer that just boggled this drummer's mind. Played a right-handed kit, but did all his ride work with his left hand. Like watching a left handed guitarist play a right-handed guitar with the strings upside-down. They were pretty terrific. Can't wait till they put a CD out. Then:  The Shins: Purveyors of my favorite album of 2001. Third time I've seen them. They were pretty ragged for the first 3 songs or so (gear/mix problems mostly). Then they got it together and were as wondrously poppy as ever. Played a couple new tunes too. While at this show I ran into an acquaintance and got passes for another private party thing the next day. YAY!!! Hedwig was fucking hilarious, by the way. Later: La Zona Rosa It had been decided before any of us got to Austin that the Friday night lineup at La Zona Rosa was pretty unbeatable. The entire posse of friends/internet buddies assembled there, 27 strong. I spent a lot of time just socializing. But I did catch some of the bands. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: OK, I missed 'em, got there a bit late The Standard: Pretty good The Pattern: 60's style psyche-rock type stuff, pretty rockin' Girls Against Boys: The main reason I wanted to be here. They didn't disappoint. Kicked major ass. They opened with my favorite GvsB song (Park Avenue) and just continued to blow the roof off the place from there. Spoon: Local favorites, the floor got so crowded that I decided to skip 'em. Sounded alright from the sidelines though. Clinic: Hyped up as one of THE bands to see at SxSW. Maybe I was just too tired (they came on at 1 AM) but I was totally underwhelmed. 2nd song was good, but they struck me as just another boring Britpop band (sorry Mark!!!). 5 th song in, one of my buddies was like "hey, we're getting a cab back to the hotel, you wanna go?" I said "yeah". Saturday, March 16, afternoon  Club De Ville I got a late start and met up with friends here in time to see about half of Swearing At Motorists ' set. Dave Doughman was funny and played some sad songs whilst struggling with a guitar that needed repairs. He wanted to jump around, but his guitar would cut out when he did, so eventually he had to stand still. He wore his frustration admirably. He also did one of the funniest bits I saw that week with the "SxSW Salute" (left elbow jutting out as if holding a cell phone to his ear). Mendoza Line played after, but I wanted to make my way to another private party thing with freebies. Antone's New Times party Good food, open bar, learned my lesson at the New West party. Bands: Departure Lounge: Tim Keegan's band. He's played with Robyn Hitchcock in the past. You can tell, he sounds like Robyn, writes like Robyn. I prefer Robyn. The Sunshine Fix: The new band from Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control. Pretty damn good. OTC with a lot of the ridiculous psyche weirdness removed. Not all, but a lot. Nice pop songs, nice 3 part harmonies, nice psychedelic pop. Neil Finn: The place started to get insanely overcrowded so I decided to split. Back to Cafe De Ville American Analog Set: Caught a bit of their set, they were OK. The group I was with decided to eat dinner at some insanely expensive seafood place so I decided to wander around on my own for a while and meet them back at Emo's at 10 for Bob Log III. So I did. When I left the seafood place I realized I had to pee and Emo's was right there. "Well, I'll go in there then" I said. Once my business was done I checked out the band that was playing. Turns out that Emo's downstairs was having a death metal showcase that night. The band on at that time was called Employer-Employee and they were pretty funny. I watched them for 5 minutes and then moved along. Went and found some cheap eats and wandered around 6th street for an hour or so before going back to Emo's. When I got back, there was a band called Mastodon playing that was fucking hilarious. Most of my buddies had been there for a while and were just in hysterics over these guys. I guess since none of us had any experience with live death metal, it made a big impression. Death metal makes me laugh, I don't know why, it just does. Anyway, we go upstairs to see: Bob Log III: Used to be in a band called Doo-Rag. Now performs solo in a shiny blue jumpsuit, an oversize motorcycle helmet with full faceplate with a microphone built into it (vocals fed through a distortion box as well), plays guitar and bass drum on mostly fast paced bluesy type stuff with titles like "Clap Your Tits". It's amazing that he doesn't asphyxiate halfway through his set. Fun. At this point it seemed most of my companions had had enough, which was fine, since we had a fairly early plane to catch the next morning. But I had to check out one more band. My old pals Mother Superior were scheduled to play at Gatsby's at 1AM, since it was about 11:30 I figured they might be there waiting to set up and play. And they were. So I got to hang out with old friends from LA in Austin for an hour or so AND watch them get up on stage and just tear it up for 45 minutes. A great capper for the week. So, there it is. One man's assessment of the craziness that is SxSW. I can't wait till next year!!! Words by Russell Haines |
