March 19, 2010 Friday
It has been a couple of days of beautiful weather, seventy degrees and sunny. My slightly sunburned face and throbbing feet are urging me to adopt a slightly less grueling pace than roughly fifteen bands we saw yesterday. I tend to agree with myself. Especially when I’m hungry. Which begins our day at Club Deville on Red River St. for the Brooklyn Vegan/ Magic Hat party and their delicious offerings of vegan breakfast tacos and Hail Mary Granola. Although the lineup included Princeton, Twin Sister, Nicole Atkins & Lucero, we were running short on time to make it down the street to Emo’s to catch a set from the Local Natives, an LA band making some waves. Emo’s was easy to find because of the line out the door and down the street waiting to get in. Through a bit of scouting and reconnaissance, we discovered an alternate and slightly hidden rear entrance to their outdoor patio area, packed with the buzz of a large audience in search of buzz. The band had really tight live harmonies, a fantastic Gretch, mandolin, bass, drums, and an auxillary drummer/programmer, all of which added up to their propulsive rhythms and textured melodies. This was their fourth of nine shows at SXSW, making the most of their time there in support of their debut Gorilla Manor. Despite their Ultra LA hipster high and tight pants with 70’s mustaches, their sound was very appealing, leaning to the rock side of indie, especially the last two songs Airplane and Sun Hands, making the Bands To Check Out Post SXSW list.
We took a long walk down Congress to the WOXY studios and for a tour with Mike & Joe. This is a station that was once based in Cincinnati, uprooted from its terrestrial roots in 2004 to lead the internet in radio and moved physically to Austin in 2009. The building was at one time an old theater, converted to a tv studio, from which live bands have been in and out all week. We were there during the recording of a set by the Besnard Lakes, a band from Montreal and the same one that was ending their big set at Stubb’s last night when we stopped by. They had a great rock sound, but odd in terms of ethereal textures, sounding like an unfrozen haunting in the ionosphere, ending with the songs Albatross and Progress. Our tour of the facilities continued up to the roof, revealing an amazing panorama of the city. Regrettably, after spending so much time and money setting up the new station, a few days after our visit all of their funding was pulled and the team that had just relocated across the country is currently left high and dry. We wish them well and hope they fall into new jobs quickly.
Heading north toward the Capitol on Congress, we made our way to the Paste Vanguard party, catching the very end of the Watson Twins and deciding that it was time for Guero’s, that famed restaurant of idyllic stature that is required on any trips I take to Austin. It’s that refreshing Avalon, the reward of Elysium, the assortment of salsas and margaritas that make a man seriously contemplate living in Texas. It’s in a quaint area full of boutiques and boots, giving you visions of lazy Saturdays and strolls by the mighty Colorado River.
We decided to make one main event our final stop for the evening, the Dickies Sounds Party held at the Lustre Pearl. This was another outdoor stage, and the line to get in here was pandemonium. It had a fantastic line up as the evening wore on, including Here We Go Magic, She & Him, Broken Bells and Surfer Blood. It had some issues as well, enough to put a damper on the evening. First up was Here We Go Magic, and there’s not a way to delicately say this, but they did not sound good. The good news is that might have actually been the sound, as either the engineer or the underpowered system itself was severely lacking. It was as if someone two doors down from you was having a house party or band practice. We had high hopes that it was a fluke, or the band, and that it would get better as the night went on. Up next was She & Him, mainly the project of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, bringing a large 60’s southwestern surf style that would fit in any Tarantino film. It actually might be more apropos if the project were named Cult of Zooey, as any observer of their audiences can attest. Her voice has a breathy angeic quality and the crowd is in love. There’s lots of bouncy tambourine, even some country and western in there too. M. Ward capably handles guitar and some vocals and is accompanied by two female backup singers, drums and bass. Their sound wasn’t great either, and writing it off on the soundman, we decided that was not the way we’d like to see Broken Bells or Surfer Blood. We decided that they would have to be our priority tomorrow, as we made our way back down Red River, mingling with the crowd exiting Stubb’s, whose main event of the evening was Courtney Love’s reignition of Hole and Muse. It looked as though a good time was had by all. I bet the sound was stellar.
No comments:
Post a Comment