 I was almost not going to submit commentary this week, just to prove a point: South by Southwest completely ravaged me. For four relentless nights and sleep-deprived days, it was go-go-go and a sort of vertigo upon stopping. (Where's the music? I can't feel my feet...)
The white of my left eye is a blood red spider-web, my metabolic system has shut down after a four day diet consisting almost exclusively of street cart pizza, Texas beer, and granola bars, and only just recently has the thick cloud of white noise around my head begun to dissipate. Those decibels really take a toll.
Yes, SXSW 2008 is the real deal.
I met with musicians, journalists, photographers, and of course, music
fans in my wanderings, ones far more worldly and critical than me, and
they assured me: South by Southwest is actually, no bullshit, the
biggest and best music festival in the world. Period.
So, where to begin. Where to begin describing an event that consumes
downtown Austin, that brings in people from all over the world, that
hosts 1,500 exciting and important bands in over 90 venues...
simultaneously... for four days straight.
Let's begin with Day One: Wednesday, March 12th.
Let's begin with Van Morrison.
I did some speed-walking across downtown Austin over the course of
the festival - crazy mall-walker head-down arms-a-pumping kind of speed
walking - and it all began with Van. Van Morrison, La Zona Rosa,
kicking off the festival. He and REM were arguably the biggest names at
SXSW 2008, and the question was: would I get in? Remember, wristbands
don't guarantee entry, just free admission. It all comes down to a
club's capacity. Being that most of downtown Austin's venues are
relatively small - one of the very reasons this festival is so freaking
cool, since your favorite artist can easily spit on you from stage to
audience - there's always the chance that too many people will show up
ahead of you, and you'll be S.O.L.
Bet your ass I got in. I turned on my Sonic the Hedgehog wheels and
I zipped from work to La Zona Rosa. And I'm slippery, so it didn't take
me long to weasel my way up to the fifth row.
Van Morrison 7p (La Zona Rosa)
Rather than shrilling Van fucking rocked, (because he DID)
I'll put it like this: Van made it well worth our whiles. All the
reports about the Irish legend's inconsistency as a performer, about
his ability to either thrill or just to trudge through the motions, and
when the time came for SXSW '08, he was captivating! Not his standard
songs mind you - a big change from his last Austin appearance at ACL,
after which everyone could die happy, having heard Brown-Eyed Girl
live. No, this set featured mostly new stuff from his 35th album "Keep It Simple," rich in soul, blues, Americana, gospel overtones - and he sold it. The
set was up-beat swinging stuff that showed off the band, highlighted
that dirty-old-man side of him, and allowed him a lot of playfulness
with the audience. "I'm glad we're getting somewhere," he said gruffly
to our cheers. "I got other things to do tonight." Aw. He liked us!
Songs like Don't Go to Nightclubs Anymore and Drinkin' in the Alley had
him switching between ukulele and sax, then scatting "boogie woogie"s
in time with that great right arm tic that was just so.... Van.
I don't care who you are, his voice still sounds fantastic -
intermittently smooth and gravelly (think "Gloria) - and his 10-piece
band crammed onstage was awesome.
Let it be known, after being strictly forbidden not to even think about
taking photographs, I tried to slyly pull out my camera and get a good
one for Quirkee readers. I was stormed by a security guy before I'd
even turned the thing on. The dude was fast. For fear of being kicked out, I was obedient. Hence, no photo. Bastards.
After Van Morrison, it was a long and deliriously happy walk back to Red River to join the crowd at Emo's.
Longwave 9pm (Emo's)
I'd heard good things about this New York indie rock band, that they're
likened to The Strokes and have worked with producers formerly of The
Flaming Lips, Radiohead, even Pink Floyd.
Well, they sure looked like hard-working rockers. Never have I thought
that a group of guys needed to eat a cheeseburger so desperately.
(Don't they get catering at these sorts of things? And where did their
bass player manage to find my old jeans from 9th
grade?) Once I was past that, I kind of, well, fell in love. Me and the
other screaming teenage girls in the front row. These guys had a good
edgy sound, the lead singer could totally wail and wasn't afraid to use
his falcetto, and the lead guitarist had fantastically floppy hair. It
was a rock show, alright. Frankly, I thought they were British.
Delta Spirit 10pm (Emo's)
Delta Spirit, five young guys out of California, was next on my list
of must-sees. They came on stage, the lead singer in all denim and a
newsies' hat, and I mentally carded all of them. For cigarettes.
Once they got going, their energy was irresistible. Delta Spirit's
songs were so unpredictable in their variance - the only common threads
being 1), a vague indie rock feel with a sort of (sort of) Southern
flair, and 2), that they were good.
For all their fresh-faced appearance, the band showed incredible depth
in its capacity to sound in turn upbeat, edgy, vampy, sexy, dark, and
moving. Lots of tight harmonies, powerful chord arrangements, and the
members raced around between instruments in between songs, switching
from keyboards to drums to guitars to ... tambourine. I was hooked.
Be Your Own Pet 11p (Emo's)
By this point in the evening I'd planned to get back out in the
chaos of Red River... but the guys next to me started including me on
their rounds of Shiner Bock. My best-laid plans crumble at the offer of
free Texas beer. And frankly, I'd already invested a lot of time
holding my spot at Emo's for the 1am headliner, The Black Keys. I was
getting nice and cozy. So I witnessed the spectacle that was this
four-piece garage rock band from Tennessee.
Ah, the energy of youth. Be Your Own Pet's young group has been
compared to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, for their heavy guitars (bonus! Lead
guitarist looked eerily reminiscent of Napoleon Dynamite!) and lead
singer Jemina Pearl Abegg's ability to command an audience's attention.
Abegg, gyrating in her short-short skirt and whipping around her
blonde-blonde ponytail, was inarguably dynamic - and the band's
in-your-face punk lyrics and mad drum solos brought the energy up to an
entirely different plane.
I overheard some guys behind me comment disdainfully, "Eh, it's all
sex and theatrics." To which I offer a sweet and equally disdainful
shrug. "So what?"
Autolux 12a (Emo's)
My partners-in-beer (band members themselves, of the Austin-based
group Exeter) had been salivating about this band all night long. They
told me it could be loosely defined as "space rock," and I'll take
their word for it - because what a great category! This I know: Three
piece bands from Los Angeles with pixie-like female drummers and the
ability to create totally weird but beautiful dissonance are alright
with me. And so it was with Autolux. Among their short set, "Turnstile
Blues" was breathtaking. The tragedy is that just when they got going,
the band was cut short for lack of time. The set couldn't have been
much more than five or six songs, and the audience at large - not just
my Shiner guys - was devastated. I joined the ranks.
The Black Keys 1am (Emo's)
I made it, finally. Word is, the line outside of Emo's got simply
astronomical for The Black Keys, but I was sweetly dug in about seven
people deep. Well done, me and my penchant for booze and dimly lit
Emo's...
Here's the embarrassing truth: I've heard The Black Keys plenty of
times. Because of it, I knew that I was intent on seeing them, and I
thought myself reasonably familiar with their story.
I figured they were a four-piece band.
Oh no, no no. These two gangly boys from Akron, Ohio, are IT. (I
verified with the people surrounding me that the whole band had, in
fact, arrived. They had.) These two guys are the big blues rock sound
that draws frequent comparisons to The White Stripes, that has gone on
tour with Radiohead and Beck, and to which even Robert Plant admits
being a fan. Two guys. And what have you done with your day?
There was extra hype surrounding the show because the duo has a new CD
coming out April 1 - and lucky us, they played a good four songs off
it. "This is a new one," singer/ guitarist Dan Auerbach admitted,
"so... we might mess it up." They didn't.
Meanwhile, drummer Patrick Carney was going so consistently crazy
that my time-release camera couldn't catch him in anything but a blur
of drum sticks and shaggy black hair.
All said and done, the band's performance begs the awe-inspired question: just what are they putting in the water in Akron?
More commentary to come in following weeks.....
Til then, here's to dimly lit bars, sweat-soaked musicians, and neon green wristbands.
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