SXSW wrapup, part V (final)

Before starting our evening music experience, I tried to avoid a repeat of the first two nights where my feet gave out before the schedule did. A side trip to the CVS showed I wasn't the only one in Austin with issues – the footcare section was completely sold out of every insert, cushion and anything else to add a layer of relief above the hard venue floors. So at least I wasn't alone in my plight.


28. David Berkeley, Tap Room at Six, 7:30 p.m.
SXSW is, by design, not a place to fully immerse yourself in one artist's music. The sets are short, the crowds always at risk to bolt for the next hot act, and each act might play three or four or more shows in a day. By necessity, seeing dozens of bands at nearly as many venues in a day means you're getting a sample of each of them rather than a full concert experience. For the most part, the musicians seem to embrace the festival and its quirks. David Berkeley did not. In fact, he seemed openly hostile during his set, bemoaning the fact he didn't see real fans in the audience and castigating the industry nature of the event. Tip for anyone getting started in music: open contempt of your audience is not a recommended way to go.

29. Eliza Doolittle, Tap Room at Six, 8 p.m.
The British press compares Eliza Doolittle to Lily Allen. Musically it makes sense – they both cheekily sing jaunty-sounding songs with a heavy British accent – but she reminded me of no one more than Miley Cyrus. Not musically; although they both fall under the very wide net of female-sung pop, it's a pretty meaningless moniker. (And I can't see Miley coming out backed by a group of guys dressed in the aggressively uncool garb of bow ties above red-and-white striped shirts with constant smiles.) But what they do have in common is their eyes, which grab and play with the audience. Eliza Doolittle used hers to great affect, flipping from sultry vamp to innocent fluttering, but always giving the impression she is in control.

30. Sharon Van Etten, Central Presbyterian Church, 9 p.m.
From Eliza Doolittle's pop we moved to another female singer, but the shows could hardly have been more different. We headed up to Central Presbyterian Church in order to catch Typhoon and happened to arrive at the start of Sharon Van Etten's set.

The soaring ceilings flanked with stained glass windows formed a perfect set for Van Etten's soulful voice. Between songs, it was apparent her vocal cords were nearly shot; standing behind a guitar almost bigger than she was, she had to croak out her apologies for the state of her voice along with backstories for the songs. But once she started singing, the slight rasp and raw edge only added to the incredible intimacy and emotion of her songs. Among all the bands we saw, no one gave more of themselves to their music than Van Etten did here. Once she finished, the crowd, which had been sitting in the overpacked pews, rapt in attention, stood as one for the ovation.

31. Typhoon, Central Presbyterian Church, 9:30 p.m.
The only band we saw twice at SXSW. After catching a short set with some technical limitations Thursday, we circled this set on the schedule to catch the band with a full complement of amplified sound and it lived up to all our expectations. As with Sharon Van Etten, the full sound and harmonies were perfectly complemented by the stained-glass setting.

More than any other band, Typhoon's sound stuck with us in the days and weeks after we left Austin. Once we arrived home, we immediately ordered two CDs and they've been in heavy rotation ever since. This was, no question, our find of SXSW.

32. Washington, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 10 p.m.
One of the few acts I'd listed as a must-see. I first heard Megan Washington on a podcast by Triple J, an Australian radio station, and immediately her songs stood out. On the surface they're catchy pop songs with a female singer, but there seems to be more beneath the surface lyrically and musically than most pop songs, while the hooks stick in your head.

33. The Jezabels, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 11 p.m. I didn't know anything about the Jezebels before their set started, and I still don't. From the first song, the sound was so washed out, perhaps by design, perhaps from poor sound work. Either way, we decided after the initial song to head down the street to see the Limousines, a band I knew of only from one single.

34. The Limousines, Emos, 11:15 p.m.
Another of the pleasant surprises of SXSW. The two-person electro-pop dance band was pure fun. Even more of a surprise was that Kirsten - whose tastes tend to run more folk than dance - enjoyed the set as much as I did. It was late Saturday night, Sixth Street had filled up, there was party in the air. The energy coming off the stage and reverberating through the audience here swept us up. And when they dropped their hit, everything got amped up several notches. It was time to soak up the revelry and just enjoy being in Austin.

(Side note: Emos had set up a bank of port-a-johns in the back of a courtyard, which we utilized after the show. And then noticed, along with a few others, the odd rockings of one of the units. As the amorous couple opened the door, about two dozen people broke out in applause. The female portion of the pair ducked in apparent embarrassment and ran away. The male looked around and broke out into a grin. There may have been a bow.)

35. OliveTreeDance, corner of 6th & Neches
In our pre-SXSW research, I'd come across a frenetic dance track featuring didgeridoo. Then I learned it was played by a dude from Portugal, and then I was gutted to find out his only SXSW performance was on Wednesday, before we were going to arrive. Seriously. I love this.

And then, we stumbled across him playing street performer on a random corner on Sixth Street between shows. And I seriously could have watched this damn near forever. Although far more amazing was the fact he apparently really could play forever. He was playing again at the corner about two hours later when we walked by again. His instrument of choice, played at a thousand beats a minute, can not be easy to keep up for that long. He did. I tip my cap to that man, who made our night that much more enjoyable.

36. Art vs Science, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, midnight
Originally I'd tentatively scheduled another female singer in this slot, but we decided to cut the folk out of our night and stay with high-energy acts. (Turns out to be a good decision, as our original choice, Brooke Fraser, apparently only played three songs.)

So instead, we headed back to the Aussie showcase (I do love me some Australia) for Art vs. Science, another act I'd been introduced to through Triple J's podcasts. The rooftop was packed for this one, and the band ably filled the criteria we were looking for - keep our energy peaking. Art vs Science doesn't take itself too seriously, and when the beats dropped the rooftop was literally bouncing. In the back, we could turn around and see the madness of Sixth Street, now packed wall to wall with music still coming out of every door and window.

37. Neon Trees, Emo's, 1:15 a.m.
We walked in here to try and boost our flagging energy with whatever remained on stage. Neon Trees gave us a brief adrenaline boost, but not enough to overcome the quick-approaching fatigue. I don't remember anything about this band, and I took no notes. It was time to call it a festival, but even walking to the shuttle bus center and riding home the afterglow of the evening remained.

We'll be back.

SXSW wrapup, part IV

Saturday, March 19, 2011 (afternoon)

22. Yip Deceiver, Side Bar, 2 p.m.

Two o'clock is essentially first thing in the morning for at lot of SXSW attendees, and it clearly was for Yip Deceiver. Playing on a makeshift stage set up in a smoker's courtyard behind the bar, with the afternoon sun beating down on a dozen or so people watching from the bare wood picnic tables set on a bed of gravel, the lead singer looked out made an announcement. “It's hot, we're hungover, but fuck it – let's have some fun.”

He and the rest of the band made good on his promise, with some distorted electo-pop, heavy on 80's influences. Even as the sun baked the outdoor space, the band gave all the energy they had.

23. Venice is Sinking, Side Bar, 2:30 p.m.
I stumbled across this band in some random corner of the Internet and became completely infatuated with their song Okay, enough to mark them as a must-see at SXSW. The swelling strings (seemingly every act with more than three members featured strings at South-by) and chamber-pop harmonies didn't disappoint.

24. Little Scream, Swan Dive, 3 p.m.
Out of every venue we saw where the SXSW stage was crammed into an unlikely space, the Swan Dive was perhaps the least well-executed. The bar appeared to function as more of a lounge club when not pressed into SXSW duty, and the temporary stage stuffed into a corner was completely out of sight of the sound board at the back of the room behind and below an elevated seating section. With the bar empty for setup, the sound guy was probably minimally able to see what was happening on stage, but filled with people he had absolutely no idea.

Little Scream's set suffered a bit from muddy sound, perhaps partially due to the odd setup and partially due to the bar's unkind acoustics. Nevertheless, the music was good. The obligatory string player was bolstered by a bass flute, a novelty even for SXSW. Flute often helps lyric indie sounds, and did so here as well, complementing the strong vocals. This show mostly hit home how incredible the SXSW experience was: seeing this set in a different context, as the headliners in some small rock club one night, would have been an experience to talk about. Here, it was only the second-best show I'd seen so far that day, and there were still more than a dozen shows to go.

25. Blue King Brown, Maggie Mae's Rooftop, 4 p.m.
Maggie Mae's played host to an all-day showcase of Australian music, which was our home for the rest of the afternoon, and which we returned to Saturday evening as well. Our first taste of down under came from Blue King Brown, a roots group which mixed funk, reggae and roots rock sound. I'm not a huge fan of those elements either on their own or in sum, but lead singer Natalie Pa’apa’a's stage presence captivated me. She may have been the smallest person on stage, but she had a regal bearing and the rare quality of commanding the attention of every person in the room.

26. Andy Clockwise, Maggie Mae's Gibson Room, 5 p.m.
We decided to check out what was happening through a side door and wandered into what appeared to be a performance by Zach Galfinakis. Backed by loud distorted guitars and a wall of noise, the bearded lead singer gave a frenetic performance, bounding around the stage, jumping into the crowd, leaving a trail of sweat wherever he went.

27. Bliss N Eso, Maggie Mae's Rooftop
OK, this one is cheating a bit. I barely got to listen to a full song before we headed out to grab some dinner, but if I had been alone I would have absolutely stayed for the entire set. I have a soft spot for Australian hip-hop, which seems to have taken American old-school rap as the starting point but evolved into something slightly different than modern American hip-hop; the Australian genre seems somehow to take itself a little less seriously.

SXSW wrapup, part III

Friday, March 18, 2011 (evening)

15. Agesandages, Rusty Spurs, 8 p.m
The music schedule for SXSW sprawls early into the interactive portion of the fest, but the focus turns completely to music starting on Wednesday. The full days and nights can take a toll, as Agesand ages demonstrated. Whatever they'd been up to the first couple days of the festival had clearly taken a toll – in the spaces around songs, all of the members slumped, and one of the singers had a sickly sheen indicated he was either horribly hungover, about to get horribly sick, or in some horrible boundaryland where the two overlap.

They found some hidden reserves of energy once the music started, perhaps understandably given their songs. Full of handclaps, Agesandages blended the vocal harmonies of 70's family rock with modern indie pop. A very fun show, even if the band members occasionally looked like their batteries ran out as soon as the music stopped, only to energize again with the opening strains of the next number.

16. The Diamond Center, Black and Tan, 8:40 p.m.
The two venues – Rusty Spurs and Black and Tan – were connected and the set times slightly staggered, so we pushed through the crowd to catch the end of whoever was playing. We caught the final song or two; what we heard was something like trippy jam-band music played by a Southern garage group.

17. Dolorean, Rusty Spurs, 9 p.m.
Back on the other side of the hallway, Dolorean played songs which sounded like a Southern garage group playing Southern rock. There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy or unique to their sound in a genre I'm not really a fan of, and we left early.

18. Yellow Ostrich, Antone's, 10 p.m.
I'd marked this show on the SXSW schedule as soon as I heard their single “Whale,” and was intrigued about how the live show would work when I learned the band was essentially one guy, Alex Schaaf, making music with loops and recording multiple tracks. For SXSW Yellow Ostrich swelled to three members, with a drummer and bassist joining Schaaf on stage. The sound still swelled beyond the three, as Schaaf layered and looped the sound with an impressive array of pedals and a Mac laptop in the center of the stage. The reliance on technology became a liability as the drummer started the opening beat for “Whale,” Schaaf went to the laptop and looked stricken. As the beat kept going for at least a couple minutes, Schaaf kept desperately trying to get something to work on his laptop, before giving up and going to the microphone for a (relatively) stripped-down version which still worked well. The long delay showed his relative inexperience on stage; a veteran would have given up long before and gone into the song without the full complement. Even so, there was a lot to like among Schaaf's inventive songs.

19. Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!, B.D. Riley's, 11 p.m.
One of the rules I set for myself going into SXSW was not to wait in lines. If I couldn't get into something I wanted to see, there would always be other acts worthy of my attention at the same time. The only time this came into play was for this timeslot; after Yellow Ostrich we'd planned to see the hugely-hyped Yuck play in a venue around the corner. But the line stretched half a block, and even our wristbands put us well back in the priority list behind a number of full-fledged badge holders. So after about five minutes we moved on to Plan B.

From the start, Tiger!Shit!Tiger!Tiger! had my vote for best band name at SXSW. I had absolutely no knowledge of the band beyond the name, but we went to check them out figuring it would likely either be a very good show or a very bad one. The band turned out to be a very loud pop punk outfit, playing in the corner of a packed Irish pub. So packed, at first we listened to the set from the sidewalk through the open windows before we managed to make our way inside. The front of the pub was packed with revelers watching the band exuberantly make their way through a set which included not only the wall of noise but also antics from the lead singer, including jumping up on tables and singing half a song laying on his back after diving into the middle of the dance floor. It was the exactly the type of moment I wanted from SXSW, stumbling onto an unknown band playing a very good set.

And in another only at SXSW moment, the back room of the pub was almost entirely empty, except for a half-dozen people at the bar watching basketball on TV. It looked like the regulars were studiously ignoring the manic demonstration taking place in the front room of their bar.

20. Wye Oak, The Parish, 12 a.m.
Our main goal for the night was to see Wild Flag at the Parish, and we got there early enough to catch Wye Oak. The duo's set was strong, with elements of folk and alt-country, but yet again I found late in the night my aching feet got more of my attention than the band.

21. Wild Flag, The Parish, 12:45 a.m.
By the time Wild Flag came on I'd found a seat along the wall to catch our final set of the night. The all-female group, made up of former members of Sleater-Kinney and other bands, had earned a ton of hype coming into SXSW. The band had been together less than a year and had only released their first studio records in the days before SXSW, but the experience of its members gave it the polished chemistry of a long-established act. The heavy guitars and drums filled the Parish's large room, and as the final chords died out we decided the show was just the right end to the night.

SXSW wrapup, part II

Friday, March 18, 2011 (afternoon)

9. P.S. I Love You, Austin Convention Center Dot Com Day Stage, 3 p.m.
The only real added benefit to having artist rather than general fan wristbands was access to the convention aspect of SXSW, so we started Friday at the downtown convention center. In hindsight, a walk around the trade floor should have been in order to see what freebies were available, but we instead opted for more music. A few stages in the convention center are set up for bands to play short sets during the day. Kirsten had seen a review of P.S. I Love You which caught her eye, so we found the stage and took a seat.

This was quite possibly the strangest combination of act and venue I've ever seen. The stage was set up at the front of a semi-darkened convention room, with folding chairs set up in front and a few scattered tables near the back. Like any meeting room, the modular walls, sterile carpeting and overly-air conditioned air provided a sterile, corporate atmosphere. The two-piece band came on and filled the space with distorted noise-rock (which proved to be somewhat surprisingly good). As each song ended during the short set, the final strains faded away to polite clapping, then dead silence from the audience. Even the usual audience rustle was swallowed up by the deadening character of the room. The front man didn't even try to inject any banter, making the juxtaposition between the sprawling fuzz sounds of guitar and drums with the complete absence of response from the crowd the most odd and interesting part of the entire experience.

10. Felice Brothers, Austin Convention Center Radio Day Stage, 3:20 p.m.
P.S. I Love You's set was also the shortest - about 20 minutes - we saw at SXSW, giving us time to walk next door to the much larger Radio Day Stage room to catch the end of the Felice Brothers. The few songs were heard were agreeable alt-country, and there was an actual crowd of people in front of the stage enjoying the show. The room wasn't without it's own oddity, as the back of the room , completely unlit, was populated by bodies sprawled on large provided pillows catching some midday rest, turning whatever was being played into their own personal lullaby.

11. Unicorn Kid, Latitude 30
The afternoon's destination was the Scottish music showcase, chosen solely because I've found several Scottish bands agreeable (or great) over the past few years. None of them were playing this particular show, but I figured completely unknown Scottish bands beat any other completely unknown bands so we headed over. Upon arrival, we discovered another very big positive the show had going for it – free food and an open bar. The space was nearly packed when we arrived around 4 o'clock, with Unicorn Kid up on stage behind a laptop. The bleeps and beats created a dreamy electronica which wasn't too far out of place for an early afternoon bar several shades darker and cooler than the sun-drenched street outside.

12. Popup, Latitude 30
I was more concerned with making my way through the line for the taco bar and then grabbing a couple of drinks than listening closely during Popup's set. The band seemed notable mostly for having an attractive lead singer in a short skirt.

13. Rachel Sermanni, Latitude 30
A petite girl in a sundress took the stage with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, radiating the nervousness of a student at her first open-mic night, but there was nothing small or unassuming about the sound once she started singing. Rachel Sermanni was one of our best surprises at SXSW – her voice, tentative and shy in the banter, filled the room once she started singing, nicely complemented by her guitar, which on some notes she played with a near-percussive style to fill out the sound. Sermanni made the crowd stop and listen, not always an easy feat at an event where everyone is thinking ahead to the next band, the next party, the next stop.

14. King Creosote and Kid Canaveral, Latitude 30
King Creosote is a Scottish singer-songwriter who, according to Wikipedia, has released more than 40 albums – all in the last 13 years. This fact seems more notable than anything else about this show, where he was backed by the band Kid Canaveral. He seemed like a charming bloke, a guy you'd want to see come out to sing in a dark pub when you're having a few pints at the bar. This afternoon, though, the sound didn't grab me the way Rachel Sermanni had. The performance was fine enough, but by this time the food had been put away, the bar had started charging, and we were already trying to work out how to start the evening. We stuck around for the end of the set and wandered out into the late Austin afternoon.

SXSW wrapup, part I

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The actual music portion of our SXSW experience started relatively late in the afternoon. Our first taste of the festival was getting stuck in traffic around the convention center for 45 minutes looking for parking. We eventually found a garage (8th and Lavaca; although the signs posted everywhere informed us we'd need $5 exact change to leave after 8 p.m. - and $18 if we left earlier in the day – by the time we got back to the car at 1 a.m. the gates were open. There's your SXSW free parking tip.) and walked to the convention center to pick up wristbands. We didn't realize it until a couple hours later, but we ended up with artist bands due to somebody's confusion. A friend had access to free food and drink across the street at CNN's venue for the interactive portion, so socialization came before music.

Going into SXSW we'd made a loose schedule with several options for most time slots. Our first music decision was to head out to Homeslice Pizza to catch Trampled by Turtles, which turned out to be an excellent decision.

1. Apex Manor, Homeslice Pizza, 4 p.m.
We turned up during Apex Manor's set, which was fully acoustic and unamplified. Maybe 100 people were hanging out, which meant the sound didn't quite carry all the way to the back of the throng. Up front by the stage was fine, which was were we managed to situate ourselves. I remember almost nothing about this band. I know the vocals were hard to make out, and the playing (four guitars) was good. After this set, discovered Homeslice apparently didn't have a permit for noise, so they were forced to go unamplified for most of the afternoon. Or mostly unamplified.

2. Typhoon, Homeslice Pizza
I knew I was going to like this band before the first note. During the switchover, band members just kept appearing, a dozen all told, toting string cases, horn cases – even toy hand bells unpacked and set out by the keyboard player, who had to sit crouched at the edge of the crowded stage. The set didn't disappoint. Expansive sound, large-scale harmonies, moving from spare guitar+singer to full-on joyous; the band knew how to use its numbers to full effect, but was also smart enough to scale it down for moments of intimacy that made the full-throated sound all the richer. A couple microphones were set up for the vocals and guitars to balance the sound, the start of Homeslice's move back toward full amplification, but the band was forced to contend with the limitation of setup which only seemed to fit the revival aspects. This band was the first unknown discovery of our festival, and the only band we saw twice during our time in Austin. This movie captures the exact moment when I knew this week was going to be something to remember.

3. Ivan & Alyosha, Homeslice Pizza
Before going to SXSW, Kirsten and I put together loose schedules. We found bands we wanted to see or might want to see and checked what time they'd be playing around town. We went into the trip expecting these schedules would be loose guidelines to figure out where to go next, but knowing things would change on the fly and we were unlikely to see most of the bands we'd listed. This was, I think, exactly the right thing to do. I can't imagine wandering through the saturation of music that is SXSW without some sort of guide, and if we go back I would absolutely do this again. However, this did mean most of the bands we saw were bands we already knew. If I thought stumbling into random shows would always turn out as well as Homeslice, I would take a different approach. Perhaps going blindfolded. The back-to-back lineup of Typhoon and Ivan & Alyosha was one of the best one-two punches we saw, and it was all the better for being two bands previously completely unknown to us.
Ivan & Alyosha are five guys from Seattle whose indie-folk harmonies display a clear Fleet Foxes influence (I imagine you can't be a Seattle band without a Fleet Foxes influence one way or another right now). The emotion in the music was outstanding. I bought their EP as soon as we got home.

4. Great Lake Swimmers, Homeslice Pizza
I knew this band by reputation only. While I liked this show, my recollections have faded into the background of the week. All I can tell you is they mix guitar and strings (I didn't realize how prevalent violins have become in the indie rock scene – everybody has at least one string player). Sorry, Great Lake Swimmers. You were good, but not good enough to stand out in my music-saturated memory.

5. Trampled by Turtles, Homeslice Pizza, 7 p.m.
And really, the reason I can't remember anything about GLS is because Trampled by Turtles blasted the previous show right out of my brain. This band was the reason we were at the show to being with. I'd really only heard their single Wait So Long, which as a recording showcases the band's flaws: the tempo is too fast for the band, especially the vocalist, to handle. But it is also rollicking fun, and live all the weaknesses are buried by the sheer energy of it all. The band plays so hard at least three of the five members broke strings during the short set, replaced the string mid-song and jumped right back into the fray. The audience fed energy back to the band and this speed-grass set pumped out waves of ebullience. As it finished everyone wandered joyfully out into the sunset..

6. DeVotchKa, Lustre Pearl, 10 p.m.

We had no obvious destination for the evening, settling on the Lustre Pearl showcase mostly because we'd seen a write-up previewing the bands that morning which was fresh in our mind, and it seemed as good a destination as any. The decision paid off with the “gypsy-punk” of DeVotchKa. Their sound takes Latin dance music and blends it with roots and pop sensibilities to come up with something unique, along with the most eclectic instrumentation I've ever encountered. An upright bass was swapped for a sousaphone (decked with strings of lights); melodica featured in most songs; two different members played an accordion during the set; the drummer stepped out from the back to deliver an impressive trumpet solo. Add in a charismatic front man and rhythms that demand to be danced to, and you have perhaps the most original band I've seen in a long time.

7. Phantogram, Lustre Pearl, 11 p.m.
One of the few disappointments of the fest. The minimalist electronica reminded me of The XX, another group which underwhelmed live. At about this point I realized standing to watch shows all day left me with aching feet and a sore back.

8. Cold War Kids, Lustre Pearl, midnight
And about the time Cold War Kids came on, we decided it was time to call it a night. We stayed for the first couple songs and headed home, our fatigue getting the better of us.

South by Southwest

Last week Kirsten and I traveled to Austin for the South by Southwest music festival. It was the first SXSW for both of us, and after seeing 36 bands in three days (37 shows - we doubled up on one band) I want to capture my initial reactions to all of them. So I'm going to recap my SXSW experience, one band at a time, in a few posts the over the next couple of days.

A few tips based on our experience for anyone thinking of heading to Austin for SXSW:

* A badge/wristband isn't necessary, but if you can afford it, get one. Official showcases generally happen after 7 p.m. each night. During the day unofficial parties are everywhere, and just about any band that's playing the fest is going to be playing during the day. Just about every evening showcase has tickets available for people without a badge or wristband as well, although to get in you'll have to show up early and stay. Badges (full conference registration, several hundred dollars) have top priority. Wristbands (which we had) get you into any showcase for free, after badges have been admitted. We failed to get into only one show in three nights; the wristband generally allowed us to breeze right in and gave us the option of hopping from venue to venue all night. To get a wristband, however, you have to be an Austin resident or know an Austin resident.

* Have comfortable shoes. Standing on hard concrete floors in dozens of venues made my feet and back a wreck by the second night. I wasn't the only one; by the time I made a trip to CVS the footcare section had completely sold out.

* Make a schedule, but don't expect to keep it. We prepared by listening to samples of SXSW bands and reading previews, making notes of artists we'd like to see. We used that as a loose guide about where to go, but we also changed plans on the fly as we heard things we liked or ended up geographically unable to get somewhere in time. It allowed us to discover bands we wouldn't have otherwise seen.

* If you're thinking about going, go. I can't recommend the experience enough.