SXSW (Saturday): Mess With Texas Party @ Waterloo Park; AIDS Wolf, Clipd Beaks, HEALTH
Various; Austin, TX
- {Mess With Texas Party @ Waterloo Park}
Aside from the staggering lineup of bands, the most remarkable feature about SXSW is that nearly every band performs in a small, intimate venue. That’s why yesterday’s Mess with Texas party at Waterloo Park was such a nice change of pace. With two outdoor stages, dozens of bands, thousands of stinky people, and not nearly enough porta-johns to accommodate everyone, Mess with Texas looked like a proper summer festival in its own right. But nay, it was just one of many things going on that day -- plus it was fucking free. That’s right, ya’ll. The Black Lips, Akron/Family, Cut Off Your Hands, Japanther, Soft Pack, Cursive, King Khan, and many, many more, completely gratis (and those bands I mentioned are just the ones I didn’t see). So remember, kids, if you’re thinking about coming to SXSW next year, don’t fret too much about the cost, because all of the shit that happens during the day is free of fucking charge. Well, except for beer and tacos, and you’re going to be spending a lot of cash on beer and tacos, so I guess it all evens out in the end.
The first thing I heard once I stepped through the gate was {Abe Vigoda} cranking through “Dead City/Waste Wilderness,” the opening track on last year’s sublime Skeletons. I figured, hell yes they’re starting at the beginning and I’d gotten there just in time to catch their whole set, but right after they followed up with “Cranes” (Or was it “Bear Face?” Sorry, I’m a bad journalist); they winded out the show with Skeleton’s title/closing track and said goodbye. Since my Abe Vigoda experience was so abbreviated, all I can basically say is that the songs sounded like they did on the album, and I like the album, so I liked the songs they performed and that unfortunately is how descriptive this stupid review gets.
I fucking saw {Vivian Girls} again and they covered “So Bored” by Wavves. For as much spew-inducing meta-hype that that cover unleashed into our poor atmosphere, I somehow succeeded in keeping my lunch down and later on I even managed to reward my stable stomach with some delicious, delicious funnel cake. Keep that little lesson in the back your mind, America: Whenever your body decides not to throw up, pay it back with deep fried cake batter. Don’t be surprised when you puke all over yourself later, though.
I caught {The Thermals} next, and they were ehhhh okay. At big wide outdoor events like this one, it’s hard to accurately capture some bands’ “real” sound. Sure, there’s a certain charm in the slightly invasive commotion of an outdoor show. The chirping birds, roaring highways, and constant stream of pounding helicopters (the park is across the street from a big hospital) all add to the concert’s open mood, but there are some bands that are meant for concrete-walled clubs and cramped basements free of nature’s din. The Thermals are one of those bands. The unsheltered aura of the park’s wide main stage dulled the band’s normally sharp pop and overran their punk attitude completely. It’s possible The Thermals could have excelled at the show’s smaller second stage.
After The Thermals, I saw {Crystal Antlers} tear the side stage a new one, even though like The Thermals they’d probably be more at home on in a bar or house show or the trunk of a car or some shit like that. Playing in a dusty knoll half the size of the main field made all the difference for Crystal Antlers, the tighter setup allowing their guitars to chime and their drums to thunder without interference. The vocals still got lost somewhere in the air, but overall Crystal Antlers more or less achieved their potential and made America a better place for future generations.
Okay, let’s cut this bullshit griping about stages and get to the real deal: Have you ever seen a hairy Israeli man shove a microphone up his ass while balancing perfectly on a crowd-surfing bass drum? Well, I saw Ami Shalev of {Monotonix} do exactly that, and as you would expect it was fucking astonishing. The cavemen of Tel Aviv’s Monotonix are capable of Olympian feats of rock and roll jackassery, from spiderly scaling of the stage’s supports to having the audience hold all the drums (except the hi-hat) and the fucking drummer in the fucking air while he keeps a flawless beat. And the music ain’t bad either, a Zeppelin-ish brand of easy greasy riffs and chomping drums that drives simply through all the madness on and off the stage. This is music that was meant for an arena or a packed city block or angry protest or really anywhere with a huge crowd and shit to climb on. In short, Monotonix is anarchic, silly, and they play in their underpants. Mmm hmm, that’s just the type of band I like to snuggle up in bed with and give soft pats on the rump. Sorry, I’m really tired.
After my disappointing experience with The Dicks, I was a bit wary about seeing {Circle Jerks}. I was afraid they’d just be another pack of sad old men trying their best to recapture their glory days, but bless my stars I was dead wrong. Circle Jerks haven’t lost an ounce of power in the last 25 or so years, thanks primarily to their 8 years of practice after reforming in 2001 and Greg Hetson’s tireless ability on guitar. Keith Morris has held together pretty well, too; his voice only lacks the adolescent smarminess of his younger days. Circle Jerks packed in around 25 or so tunes in their 40-minute set, hitting highlights like “In Your Eyes” and “Beverly Hills” as quick and controlled as in their prime. Along with CJ’s own golden shower of hits, they found time for two Black Flag classics, “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and “Depression,” which nearly sent me screaming into the mosh pit until I remembered I really don’t like getting bonked on the head a bunch by angry, sweaty men, so I wisely sat it out but still thought it was a fine rock ‘n’ roll show performed well by great men of God.
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- {AIDS Wolf, Clipd Beaks, and HEALTH @ Mohawk}
Throughout the festival, I’ve spent my nights switching from venue to venue to see as many different bands as possible. But now I am tired. My feet hurt. There are blisters and there are cuts and there are hangovers. So, yesterday I decided to stay at Mohawk all night and just get my ass kicked all at one place. Actually that’s not completely true; at 11 PM, I walked 500 miles (DERP) to see The Proclaimers play at the Hilton, but they were full up before I got there. Except for that detour, though, I kept my ass planted at Mohawk and saw {AIDS Wolf}, {Clipd Beaks}, and {HEALTH}. All three were loud, confrontational, and exhausting. I was already feeling pretty burnt out from SXSW overload before I got there, but after that show, I think I’ve seen it all, and now I can go home. I can’t really even give a good description of each band since the entire show was like getting smashed in the back of the neck with an anvil, but in a really good way. I didn’t even stick around to see Monotonix play again, even though I was really curious to see what they could do in a small venue. I was/am just too tired. It was a very good noise show, and I had a very good time at the whole festival -- but box me up and ship me home to mama: I’m spent.
SXSW (Friday): Beach House, Mi Ami, P.O.S., Silver Apples
Various; Austin, TX
After waiting for an hour to see The Sonics, Emo’s ended up filling to capacity long before my queue moved an inch. As a part of my contingency plan, I headed to Cedar Creek Courtyard to see {Beach House}, thus ensuring that all my disappointment about missing The Sonics would be increased tenfold by Beach House’s aching dreariness. Right off the bat, they aimed for the Charlie Browns by opening with “Gila,” which succeeded in not only amplifying my dismay about The Sonics, but also about the general direction of my life as a whole. Should I just stop kidding myself about getting a job and go to grad school? Have I let anyone down recently, and if so will they come seeking retribution? How many years did I shave off my life this week by living on a diet based solely on sausages and beer? But as the show went on, my worries went by the wayside, and Beach House actually got pretty upbeat. Victoria Legrand’s normally shaky voice/synth combo stiffened up a bit, and Alex Scally’s guitar went down a tick on the eeriness scale. It also helped that their live mix isn’t nearly as low as on their records. Coupled with a clever selection of tunes mainly from their self-titled debut with a few Devotion highlights sprinkled in, Beach House turned what I thought would be a sulky frown parade into an impressive live performance.
I swung on over to the Touch and Go/Quarterstick showcase at the Flamingo Cantina for D.C. to San Fran transplants {Mi Ami}. Although they appear to be a standard punk power trio set piece of guitar, bass, and drums, in reality Mi Ami is a one-man show. Daniel Martin-McCormick (a member of Black Eyes along with Mi Ami’s bassist) dazzles with lightning-quick transitions from reverb-drenched dubbery to Bad Brains-style shrieking and shredding. His astounding falsetto makes Trail of Dead’s Keely sound like Tom Waits, while his fretwork ate through my ears like termite through a Dixie cup. The drums and bass competently kept pace with Martin-McCormick, but it would be all the same if they weren’t there in the first place. This is Danny-boy’s show, and he fucking punishes it.
I’m fairly ignorant to the ways of live hip-hop, so last night I sought to educate myself by going to see Minneapolis’ {P.O.S.} at the Independent Label Group showcase. I like his new record Never Better, even if I haven’t properly digested it yet. Still, walking into the show I felt like I knew his work well enough to know what to expect. The show that transpired was 10 times as raucous as the one I had envisioned. First of all, I don’t think even P.O.S. had expected such a huge turnout of devoted fans who sang along every word. P.O.S. would crank them out quick and hard and the crowd would send him the same rhymes flying right back at him. P.O.S. wisely used the dedicated company of fans to his advantage, spellbinding the audience with countless hand-wagging instigations and by dropping line after line out of his rhymes only to hear the crowd fill in the blanks. Besides being a master showman, P.O.S. keeps his raps on task with solid beats and intricate rhymes. Damn, I need to get my ass to more hip-hop shows.
As far as I’m concerned, Europe receives too much credit for their part in pioneering electronic music. Granted, from Kraftwerk to Eno, the continent did have a lion’s share of trailblazers, but before any of them had so much as smelled a synthesizer, Americans like {Silver Apples} were fashioning a whole new breed of electronic experimentation as early as 1967. Last night, Silver Apples’ inimitable Simeon, who came out of retirement in 1996, played a set for the Ponderosa Stomp Revue at the Continental. Classics like “Misty Mountain,” “Lovefingers,” and “Little Things” sounded just as bizarre in 2009 as I’m sure they did in the ’60s, as Simeon coaxed the most unusual pulsations out of three simple boxes and a tiny synthesizer. In the ’60s, Simeon cleverly dubbed his cadre of self-made electronic instruments “The Simeon,” and I had always imagined it as a gigantic series of colorful tubes, not unlike a hamster habitat or the internet. Instead, there were just three little boxes and this strange, skinny man singing Tolkien-esque lyrics while a hundred or so drunks looked really confused. I wouldn’t classify his performance as particularly exciting (knob-twiddling and button-pushing electronica shows rarely are), but as a big Silver Apples fan I couldn’t help but just geek the fuck out when he played “A Pox on You” or closed with “Oscillations.” Although four decades have passed, Simeon’s voice and prowess at electronic canoodling has not suffered one bit. He sounded identical last night as he did on Silver Apples’ self-titled or Contact, and even though a little bit of improvisation here or there would have been a welcome change to the same old groove, it’s still a joy just to see how Simeon actually made those sounds so many years ago.
SXSW (Friday): Parenthetical Girls, Future of the Left, Trail of Dead, Third Eye Blind
Various; Austin, TX
At SXSW, you shall never want for geeks or snobs, but I doubt you will find them in more abundance than at The Onion/A.V. Club/Decider Par-Tay. Held in the afternoon at the Radio Room, I only managed to catch a couple bands, the first being {Parenthetical Girls}. Another hapless victim crushed by the gears of the SXSW hype machine, Parenthetical Girls were dull, dull, dull. Comprised of a violinist, vocalist, drummist, and synthesizist, Parenthetical Girls sulked their way through a room-clearing set of forlorn tunes. As obvious enthusiasts of Morrissey’s and The Arcade Fire’s worst qualities, most of the crowd chose to emigrate to Ra Ra Riot on the decidedly more upbeat outside stage than stick around for this mopefest. Perhaps if Parenthetical Girls played closer to the evening, or better yet closer to a Noam Chomsky lecture or a television stuck on C-SPAN 2, the mood would have been more appropriate -- but come on, this is The Onion, dammit! Bring on the fun!
The powers that be tried exactly that by trotting out some hapless comedian after Parenthetical Girls. I can’t recall the comedian’s name, but god bless whoever he was for trying his best to follow the most dour opening act in history. Rather than catch the ass end of Ra Ra Riot after the comedian, I stuck around inside to see {Future of the Left} again. They were just as intensely affable as they were last time, when perhaps I was a bit too unfair to compare them so much with mclusky. I reckon that’s just residual bitterness on account of major mclusky withdrawal, but one of these days when I grow up and get over the fact that mclusky are no more, I’ll be able to enjoy Future of the Left for what they are. That day is not today, though.
I sauntered outside for a trip into my past with {And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead…} I’ve basically ignored every Trail of Dead release since 2002’s Source Tags & Codes, so I wanted to see if I was missing out on any mind-blowing new material. It turns out I am not. Gone were the ripples of melody and tidal waves of confrontational sonic blasts I had so enjoyed so much in high school, replaced by what appeared to be just a normal hardcore band. Conrad Keely can still belt out a raw one with his often holstered but still sharp falsetto, but other than that, the songs didn’t hold much water. Victims of the hype system before it was even fashionable, it’s hard not to watch Trail of Dead without expecting the life-altering experience promised by so many others. But once Trail of Dead is stripped of all the excess pretensions heaped upon the band through no fault of their own, what’s left is just a pretty okay punk band, and that’s the way it should be.
So, I saw {Third Eye fucking Blind}. Two British gentlemen, who obviously knew long before I did that this was to be the funniest decision either of them would ever make in their entire lives, dragged me to the convention center for what was to be the funniest decision I would ever made in my entire life. The queue for the show was enormous, which only fueled the fire of perhaps Third Eye Blind’s most pathetic characteristic – they still think they’re famous. Most people at the back of the crowd were there for the same ironic reasons as me, but a loyal contingent of Third Eye diehards encouraged the fantasy by sincerely dancing and singing along with every stupid song. Actually, probably Third Eye Blind’s most pathetic hallmark is that lead singer Stephan Jenkins is somehow under the impression that he’s incredibly witty. And why shouldn’t he think that? He croons in one song, “Are you real to me, or are you just non-dairy creamer?” A positively cutting remark with smacks of Wilde. In another song, he laments about how his ex-girlfriend loved her shower massager more than she loved him. Ah yes, an eternal subject that flourishes with the romantic grace of a John Donne or perchance a Bret Michaels. Still, for all their clueless attempts at poignancy, I heartily admit to singing every fucking word of “Jumper,” taking me back to those salad days of Catholic grade school when my only worries were choking down my Lunchable and getting called “faggot” a lot. I do not miss the past.
SXSW (Friday): Hungarian Indie Rock/Islamic Metal and Rap
Club 115; Austin TX
If you really work it at SXSW, you can walk five square blocks and see the same handful artists about 10 times a day. Despite the fact that I had declared Friday night as the most consistently good night of this festival week, I figured I would go see something that I will never see again in my life: a showcase featuring two popular Hungarian "indie" bands, an Iranian speed metal act, and a Palestinian rap crew.
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- {Supersonic}
I strolled into Club 115 and first checked out Supersonic's gig. If the name weren't enough to give it away, Supersonic were a tad trad-rock in their approach. At least the Budapest quartet think big: Oasis and U2 can be heard in their stadium-sounding rock. And it is done well, in spite of its somewhat derivative nature. After a long and confusing soundcheck, the band revved into gear and singer Balazs worked the front of the stage and his tambourine with the sass of a less ambivalent Liam Gallagher (he was noticeably happy to be playing here), and despite hitting the stage early, they made a few fast friends who could barely contain their excitement with meeting the band.
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- {The Moog}
Budapest may be close to 6,000 miles from Austin, but to think it is a cultural wasteland would be a mistake. While The Moog went to great lengths in making themselves presentable in an English dandy sort of way, their music plays around the same park as popular "alternative" U.S. acts like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Green Day, but more melodic and less pretend-dark-and-disturbed (I won't include Green Day in that last statement; they know a good melody when they steal one). With Buzzcocks-sounding intros and fuzzy pop bodies, the band displayed confidence with each song they performed, and although they write a decent but generic brand of pop-rock, it would sell millions if marketed properly. More important than anything important like their music, they have a Fucking star with a capital F in lead singer Tonyo, who struts, preens, and confronts with the best of them. If The Moog were based in L.A., Tonyo would be sharing face time on mag covers with Mssrs. Wentz and Jonas. That's not speculation; that's fact.
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- {TarantisT}
While the Hungarian bands did not exactly break my realm of expectation, neither did TarantisT, but that is only because I saw precisely what I expected to see: a loud, fast, great thrash trio. You think you've had travel hiccups? TarantisT's story is one of struggle and ultimate triumph, with the bonding power of music. The Tehranian speed metal godz were booked to play Austin two years ago but were denied travel visas. Last year, they got their travel visas but were told they had to apply for a special travel permits from Dubai. They did, and they arrived, one day AFTER their scheduled show at SXSW. So, they did what any desperate band would do: they came over anyway and stayed in the U.S. playing some shows until the Iranian army threatened imprisonment if they did not return to their homeland. Throw in a few more visa problems along the way and, long story longer, TarantisT made it back to Austin to finally play a show at SXSW. Having only enough time to rehearse a small handful of songs with a quickly-assembled lineup (again, army, visa, and availability problems), the band nonetheless snapped the eardrums of every patron in the small club with rapid shots of thrash. The crowd treated the band like heroes, and bassist and singer Arash Rahbary had a grin on his face most of the night, except when he was screaming out evil in a deathly serious fashion. The smile returned often though, even when brokenly belting out the universal call-to-arms, "Is the pit ready?"
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- {Palestinian Rapperz}
There is no real sense of mystery to a band called Palestinian Rapperz, is there? Well, yes and no. For starters, there wasn't the plural Rapperz on stage tonight, only the quick-tongued frontman Mohammed Al-Farra. Rapping in front of a makeshift band of local musicians who provided suitable funk backing, Al-Farra delivered socially relevant and intensely personal rhymes. Punching a keffiyeh-covered fist in the air for a good chunk of the set, the Rapperz' leader held court on political hotpoints and goaded the audience into joining in the celebration. A keffiyeh-clad female guest jumped up on stage to trade off with Al-Farra during a track that the two of them, plus band, wrote and rehearsed in a few hours earlier in the day. Musically, the band played up catchy backdrops for Al-Farra's lines using a standard setup of guitar, bass, drums, and organ -- and while effective, it was rather run-of-the-mill. Lyrically, though, very few true gangsters can compare their thug lives to writing abut Israeli occupation, war-torn home neighborhoods, daily survival, questions concerning the state of human rights and racial stereotyping. Judging by the crowd of Americans completely losing their shit and chanting back pro-Palestine slogans, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more people wearing the keffiyeh. If they do choose to take a side on this slippery social and political statement fence, hopefully it will be after lengthy conscious deliberation instead of wearing something as a meaningless, empty-headed fashion accessory.
On Friday, there wasn't a lot of things I haven't heard before, but that is the case with most bands from anyplace you could name. At least tonight, the song may have remained the same, but the story was always different.
SXSW (Friday): Touch & Go/Quarterstick Showcase
Flamingo Cantina; Austin, TX
I was so excited to see Crystal Antlers. First, I went to Emo's and noticed the very young crowd around me. I decided to look at the opener list and thought, “Loney Dear? That doesn't go so well with dark noise rock.” THEN I realized I'd read my pocket guide too quickly and ended up at the wrong Crystals show. I wanted Crystal Antlers, not Crystal Stilts. Luckily, this is not CMJ, so I didn't have to take a half-hour subway ride and simply walked up the street to Flamingo Cantina. Oops.
- {Mi Ami}
As you know, many mourned the demise of Touch & Go's distribution arm, which served great indie labels like Kill Rock Stars, Merge, and Suicide Squeeze. However, the label itself is still alive and well, as evidenced by the rock-solid wall of brilliantly chaotic music I heard last night. I arrived in time for Mi Ami, a punk/noise trio from San Francisco made up of two-thirds of Dischord's Black Eyes (Daniel Martin-McCormick on vocals and guitar, and Jacob Long on bass). Their real secret, however, lies within drummer Damon Palermo, who, along with Long, brings structure to the psychedelic primal whirlwind created by Martin-McCormick's high-pitched, delightfully crazed wailing and gorgeously fractured guitar arias. Martin-McCormick positively sashayed across the stage in bare feet, and the overall result was deliciously hypnotic.
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- {Sholi}
Sholi continue the trend of ridiculously talented drummers, playing in towards each other rather than to the audience for the majority of their set. “I hope you guys still have some small amount of room left in your brains for music this week,” says singer/guitarist Payam Bavafa. Somehow, though, Sholi's pleasant harmonies and pretty guitar lines seem a little too easy and predictable after witnessing a steamroller like Mi Ami, though it seems like drummer Jonathon Bafus is trying to derail this train in the best way possible. Finishing up with a ’70s cover of a band whose name I can't make out, Bavafa's gentle croon fits the song's mood perfectly, punctuated by vibraphone. This set calmed me down too much, so I eagerly await the next.
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- {All The Saints}
Holy shit, I got what I asked for. All The Saints turn out the lights and turn on a fluorescent floor lamp, illuminating drummer Jim Crook's kit. Almost immediately, I'm lulled into a trance by a dark, repetitive bass line and ghostly, otherworldly vocals howling over impossibly complex guitars. I want to wrap myself in a blanket and listen to this band at a deafening volume. Singer/guitarist Matt Lambert quips, “We were manufactured by Touch & Go. We were once called King Khan & the Shrines, but I was too self-conscious to wear a _____.” I couldn't make out that last word, but you can probably guess what he was getting at, given Khan's getups. My head is absolutely swimming with sonic overload at the conclusion of their set, and I sit motionless as the room begins to fill up for the Crystal Antlers.
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- {Crystal Antlers}
Crystal Antlers drummer Kevin Stuart does calisthenics before their set, which proves to be completely necessary when the band launches into its ’60s-inspired whirling dervish of creepy, sweeping insanity. “Can we get some more Silly String in the monitors?” is a response to the crowd, who lose their shit and, yes, spray Silly String on the ceiling, the band, the monitors, themselves, etc. Somehow, though, this band is not doing it for me the way Mi Ami and All the Saints did. I'm in the mood for dark, brooding, and breathless -- and while the Crystal Antlers are certainly working hard, I can't muster the energy to get as excited as the pulsating room. Don't listen to me, though; I'm an old lady who can't handle 1 AM rock shows, and had I consumed a few Red Bulls, I'm sure I would have been right up front pretending to be in a 1960s spy movie with the rest of the kids.
SXSW (Friday): Insound Day Party
Club DeVille; Austin, TX
How to skip a huge line at a show: pretend you're a roadie and act like you know what the fuck you're doing. Thanks dude, you know who you are.
{The Thermals} are playing a million shows this week, and I made it my business to catch at least one of them. This band changes drummers more often than socks (unless you're bassist Kathy Foster, who went barefoot for this set), and Westin Glass has since replaced Lorin Coleman for the band's first album on Kill Rock Stars, Now We Can See. Club DeVille's outside stage area was completely packed with surprisingly respectful fans who nodded in agreement when Foster observed the crowd and stated, “Headbanging is better than drinking!” IMHO, standout moments were “Returning to the Fold” from 2006's The Body, The Blood, The Machine and brandy-dandy new track “Now We Can See” from the upcoming album, Now We Can See. That “whoa-oa” chorus works out quite nicely at a live show, wouldn't you know it? Really, though, the Thermals sound the same no matter what medium you've got them in: airtight and ass-kicking.
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As usual, {The Hold Steady} killed it, which we discussed yesterday, so I'll just say that today's set was one for older fans, and I appreciated it more than you know. I danced and did a lot of pointing. Here's a pic:
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Since every WIN must be accompanied by a FAIL, my lack of geographical knowledge caused me to completely miss the Bloodshot Records party, so I'll make it up to you tonight, y'all.
