Friday, March 14, 2008

SXSW 2008: Day Two (Thursday)

Ok, so the shoes make all the difference. Man, switching to the running shoes and now my feet don't feel like someone took a hammer to them.

We started out the day kinda roughly, hitting the convention trade show in the attempt to score an invite to the SPIN day party on Friday. Got shut out there. Then I had an uncomfortable but brief conversation with someone from Sound Exchange regarding internet radio royalties.

She: We think that broadcast radio should have to pay too, so that you aren't the only ones.
Me: I think that artists get a ton of free exposure from all the free airtime that we give up to play their songs. If you impose more costs, you'll only drive more stations, broadcast and internet, off the air.

Guess we'll agree to disagree.

One of the cool things about SXSW is that you never know who you'll walk around the corner and see. As we walked through the displays, the unmistakably-tall Thurston Moore was standing there. Laurie just stared but wouldn't let me take a picture...

Shut out of the SPIN gig, we decide to try to catch Vampire Weekend playing at a daytime gig over at the Parish. When we get there, no one is getting in because it's VIP-only. Shit. Time for Plan C...

We walk over to Emo's to see Tokyo Police Club, but get there to find a long line mixed with badgeholders and those smart folks that have figured out that daytime is the best time to see everyone for free. It's way too long, we'll never get in and with magical powers of our badges temporarily defeated, I'm frustrated and hungry. It's time for a reassessment of the schedule over an early dinner...

4PM and zero bands for the day makes me pretty grumpy. Over barfood served by a too-busy-for-decent-service waitress, we decide that the best approach may be to find a good lineup and hunker down for the night. The pick is Cedar Street Courtyard, but before we go there, Laurie wants to see Sia at 6 pm. Sounds good to me..

We head over to the convention center, where Direct TV is shooting shows in two side-by-side sets in the same big convention-sized room. Getting there early, we're allowed in to watch the Martha Wainwright set. Yeah, yeah... Rufus, Loudon, blah, blah, I know... I can't help but wonder if she'd have the balls to play "Bloody Motherfucking Asshole" from the 2004 EP of the same name. But the set is polite. Way too polite. Between songs, she jokes about the downbeat nature of her songs, then stops likely because of the setting and corrects herself with a "life is good" which she amends to "life is what it is" before heading into a song about a friend's suicide.

By contrast, Sia is all sunshine. The band comes on stage in black light & neon smiley costumes and the crowd waves the glowsticks handed to them as they entered the set. But it's not all about gimmicks. This Aussie chick can sing. She has a huge voice and I expect her to be big. The set moves by in a blur, Sia flashes the audience heart shapes made with her hands together and she's gone. Add this one to the shopping list...

Now we're off to Cedar Street Courtyard, which we discover is famous for having over 150 different kinds of vodka. The night is looking up...

After a couple of Red Bull and vodka selected by our barkeep (Snow Queen is a keeper), we're ready for Islands, an indie pop band from Canada. It's pretty standard indie fare. Neither bad nor great, probably not on the shopping list although briefly considered.

Next up, the demented world of Tim Fite. Where do I even begin? Unlike anyone else, Fite is some combination of street preacher, fun-house ride, stand-up comic, life coach and performance artist, with some great songs thrown in-between the spectacle. It's just him and another guy, unless you count the band of Tim Fites projected on a screen and performing in sync with him as he rips through songs like "Big Mistake" from his upcoming CD (already in rotation on Musical Justice). In between songs, he leads audience participation teaching the crowd to sing along while encouraging them to burn down everything they see. Fite's amazing... if you ever have the chance to see him, go. Another one for the shopping list...

Try as I might, I'm having a tough time mustering much excitement for the 3 bands at Cedar Street that stand between us and the closer, Billy Bragg. So it's off to Stubbs in hopes of seeing Alejandro Escovedo. We get there in time to catch the end of Mason Jennings' set which was competent but unremarkable singer-songwriter fare. Might have been ok opening for another act somewhere else, but not here today.

Not surprisingly, Stubbs is about 60% full for Alejandro's set. He's been playing a Tuesday night residency at the Continental Club so the locals can see him whenever they want. But man, what a treat for us out-of-towners. Alejandro rocked louder and harder than anyone we've seen and could have given Van the Man some lessons on bringing energy to the set.

In addition to the typical favorites like "Castanets" and "Everybody Loves Me", Escovedo did a healthy chunk from his upcoming CD, Real Animal. Especially impressive was the title track, a tribute to Iggy Pop, which captures Pop's fury with Alejandro standing at the mike, no guitar (a rarity) and stalking the stage like a young punk rocker. Al's looking great too. This set made me very happy on a number of levels and I can't wait to hear the rest of the new CD.

Since Stubbs' was way under capacity and there was no line waiting to get in, we decided to wander down the street to see if we could get into the Mohawk Patio to see Jens Lekman and Black Mountain. Once again, the badge parted the seas of people around the entrance and we pretty much walked right in... to the worst venue that we've been in this trip.

I don't think this place is a full time music venue. The stage was so low, that it took one entire song to realize that a seated Bon Iver was still doing their set. I just thought that "Skinny Love" was background music until people started applauding at the end. Their set was low-energy (seated) and not all that interesting. Yawn.

The area around the stage was packed to the point of just being really uncomfortable. The stage appeared to be about waist-high off the ground so unless you were in the front 8-10 feet you couldn't see much of anything. There was a raised deck/patio surrounding the courtyard area where the stage and most of the people were, so we went up there and found out that the place was huge. Unfortunately, that only added to the problem since it expanded the capacity of the place without really giving many people a decent view of the stage. A pretty shitty place to see live music in spite of its' local reputation.

By the time Lekman hit the stage, we had worked our way into a little perch where we could see the stage. Jens put on an entertaining, well-received set. It was pretty clear that much of the audience was there for him, applauding in recognition as their favorites played... "The Opposite of Hallelujah", "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill". I wasn't sure how good he'd be live, but I left thinking that I need to play these songs more than I have and buy more than the singles off iTunes...

So, what is it with bands playing at 1 AM and taking 40 minutes to set up? By the time Black Mountain started 30 minutes late at 1:30 AM, they'd only have 30 minutes to play since Austin shuts it down at 2. Musically, the band feels like a cross between Led Zeppelin and X. I'm still trying to figure out if that works for me. Last night, I wasn't overwhelmed but maybe it's just not my thing.

Walking back to the car, sure enough, another big rockstar bus in front of the Cedar Door. Who was it tonight? Scrambling for our schedule... it's Bowling for Soup. We peek in and this time, instead of the 36 people listening to Bo Bice like last night, there's a full house listening to them close out their set with the hit, 1985. Go figure...

Here are the day's grades...

Grades: Wainwright C, Sia A, Islands B-, Tim Fite A-, Alejandro A, Bon Iver C- (The Mohawk Lounge F), Jens Lekman B+, Black Mountain B-, Bowling For Soup I (Incomplete)

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