|
Music City
SXSW, once again, rises beyond the hype and makes room for the best of North Texas. 19.March.2007 “Bands, bands, bands, bands, bands, haircuts, bands, pants, bands, haircuts, laminates, beer, beer, beer, bands, bands...” On Thursday afternoon, Amy Millan rambled to test an on-stage microphone, hair and face obviously affected by the heat of the thick Emo’s crowd. A good number of folks on the floor had notebooks and pens ready to write about the Stars lead singer’s solo set, but the girl had to go and render their South By Southwest Music Festival write-ups moot.  Amy Millan On the surface, little more needs to be said about a 21-year-old fest that’s low on surprises. Take any write-up from the past few years, pump up the numbers and replace the standard celebrity names where appropriate--it’s four days of hundreds of bands from around the world...yet again. The only
surprise left is that the overblown, pretentious, hype-heavy ordeal is still
somehow relevant. Yet again, the fest ends with great memories, quality sleepers,
exceeded expectations and--it has to be said-- NX35, the
Denton-centric day-party curated by Chris Flemmons, made the best of the
opening afternoon on Wednesday (see THIS POST for more). It was easily the best
version of the Our city’s
best of the country/folk variety reaffirmed their must-see status as well. On Wednesday
night, The Theater Fire began a four-concert weekend with a set that I’d seen
more than a few times, only tweaking some horn arrangements, but “same ol’”
resulted in a resounding, almost alarming roar from the half-full crowd. On
Friday, meanwhile, Bosque Brown unveiled Becki Phares on fiddle and backing
vocals as a replacement for  Dallas' John Dufilho on the drums with the Apples in Stereo As for the rest, I didn’t concentrate so hard on following Dallas acts around this year--when rare sets from bands out of Chicago and Canada share competing timeslots with folks like Original Soul, and when the beatdown of hiking all over downtown Austin on foot sets in, something has to give, which means shindigs from the likes of Strategies of Beauty and Summer Break Records were, unfortunately, eschewed. But Dd associates made me feel awful for missing two sets in particular: The Drams, who busted out new songs at packed New West Records showcases for the first time in nearly a year of touring, and PPT, who turned a wide-eyed Will Johnson into a huge new fan after their incredibly energetic, well-attended showcase. (Wish he’d seen Thesis’ opening set as well, who I had to skip because she ran late on her timeslot.) There’s one
big To his
credit, the man had his finger on many of my favorites this fest. For starters,
my biggest SXSW “discovery” had been on his site for over six months: Also on Cantalini’s list were two great Austin bands from different worlds--White Denim, an old Dd fave who astonished yet another crowd this weekend with wild, Apollo Theatre-tinged garage-rock, and Ola Podrida, a quickly rising country-rock outfit who may stumble upon a whole bunch of positive Band of Horses and Micah P. Hinson comparisons if their self-titled record out next month is any indication. And the GvB list keeps going with more of my old faves--the shape-shifting musical savant Dirty Projectors, the red-faced Canadian passion-pop of Frog Eyes, the bop-jazz inflicted nerd symphonies of Menomena...the Dallas boy picked good this year. Not that I
didn’t stumble upon some incredible stuff all by my lonesomes as well; Chicago’s
The 1900’s win the Dd Band of the Fest award, a classic-rock tinged jangle-rama
full of keyboards, fiddles, backing vocals and incredibly sharp songwriting.
Fellow Chicagoans The Changes put their own distinctive stamp on the pop genre,
like a livelier Aloha, and the  The 1900's Another huge chunk of my highlights list is thanks to Noah Bailey, the music genius at the Dallas Observer who I attended many a set with. Assuming he gets the space in this coming issue, he’ll have plenty to say about sets from country genius Jim White, Pink Mountaintops-y blasters Arboretum, Houston songwriting great Bill Callahan (with Joanna Newsom guesting on grand piano) and, I’d imagine, at least a few kind words about freakin’ Donovan performing an acoustic set at the Central Presbyterian Church. It’s easy to get lost listing the moments at a given SXSW, from the great (Lambchop not only making a rare appearance but enlisting a string quartet for their set) to the bizarre (Adult Swim stars Tim & Eric putting on a puke-filled comedy show) to the awful (infamous recluse Jandek playing the worst concert in human history, assuming you were sober). That list could go on for another page or so (and I have to at least mention Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, the most entertaining act at the whole fest), but really, the biggest surprise is just how easy it was to get lost--days of pre-fest schedule-scanning make the ordeal seem like too much trouble before it starts, but by the end, the stories, memories and great new bands pile up. Ears are blown, legs are Jell-O, heads are scrambled and all swear they’re too old for this shit.  I met Robyn Hitchcock, and nobody cares but me. But as an avid concertgoing Dallasite, it’s hard not to look around at barren shows in our fair city and wonder when I can get back to a 20-block radius packed with people who actually want to see quality music. Bands, bands, bands, bands, bands, bands, bands...sounds good to me.  |