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SXSW Diary, March 15-19, 2006
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FRIDAY MARCH 17
I'd planned to start my day earlier, maybe catch
Dressy Bessy who I love, Billy Bragg, maybe
pop in to the Chrissie Hynde interview at the
Convention Center, but having gotten in well
after 3am, it was late when I regained consciousness.
Peter Case's significant other Denise Sullivan
(a talented writer, whose last book about The
White Stripes: Sweethearts of the Blues I highly
recommend) had now joined us at my house. I
split before everyone else was up and dressed,
tho, because I wanted time to eat at Threadgill's
before Magic Christian played at the Burnside
Distribution party at 1:40pm on the outdoors
stage there. Magic Christian are a band we'd
really wanted to get to play at SXSW, but we
didn't know how to reach 'em. The band are Cyril
Jordan (Flamin' Groovies guitarist/songwriter),
Prairie Prince on drums (Tubes, Todd, New Cars),
Alec Palao on bass (a British expatriate living
in the Bay area who's curated boxed sets by
bands we love like The Zombies and the Beau
Brummels), and on vocals, Paul Kopf (who puts
on the Baypop festival in SF every year).
On Peter Case's fervent recommendation (Peter
and Cyril have been talking about doing a part-time
band together), I bought their CD last year.
Threadgill's outside stage, mere hundreds of
yards from where the beloved Armadillo World
Headquarters was located (it was razed 4 months
before I moved to Austin in 1981) is a really
cool place to see live music, and it was a lovely,
cloudy cool day. The Flamin' Groovies are one
of my favorite bands of all time, and they've
never played a show I knew about within 500
miles of anywhere I've ever lived. So this was
probably my #1 most anticipated gig. Burnside
put out our Ronnie Lane Live in Austin CD back
in 2000, and my partner in that, Jim Bradt,
was in (unannounced as usual) from Minneapolis,
so they were there, along with Peter & Denise,
Art and his rockabilly friend Jenny. The set
was fantastic, highlighted by both sides of
their new single (my favorite song of 2006 so
far, "Turn Up The Heat," a 2-song
CD single I bought from 'em (why the fuck I
didn't get it signed, double doh!). Best $10
I've spent all year (tho my $10 change seems
to have blown away in the parking lot when I
pulled the single out of my pocket to put it
in my car, so lemme rephrase that to best $10
song I've bought all year -- worth every penny,
too!). They also played many of the best tracks
from their website-only release last year (go
here and buy it now! http://www.magicchristian.net),
along with a couple of covers, The Stones' "Gotta
Get Away" and the Beatles "Things
We Said Today." They closed with "Shake
Some Action," the Groovies' masterpiece.
Manohman, I saw Sal Valentino sing "Laugh
Laugh," heard Richie Furay sing all the
Springfield's best, and now this! I could've
died happy at this point. Lead singer Paul Kopf
is a great frontman, very reminiscent of the
Chocolate Watch Band's Dave Aguilar in Riot
on Sunset Strip. Hopefully next year they'll
have a better publicized and attended 'real'
SXSW gig. They're on of the best bands around.
Next up was the fabulous Walter Clevenger and
the Dairy Kings, a PCP favorite act that I've
known about for years since a pal in Houston
released Walter's first CD back in the '90s.
Clevenger's always been compared to Nick Lowe
(done that myself, in fact), and so last fall
he released the brilliant Lowe Profile: A Tribute
to Nick Lowe, a 2-disc collection of Nick Lowe
covers that is song for song terrific. So for
this performance, we got a whole set of Lowe
originals (and an encore of "Radio Radio"
which Lowe produced), with a string of guest
artists singing a song apiece, including Ron
Flynt (20/20), Terry Anderson, James Intveld,
and Rick Shea. It was just a brilliant, brilliant
set! I'm so sorry they didn't get in to SXSW.
Damned sorry we couldn't have had them at the
PCP party, too! It was definitely one of the
best sets I've seen in months and months.
I had a whole list of afternoon party stuff
to do: The Rite Flyers, Beth Orton, Clap Your
Hands Say Yeah, The High Dials ... all bands
I was dyin' to see, too. And Ray Davies was
at the Convention Center (and sure to have showed
up for that performance), playing songs from
his new album, showing films, and telling stories.
It would've been wonderful. But, you know, I
talked to Cyril Jordan for a long time. And
to Alec Palao, a great guy with whom I have
tons in common musically. I've seen Davies more
times than I could readily count with the Kinks,
3-4 times solo, too. I decided on the spot that
given a choice between (a) finding parking in
the heinous downtown situation and seeing an
artist I love but have seen many times and (b)
drinking free beer, staying put, and yakking
about politics and music with Cyril Jordan,
well, hell, that was a no brainer.
Next I went down to the Dog & Duck pub,
my local hangout, to see what everything was
like at their annual St. Paddy's Day Bash. Our
party would be held there the next day with
the same layout and equipment and tent, and
I wanted to see what was up. Plus I wanted to
go decompress after some truly magnificent music.
It was a madhouse, probably 3000 folks there
when I got there. Decompress? Yikes! You couldn't
even walk around. So I sat back with the staff
(they're all my friends) and chatted for a bit
while they were all dealin' with the mob. Art
Fein called, picked me up, and we went to Ruby's
and I had some terrific BBQ and home fries,
and enjoyed the delightful quiet in a restaurant
off the beaten SXSW track.
Then I found pay parking light years distant
from 6th Street, knowing in advance I was probably
staying around the Red River district and the
eastern end of 6th St. that night. Hooked up
with Jim Bradt and friends to see Big Al Anderson
(former guitarist/best songwriter with NRBQ,
now a wealthy songwriter who's in such demand,
he seldom plays live himself). Big Al's got
a new record coming, so he was promoting it
with a 5-piece band including ex-SRV keyboardist
Reese Wynans (trading down, I'd say, the last
time he was at SXSW, he had Ian McLagan, Steven
Bruton, and the late Donald Lindley). We really
love Big Al. In fact, last time he was here
10 years ago, when we ran into him walking down
6th St. by himself, we promptly prostrated ourselves
and did the Wayne's World 'we're not worthy'
bow; Big Al, clearly not having seen the movie,
just frowned mightily and stepped quickly around
us on the sidewalk. While we were waiting on
him to tune, and we were all lined up against
the stage, I thanked him for coming back to
town to play. He said "aaaaawwwww, it ain't
nothin'...." which I found greatly amusing.
He and his band (who couldn't be faulted) kicked
ass and took names in finest Big Al fashion.
I vaguely remember they even played "Me
and The Boys." We were all grinnin' and
bouncin' around like fools. I LOVE Big Al, and
can't wait for his new CD.
Then I walked six blocks over to Stubb's BBQ
to see a new young British band, The Subways,
whose CD I love. They're a trio, led by a very
young skinny guitarist with a proto-Townshend
hooter, and a gorgeous blonde bassist with a
shag haircut just made for shaking her head
without mussin' the hair (which she did to perfection
all night). I was one of the last badgeholders
to get in, and frankly I was worried I wouldn't.
The line was huge and stretched down the block.
For my money, The Subways, not the Arctic Monkeys,
are the buzz band to watch this year. Their
Sire Records debut Young For Eternity is chock
full of terrific songs like "I Want to
Hear What You Have Got to Say," "Oh
Yeah" (not the Ash song, but equally great),
and the so-dumb you can't resist it "Rock
'n' Roll Queen." They were wonderful, I
loved it, and if this packed audience was partly
new to their material, you can bet they've probably
bought it by now.
 The
11pm slot was very problematic for me. Didn't
want to stay at Stubb's (it's a gigantic outside
space, no seating every at the back or around
the edges, and frankly, I just get bored shitless
and antsy there if I see more than one act in
a row at that venue, tho as large places go,
it's one of the local places I won't hesitate
to go to -- like the vibe, and the sound and
lights are generally top notch, and you can
usually get to where you can see, but it's huge).
BUT, most of the bands I was interested in were
simply not close to Stubb's. Marah would've
been my first choice, but that was at Antone's,
would've had to cab over (and cabs simply can't
be had at SXSW), and it would likely have been
sold out, anyway. And since I wanted to see
midnight band, The Magic Numbers, I was kinda
stuck. There were still massive lines outside
waiting to get in. So I grumpily elected to
stay and see Metric. According to the SXSW book,
they're from Toronto and have opened for the
Stones at the Garden. Hhhmmm. Led by a really
pretty slim blonde singer/keyboardist, and a
down-front enthusiastic bassist, they were reminiscent
of Blondie if they hadn't had Gary Valentine
and Jack Lee writing songs for them. Enjoyed
the first song, but by three songs in I was
getting terribly restless. Walking back to the
back and trying to see if they was anything
close by I could bail and go see. The audience
loved it, I must say, but it was borderline
disco to me.
By midnight I was dyin' to be somewhere else,
but I really, really wanted to see The Magic
Numbers. They must've started 25 minutes late
-- the wait was interminable. A quartet of two
sets of brother/sisters, once they got going,
they were quite good. The audience was polite
but a bit underwhelmed, I think. I'd been thinking
I'd see 2-4 songs, then go a block up the street
to see Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple, but
by the time they started so late, I knew the
other band would be on their last song at best
before I arrived. At this point, I'd planned
on seeing Snow Patrol at the same venue, or
maybe heading back towards home and seeing Neko
Case at Antone's. But since I had quite a day
ahead of me tomorrow, had to be up by 9am, and
I'd just spent over 13 straight hours standing
and seeing music, I decided to call it a night,
and was asleep by 1:30am.
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