|
SXSW Diary, March 15-19, 2006
Return
to Part 4
SATURDAY MARCH 18
Up by 9am, and headed downtown to The Dog &
Duck Pub (17th & Guadalupe, my regular waterin'
ground, or as they say in England, my local)
for the Pop Culture Press party. A bit rested,
I was in great spirits. This was the third time
we'd had a party at the Duck that I'd been in
charge of since my pal of 20 years, Luke Torn,
took over as editor/publisher, although former
publisher/editor Luann Williams had two non-consecutive
SXSW parties that I can remember. So technically
this was our 5th party. We'd done a huge amount
of work getting ready. Pub manager Hunter Darby
and stage manager Steve Chapman (Golden Apples
drummer, the driest wit around) had planned
for as many contingencies and emergencies as
we could think of, so this time, I just went
down with the attitude that I was, by god, going
to have a good time and just not worry (shades
of Meher Baba -- the originator of the catchphrase
'don't worry, be happy'). Which was just as
well. It looked like imminent rain, but before
the party even started disasters started to
pile up. First, the sprinkling turned into a
torrential downpour. Now, I should mention at
this point that Austin had NOT had rain since
September -- a full six months with no rain;
major drought, wildfires in danger of happening,
all the normal spring bluebonnets not peeping
out at all yet -- but an hour before our party,
the biggest we'd ever attempted, torrential
downpour. Great. We did have a big tent, and
it wasn't leaking (unlike last year's tent).
We'd also had the foresight to move the electric
stage under the big tent and go ahead and rent
a stage to put bands on, too, which was incredibly
fortuitous. Seven bands were to play on that.
Six bands (including some of the day's biggest
names) were playing on the acoustic stage, on
the pub's permanent deck. With only five minutes
scheduled between the two stages (workable),
we really couldn't consider letting everyone
play on one stage, where you'd have to have
15-20 minimum between each set. And the sound
system had to be gone by 7pm (30 minutes after
the music was scheduled to end).
But fate intervened, in the person of one of
my best friend's teenaged daughters. Seems she
had left home early Saturday in her car, with
both sets of keys to her mom's car, and much
of the equipment for our acoustic stage for
the party was blocked in in their driveway.
My friend (nameless to avoid embarrassment)
had to borrow a neighbor's car and drive around
looking for his daughter who naturally didn't
have her cell on, in order to get the keys.
So he arrived two hours late with the equipment,
by which time we'd been forced to fold all the
acts onto one stage. The best laid plans ....
Patty Hurst Shifter from Raleigh, NC, opened
up the day with a raucous set of country-inflected
rock drawn mostly from their excellent 2nd album,
Too Crowded on the Losing End (Evo Recordings).
Five minutes before the show began, the joint
was empty, maybe a dozen people there. I was
afraid the deluge was going to just kill the
crowd. Then magically, about 200 people showed
up just as the band started playing. The whole
day would be like that, exceeding expectations
under what could've been horrible circumstances.
The band played "Shake," "Never
Know," "For The Record," "All
Washed Up," "Happy?," and "Shine."
Didn't get to hear a lot of the set, but they
were damned good, and started the day off in
fine fashion.
Next up was my long-time friend Peter Holsapple
reunited with Chris Stamey, his once and future
partner in the dBs, one of the best post-Big
Star pop groups, and a band that many of us
thought in 1981 would be the one to be huge,
not R.E.M Regrouping in 1991 for an excellent
duet album called Mavericks, the duo has reunited
this year for the first time in years playing
old favorites with an all-star band, and new
songs from an upcoming 2006 release. They played
a mixture of old songs (mostly from Mavericks)
with some new songs from a Stamey/Holsapple
record as well as an upcoming dB's record. Songs
included "Long Time Comin'," "Angels,"
"Close Your Eyes," "Early in
the Morning," "Bird on the Wing,"
"My Friend The Sun," and "She
Was the One." Good news was, they got to
play a full electric set instead of the stripped
down acoustic one. Props to Holsapple for wearing
a cool t-shirt for The Move's classic Shazam!
album. And the sartorially perfect suited Stamey
told one friend who'd asked that, yes, the suit
he was wearing was in fact the same suit he'd
worn when he and Peter had performed at SXSW
in ('92?) to promote Mavericks. Stamey joked
that it hadn't been washed since, either.
Collapsing everything onto one stage meant that
we were already running a bit behind by 1pm,
so Steve Barton of Translator volunteered to
swap slots with Richie Furay so that he could
play first and make his flight out of Austin
on time. The crowd had ballooned up to about
500 folks, where it stayed all day. Furay played
a set consisting of: "Pickin' Up the Pieces,"
"Forever With You" (an excellent new
song), the 'Neil Young medley' [tho all songs
were complete] "Do I Have To Come Right
Out and Say It," "Flying on the Ground
is Wrong," & "Nowadays Clancy
Can't Even Sing," Stills' "Go and
Say Goodbye," his own two best Springfield
tunes "A Child's Claim to Fame," &
"Kind Woman," and the closer, Poco's
"Good Feelin' To Know." The crowd
went nuts! This was a bit more stripped down
performance, with just his guitar player and
bassist (the guitar player's son). Luke and
I were both just thrilled beyond words to have
Furay playing at our party, and he seemed to
have had a great time, too. Trying to get him
a cab afterwards, I discovered that cab companies
were still not answering their phones. I was
getting worried when a cab showed up at the
curb to drop someone off, and leaning up to
the cabbie's window to get him to take Richie,
I saw Jules Shear in the back. Now, Jules had
given up his slot voluntarily so that Richie
could play and make his flight on time. Jules
wryly quipped that Richie Furay 'had not only
gotten his slot, but his cab, too.' My pal Art
Fein was a lifesaver in taking his car behind
them so that all four in the entourage, luggage,
and guitars could all be transported. Art (naturally,
if you know Art) griped that I pulled a bait
and switch on him because he got the band and
guitars, not Richie.... I should note that right
before Furay played his set, I figured, hey,
he's been in the ministry for 25 years, maybe
he's got some pull ... so I asked him if he
could put in a word and get the rain stopped.
He laughed. And it stopped raining for pretty
much the rest of the day while Richie played.
Clearly I'm not his only fan.
 In
1982, Translator scored a major hit with "Everywhere
That I'm Not" on 415 Records. Famed as
a really exciting live act, they released four
albums and a best-of compilation between 1982-86,
and two anthologies on CD in the mid-'90s. After
reuniting in November 2005 with the original
4-piece line-up for a show in their hometown,
they finally brought their classic power pop
to Austin. The ever-swelling audience was obviously
filled with fans who rapturously greeted "When
I'm With You," "Favorite Drug,"
"Everywhere," "New Song,"
"Everywhere That I'm Not," and a well-earned
encore with "Necessary Spinning."
Me, I didn't hear 'em back in the day, but bought
a copy of their demos album and a copy of Steve
Barton's excellent 2004 album Charm Offensive
from the merch table, and have since gotten
a hits collection, too. Really look forward
to hearing their upcoming new album.
Austin's The Golden Apples have become the finest
pop group out of Austin since Cotton Mather.
They were the beneficiaries of a large crowd
of folks who mostly hadn't heard them before,
and played one of the best shows of their career.
Down in front, Beatle Bob was dancing away,
giving the Apples their very own Beatle Bob
Seal of Approval (you know you're the hottest
thing happening in Austin during SXSW if Bob's
there). After 25+ years in the music biz, I
reckoned I'd arrived, too, when Bob greeted
me by name when he got to our party. And thanks
again to the Apples for kindly allowing us to
use their backline (not to mention hanging around
to help any way they could all day)!
Next was Matt Keating & Emily Spray. Keating
is an unjustly overlooked but unequivocally
talented songwriter, originally from Boston,
who's released a string of fine albums and EPs
over the past dozen years. The last of his four
albums was released in the UK on Creation founder
Alan McGee's hip Poptones label. His wife Emily
Spray, who performed several duets with him
from his upcoming album Summer Tonight, also
wrote a song on Laura Cantrell's newest album.
They were excellent and Beatle Bob was still
dancing away down front.
 IV
Thieves are basically my favorite live band
right now, and I can't wait to hear their new
album on New West when it's mixed. They've been
playing these new songs around town for several
months, and every one of them is superb. All
four write and sing lead. I really like the
close harmony duet songs that guitarist Glynn
and bassist Shane do. Nic's songs are always
great, and he still gets the most screams from
the ladies (screaming at bands! that's what
convinced me last year these guys were gonna
be huge). Johnny is still one of the best classic
British drummers working today. By this time
of the day I was forgetting to pick up set lists
so I'd know what they played, but this was a
vastly better set than their previous one at
La Zona Rosa, and it consisted of all new tunes.
Many in the audience who hadn't seen them before
were suitably blown away. They seem to hate
most of their local gigs, having equipment problems
and the like, but none of 'em said anything
to me after (and I've had pints with all of
'em before, so I think they would've if they
were unhappy), so I presume they were happy
with the gig. Turning new folks on to IV Thieves
has been one of my favorite pastimes over the
last year, and by the time they finished the
crowd was simply huge.
Peter Case has been a good friend for over 15
years, and I can't remotely begin to count the
number of times I've seen him live. But as a
performer, well, he's the only guy I know I'd
not be afraid to put onstage following an exciting
electric act like IV Thieves. And this time
out, he had a band with him, the first time
I've seen him play a solo show with the band
(he generally can't afford for them to go on
the road, so they mainly play as a band in the
LA area). The set list was really rockin', and
featured several tracks off his most recent
album, Beeline. The set included "Lost
in the Sky," "If You Got A Light To
Shine," the Plimsouls' greatest early song
"Zero Hour" (which the drummer requested
for them to play, Pete told me later), Memphis
Minnie's "Bumblebee Blues" and "First
Light" / "Fixin' To Die." The
crowd demanded an encore but I wouldn't let
him play one, because at that point in time,
I was still worried that we were losing our
equipment at 7pm, and we were running quite
a bit late since we'd combining both stages
onto one. I had visions of the last two bands
simply not getting to play, but didn't want
to tell anyone and worry them, since Steve and
Hunter had been negotiating with our sound man
for some hours already. Ultimately, he moved
some systems around, and we were able to finish
the show with all bands playing, but at this
time of day, I didn't know that would be the
case.
 Steve
Wynn & the Miracle Three may hold the record
for most performances at SXSW this year, I think
they played 9 or 10 shows. Now, I thought it
was the best show I'd seen 'em play, but one
fan who saw all of 'em said 1-2 of the others
were 'better' (an opinion Steve shared, he told
me after). It was still a fantastic, exciting
set. Most of the songs were from his last three
albums, of which the latest is the excellent
tick ... tick ... tick... (Down There/Redeye).
The setlist was "Bruises" (my fave
on the new CD), "Death Valley Rain,"
"Cindy, It Was Always You," "That's
What You Always Say," and a blistering
assault on "Amphetamine," before coming
back for an encore with "Tell Me (When
It's Over)," my favorite of Wynn's Dream
Syndicate songs. Last year Wynn performed a
memorable short electric 2-piece set in a torrential
deluge (all songs with 'rain' in them), and
this year he played like a conquering hero.
The now massive crowd was blown away.
By this time, the crowd was huge, probably
1500 or more folks. And when Matthew Sweet and
Susanna Hoffs appeared on KGSR a bit before
this and closed their set by saying 'ya'll come
on down to the Dog & Duck, it's free, you
don't need wristbands...' it seems about 500
folks hopped right in their cars and came down.
Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet were greeted
with a massive roar! The crowd jammed up around
the stage so tightly that after I introduced
them, I couldn't leave the backstage area, and
had to try to grab a photo or two of their backs.
Hoffs and Sweet have performed together in Ming
Tea in the Austin Powers movies, and just recently
have come together to record Under The Covers
Pt. 1 (Shout! Factory Records), due this month.
The album features the duo covering 15 of their
favorite '60s tunes, ranging from the obscure
Left Banke album track "She Might Call
You Up Tonight" to tracks by the Who, Marmalade,
Crazy Horse, and VU. For this set, the band
were backed by Velvet Crush (Ric Menck and Paul
Chastain), plus two more folks whose names I
didn't get. They did a short but excellent set
that included Marmalade's "I See The Rain,"
Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,"
Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum" (originally
by the Stone Poneys w/Linda Ronstadt), Dylan's
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and
another Young classic, "Cinnamon Girl."
Barely got to speak to Hoffs or Sweet, but I
did chat with Ric a bit, and to my great sadness,
he told me that Velvet Crush is probably finished
now. That put a bit of a downer on it for me.
Terribly sorry I didn't get to see these guys
do their full set later that night, because
I would've loved to have heard 'em do my favorite
Left Banke song (above).
The party just kept reaching new heights with
the great Willie Nile. Nile's new album Streets
of New York (00:02:59) is nothing short of a
masterpiece, and I'll stand in my tennies on
Steve Earle's coffee table and say so. It's
been ages since I saw Nile play, the early '90s,
but back then, he was going on the road opening
for acts like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
and Bruce Springsteen. And let me tell you,
Nile wasn't getting blown offstage by the headliners,
either. So I expected him to be good. With his
new band, fronted by Scott Kempner (ex-Dictators
and Del Lords, and wearer of the Coolest Shoes
at SXSW 2006), was just absolutely smokin'.
You know it's one of the most kick ass bills
you've ever seen when you have bands like this,
Steve Wynn, and IV Thieves, and you try to pick
the one who put on the best show. But Nile may
just have walked away with the cup. Nile, with
his trademark hair which I think predates Lyle
Lovett's fame, is a charismatic fireball. From
looking at all his photos over the years, I'd
always expected him to be some kinda tough New
Yorker, too cool to talk to common folks; turns
out he's almost as nice and friendly as Richie
Furay, which is really saying something. By
this time of the day, I was past picking up
setlists, so I can't tell you exactly what he
played, except that I know we got 3-4 songs
from the new record including the "Asking
Annie Out," "The Day I Saw Bo Diddley
in Washington Square," and the chilling
"Cell Phones Ringing (In the Pockets of
the Dead)" before they really raised the
roof with my fave old Nile song, "Heaven
Help the Lonely." I think they also played
the title song from his EP "Hard Times
in America." An amazing set. These guys
really need to put out a live DVD. Now, I'd
been worried all day about Jules Shear having
to follow Willie Nile, knowing what Willie's
set was likely to sound like. Jules was very
worried about it, too. Just to remind you, he
was the guy who hosted and sang duets with artists
on the original MTV Unplugged. And although
I'd told Jules truthfully that people had been
coming up to me all day long and asking 'is
Jules Shear really playing here today' I don't
think Jules believed me -- got the feeling he
thought I was just telling him that to make
him feel better. I think I'd mentioned this
to Willie before he went on. I was afraid I
was gonna have to like, holler at the audience
to get 'em to be quiet before Jules played.
Much to my surprise, Willie Nile did a completely
classy and selfless thing. Just before his pilehouse
last song, he talked up Jules, encouraged everyone
to stay and hear him, and encouraged everyone
to be quiet and give his music a chance, because
'he's one of our greatest songwriters.'
So, after Nile and the band finished their encore,
much to my sheer delight and amazement, several
hundred people dragged chairs up right next
to the front of the stage and sat down, waiting
for Jules Shear to play! Totally unexpected,
and very touching, I thought. This audience
all day long had just been so flippin' cool
with whatever happened, delays, combining the
stages, whatever, and now this! Unbelievable!
Shear opened with the song he'd written for
Susanna Hoffs in the Bangles (well, she covered
it, I don't know that he wrote it for her),
"If She Knew What She Wants." And
at that point, he had the audience in the palm
of his hand. He went on to play a selection
of songs from the brand new Dreams Don't Count
(Mad Dragon), which is a brilliant, affecting
new record that you really should check out.
Go here: www.myspace.com/juleshear Shear was
just really a class act all day, helluva nice
guy, and make no mistake, one of our very finest
songwriters. Trust Willie Nile, he would know.
Austin's The Wannabes began 20-years ago in
Ft. Worth, Texas. Moving to Austin to join the
then-vibrant scene with the True Believers and
Doctors' Mob, they were immediately told they
were too late, they'd missed the best years
of Austin music. By the mid-'90s, they'd become
a popular local draw, touring all over the country
by van, opening for REM and the Replacements,
and releasing two fine albums on Dejadisc. Incredibly,
20 years since they met, they're still here,
still Wannabes, and still packing clubs on their
increasingly infrequent gigs. They're about
to release a career-spanning retrospective Grates
for Ingrates including songs from their impossible-to-find
early cassette-only release and rare tracks.
They played a rockin' set to a crowd that still
numbered about 200 folks, including a great
cover of "Love Vigilantes," a New
Order song that one band member opined is always
the one that gets pulled out when it's time
for the audience to go home. Hunter Darby, Kevin
Carney, Jennings Crawford, and new drummer Steve
McCarthy are still playing some of the best
pop/punk music around, and we were really happy
to have 'em play for us at our biggest party
ever on their 20th birthday. Perfect end to
the party.
8pm, the show's over, and we were all exhausted.
Everyone was going home, but we still had to
deal with all the equipment and clean-up and
stuff. Amazingly, the Dog & Duck had sold
over 1200 meals, and we'd emptied all the kegs
for the party, and had to borrow 3 from the
Crown & Anchor and 2 from another pub, all
of which also floated, in addition to emptying
18 of the taps of beer inside the pub. Best
guess is we had 3500-4000 folks there over the
course of 8 hours. So it was a huge success.
Of course, by the time we were done with clean-up
and the equipment had been picked up, it was
after 10:30pm. That meant we'd missed the Pop
Culture Press Showcase at the Karma Lounge,
the Rainbow Quartz showcase at the Blender Bar
(including three real favorites of mine, The
Contrast, The Winnerys, and the Jessica Fletchers).
Not to mention which, my very favorite British
(okay, Welsh) female singer, Cerys Matthews,
had played at 8pm, which was totally impossible
for me, even if I'd had a teleporter. Andy Pratt,
Morningwood, Be Your Own Pet, lots of bands
I really wanted to see. I was sure I could make
the midnight show for Susan Cowsill and her
band. Susan's my favorite American female singer
(if I haveta make that distinction, mentioning
both in the same paragraph), a good friend,
and someone I badly wanted to see (for that
matter, I badly wanted her to play our party
again this year with the band, but didn't have
a slot for her). We were all sitting around
debating what to do, where to go. There's a
picture of PCP's Luke Torn and his wife Kathy
McTee (who ran the merchandise table and coordinated
the volunteers -- great job, ya'll!) taken about
10pm. They looked better than Hunter, Steve
Chapman and I, that's for sure. We were all
just completely devoid of energy. Hunter in
fact had worked 7 days three straight weeks,
played two gigs that day, and been about 4 straight
days with no sleep. And while our favorite beers
were sold out, we did still have beer at the
pub without actually having to walk or stand
in line ....
Ultimately, everyone went home except Hunter
and I. I was insistent on going to see Susan
Cowsill and then The Charlatans at 1am, one
of my favorite British bands. But that involved
30 minutes of looking for a pay lot with an
empty space, a long-assed walk, and mega crowds.
And Hunter was insistent that he had to go see
his buddies (the Wannabes play with them a lot)
The Magnolias, who were closing the Pop Culture
Press party. Since I was afraid he'd try to
drive, I took him down there and missed Susan
and The Charlatans. The Magnolias were great.
Too tired to tell you much about it, but they
play post-Replacements pop/rock that's always
welcome to my ears.
So, that's it for me. Thanks to everyone at
the Dog & Duck for their help with the party
and all the musicians who played. Damon's company
with the sound. Some last minute lights from
Olden Lighting. Steve Chapman, Ron Flynt, Doe
Montoya, Christian Kurtz & the rest of the
Golden Apples for services above and beyond.
Susan Forrester. Christine Terrell. Kathy McTee.
Jules Shear, Steve Barton. Had a lot of old
friends come in from out of town for the show,
but barely got to see 'em: Randy Reeves, Mike
Perkins, Paul Congo....
Read
More
back to top
|
