SxSW 2006
Flying into Austin, I had my ipod, a schedule and my notebook ready to go. It's impossible to approach a music festival of this magnitude (1800 bands in 5 days!) without a little forethought and planning. As always, I had my sentimental musical favorites to contend with along with a bevy of new bands to decipher and hear. Between the day parties and SXSW sanctioned evening shows, the SXSW festival allows a music fan to see more live music in one day than anywhere else in the world. It's a daunting task and one that we are reminded on a daily basis is more like a marathon than a sprint (even if you do find yourself sprinting between venues). I had spent the past month solidly listening to new music and determining my hit list. Of course the festival doesn't work out as you had planned... sometimes better, sometimes worse...
Wednesday Magenta Lane (Emo's Annex) Sifter (Emo's Annex) Field Music (Fader Party) Dengue Fever (Emo's Annex) Flip Grater (NZ Party) Flight of the Conchords (NZ Party) Coco Solid (NZ Party) The Brunettes (NZ Party)Show of the Day:
Voxtrot (Emo's Main) Field Music (Emo's Main) Office (Dirty Dog) The Grates (Parish) The Research (Parish II) The Plimsouls (Exodus) The Go! Team (Exodus)
The Research - The absolute best thing I saw on Wednesday was hand's down Wakefield England's The Research. Even with Sarah (drummer/background vocalist) subdued with a touch of the flu, they nearly charmed the pants off everyone in the room (including, the girls of Smoosh.) I'd already heard and loved their record but they gave each song so much more heartfelt personality live.
Highlights:
Flight of the Conchords - We had no idea what to expect from Flight of the Conchords, but man did their short 2-song set make us roll with laughter. Give a listen to "The Humans Are Dead" on their myspace page and you'll see what I'm on about. "The humans are dead... at least they look like they're dead. It's true, I poked one, it was dead."
Field Music - To be fair, by this point I had already seen Field Music three times in the past three days (they played a warm-up to the festival in Chicago a few days earlier). Their evening show at Emo's Main should have been spectacular but the video cameras were not only distracting but seemed to block the Sunderland boys' concentration. It wasn't a bad performance, but not nearly as great as I'd seen them be just a few days before. (Not to worry they completely made up for it the next day.) Even when they're slightly "off"... they end up as a highlight.
Voxtrot - Voxtrot's energy and sound on stage is unmatchable in a pop band. Ramesh bounds about on stage like an eight-year-old on a moonwalk as they craft such perfect Smiths-inspired pop songs the crowd can't help but sing and bounce along. It's probably a telling aspect of my personality that the bands that I become absolutely smitten with have an unbridled enthusiasm to in their sound... no one more so than Voxtrot.
Never Need To See Again:
The Grates - Just thinking about their off-pitch screeching makes my ears hurt again.
Magenta Lane - blaaah. double blaaaaah.
Thursday The Research (Emo's Main) Field Music (Emo's Jr) The Cribs (Cedar St.) Metric (Cedar St.)Show of the Day:
Persephone's Bees (18th Flr @ Capitol Place) epo-555 (Pecan St. Ale) Film School (Club Deville)
Metric - I've seen Metric a dozen times over the years (at least), but they were at their absolute PEAK for this show. My ears may have been ringing for the rest of the day (*incredibly* loud sound in a small courtyard) but the pain was worth it. Emily ate up the camera men in a style only she can pull off. James, Josh and Joules strummed and drummed with every ounce of their beings. I walked away muttering "Wow. Just Wow." under my breathe. I still can't come up with anything more intelligent than "Wow."
Highlights:
Field Music - Yup they made my highlights for the second day in a row. This afternoon show was a million times better than the night before. Without the long stage from the night before making even eye contact between band mates near impossible, they completely regained their control and sound.
epo-555 - Pecan St. Ale gets my award for most amazing venue... even if everyone must trounce through a dirty alley to get there. I have no idea why the back of this restaurant looks like the inside of a church but it was the perfect place to see epo-555 bouncing their sonic glory off the walls. I've waited a LONG time to finally see these Danish kids live, but was glad I'd brought along earplugs.
The Research - I broke that cardinal rule of only seeing new bands once MANY times, but none was I more eager to throw the rules away for than The Research. After their 12 AM show the night before I don't know how they were so ON again at twelve hours later (well except for Sarah who was still sick but at least harmonizing better). They made no qualms about it, a boy in a goofy trucker hat perched on a bar stool pounding away on a crappy Casio IS rock n roll.
Never Need To See Again:
Persephone's Bees - This pains me to say... I *really* like their recorded material but their live set was so dry. When the lead singer began rattling off corporate abbreviations (AT&T, MTV...) we made a beeline for the door. I wanted to be impressed with them, but was so far from it.
Friday The Brunettes (Pok-E-Joe's) The Stills (Stubbs) We Are Scientists (Stubbs) The Charlatans UK (Stubbs)Show of the Day:
The Brunettes (Red Eyed Fly) White Rose Movement (Stubbs) Oppenheimer (Friends) The Subways (Stubbs) Metric (Stubbs) The Magic Numbers (Stubbs) The Chalets (Soho Lounge)
The Magic Numbers - I really don't need to go on about what a magnificent show TMN puts on. Been there, done that. They never fail to impress.
Highlights:
The Chalets - The 1 AM time slot on day three of this festival is a tough one. Half the crowd is either raring to go or totally exhausted. Luckily for me I was completely energized after the fantastic Magic Numbers show. The Chalets were the perfect Irish band to enjoy the last pint of the night on St. Patrick's Day with their harmonies and bit of poodle skirt kick.
The Charlatans - Come on, it's the Charlatans... it's the afternoon... it's free beer! (I shouldn’t fail to mention the surprise run-in with the boys from Koala whom it was great to chat with again.)
Metric - 5000 people screaming along, "I fought the war but the war won. Stop for the love of god."
The Brunettes - Finally a Brunettes show worthy of them. If you've noticed my daily tallies above you'll see I saw them three times down in Texas. The first set at the NZ party they had horrible sound and took twice as long to set up their gear than play. The second set at the Subpop party they had even WORSE sound (they even lost their amps at one point and had to stop completely). Thankfully, the Red Eyed Fly was the show that finally lived up to how amazing I know the Brunettes can be. Quirky and eccentric, they gave it their all and impressed quite a few new listeners in the crowd.
Never Need To See Again:
White Rose Movement - I don't understand the hype on this one, at all. I'm kicking myself for leaving the Flight of the Conchords show to see White Rose Movement. What a complete waste of time. We played along for about 15 minutes hoping they would get more interesting and less electroclash-by-numbers before giving in and heading back down 6th Street to meet up with friends and see Oppenheimer.
We Are Scientists - I have no idea why I was so bored with them.
Saturday Mike Wexler (French Legation Museum) Giant Drag (French Legation Museum) Mazarin (French Legation Museum) Steve Wynn (Dog & Duck) Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (Dog & Duck)Show of the Day:
Cerys Matthews (BD Rileys) Busy Signals (Jackalope) Jose Gonzalez (Eternal) Racoon (Red 7) Galactic Heroes (Habana Calle 6 Patio) The Winnerys (Blender Bar) The Owls (Habana Calle 6 Patio) The Jessica Fletchers (Blender Bar) The Longcut (Exodus) The Harrisons (Red 7) The Cinematics (Soho Lounge)
Jose Gonzalez - I think a lot of people were saying "who" to the name Jose Gonzalez before Austin. None after. I heard more than one passing conversation about "that Swedish Spanish kid?" (to be accurate here he's Argentinean but grew up in Sweden.) His every performance was well hyped for a reason. His style of Spanish guitar blended with the ability to craft Intimate, enveloping and pure pop songs is mesmerizing. You'll hear his name again, and often.
Highlights:
Giant Drag - Annie Hardy is hysterical. HYSTERICAL. Her between-song-banter wasn't topped through the whole festival for me. (Oh and musically quite good as well. Micah Calabrese on both drums and keyboards was awe inspiring.)
The Harrisons - I'd heard only one song of The Harrisons through the SxSW website so I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and Madness-like pop coming from these boys from Sheffield.
The Cinematics - I'm not sure how a band gets into SxSW without having even released their first single yet but Scotland's Cinematics did NOT disappoint for the last show of the festival for me. I always get a giggle at watching a new band pick up their gear to an indifferent crowd and as their songs pick up tempo watching the crowd gravitate towards the stage in awe. A fine performance, I'm eager to see where The Cinematics go from here.
Cerys Matthews - I never had the chance to see the Welsh chanteuse sing in Catatonia. Apparently neither did a lot of people because the line for this show (at a tiny bar) never seemed to move. I gave up trying to get in the door when I realized not even Romeo Stodart of the Magic Numbers was being allowed in and grabbed an even better vantage point right next to the front window (and about 3' from the lovely Cerys). I'd heard her post-Catatonia material had a bit of an alt-country tinge (she does live in Nashville now), but it was very much a rock show.
The Winnerys - Pure powerpop from Spain. There was a magical moment when a bunch of my friends were gathered in the back of the venue talking and The Winnerys burst into a new song so refreshing and classic 60s (ala Left Banke) we all immediately shut up and turned in unison to stare.
Never Need To See Again:
Racoon - I don't know why I thought these Dutch kids had something interesting to share from that one song released by SxSw pre-festival. Live it was a horrible frat boy nightmare. I hightailed it out of there as soon as I finished my drink and went back to the Magic Marker party to be pelted with cuteness and teddy bears.
Mike Wexler - I realize it can't be easy to play a garden party full of industry types in the early afternoon but he tried his damnedest to put us all to sleep. The highlight of his set was ignoring everything going on under the tent and chatting with Angela Gannon of The Magic Numbers.
One of the reasons I love attending SxSW is the intimate atmosphere for discovering new music. It's not a "festival" in the traditional sense of open fields and tents. While the sprint between venues in Austin can be rather exhausting (or it could be the nonstop free flowing alcohol), in my mind Austin hosts the ultimate setting for new musical discovery. I had a legendary experience at this year’s SxSW... our hotel is booked for next year.