what sxsw means...1700 bands, 12,000 wristbands, 12,500 badges, and $90 million for the local economy, according to the paper's front page today. this year for me, it meant missing Lou Reed twice, seeing J Mascis thrice, coming down with a wicked cold halfway through, and not getting any sleep 2 nights this week. And of course, catching up with industry friends and old friends and smiling all the way through the leg pain and sleepiness. Saturday was definitely anti-climactic compared to all the great stuff I had seen earlier in the week, but it was still great.
typing this in Chicago during my layover between flights back to VA...730am couldn't come soon enough (I just wanna sleep on the plane - can we board yet?) as it got to the point in the evening last night where it didn't make sense to try and get an hour or 2 of sleep and then hope that a cab picked me up or that i would hear my alarm, so I rode with Jeff back to his place, threw my stuff together while the cabbie kept the meter running, and it was off to the airport around 4am...a nice litte $45 cab ride, plus tip (Emo's closes at 2am, but being the sound guy and it being sxsw, Jeff has to stay an extra hour-plus to get the stage ready for the next day. Plus, the club next door was still thumping until almost 3 anyway, but we wanted to let things die down a bit outside before trying to catch a cab, which we did at 330. Finally got a pic of Jeff at the soundboard too, with that "is-sxsw-over-yet?" look on his face...classic.
Best Fwends was the final band I saw this year, and they were a pretty silly duo who sort of rapped/screamed/sang over pre-programmed beats. Sort of like Sesame Street meets The Whitest Kids U Know...at least it was a fairly easy teardown for Jeff, which is partly why I stuck around and waited for him. I never did figure out where to catch the late-night South 1st street bus...Gave up on the bus system (I even called the number, but the automated operator couldn't understand me), and decided to try to meet up with Pete, Lindsey & Drea at the VIce party which went until the wee hours. Didn't want to go in without knowing if they were already there or not, and we couldn't make connections (still not sure if they went or not), so I went back Emo's way since I had forgotten to try Jeff's favorite pizza in a truck right across the street, Stoney's mobile pizza. I wasn't even that hungry (we had gotten more BBQ for dinner at Ironworks), but it was pretty good, esp. for that time of night. The singer and the drummer from The Donnas walked by (they had played Emo's main room before X tonight), and I totally would have gone up to them and asked for a picture and told them how awesome they were last week in DC opening for The Hives if I hadn't had a slice of pizza in my hand. I know, excuses, excuses...I was just thinking how I didn't really want that Best Fwends pic to be the last picture I took from the fest, The Donnas one would've been nice, but as I looked down at my right arm adorned with various venue "over 21" bracelets, I noticed my Emo's stamp said "envy." So I figured that was a pretty good last picture, although I also remembered to take one of my 1st SXSW badge. There were still some things I couldn't get into, but overall, it was very nice thing to have all week.
OK, so I'm kinda going at this final day of sxsw backwards....
It started with my intention to see one of my favorite new bands, The Heavy (a Curtis Mayfield-esque singer + a funky grunge backup band) at 1pm, but was still updating my blog and pics & vids and kinda waiting on a ride with jeff and his friends to avoid the one-hour bus process, so we weren't ready to motivate til about 3pm.
Jeff & friends went to the FxFU (hey, this a family blog :) fest which featured some old friends of theirs. FxFU is one of many non-sxsw sanctioned events that have sprouted up in response to the increasingly more "mainstream" nature of sxsw. In its 10th year, FxFU just celebrates loud weirdness in general, and of course sticking it to the establishment fest. I intended to make it over there at some point, but the Harp Garden Party turned out to be really cool and was running a bit late, so by the time we were ready to leave, it was also time for dinner.
As you can tell from the lineup picture, some pretty big names were involved...all free and right around the corner from FxFU in the very big backyard of the French Legation Museum, on 8th St. just east of the highway. $1 PBRs and eventually I got a free ice cream drumstick outta the deal...another warm March day in Austin - very nice in the shade, but it definitely got windy and chilly at sundown...
another J Mascis sighting...a short solo set with plenty of blistering solos on his distortion-fueled acoustic. I think the last song had a 10-minute guitar solo at least, but it was nice that the typical J Mascis/Dinosaur Jr. volume issues were non-existent - it was just the right volume, even a bit quiet, which definitely fit the setting - lots of folding chairs under a big tent and lots of folks sitting on the grass near the stage.
Thurston Moore was up next, and despite some technical problems to start the set, the Sonic Youth frontman seemed in good spirits with his cracking backup band, including SY's Steve Shelley on drums. Most if not all the songs came from Thurston's excellent solo album from last year.
Stuck around for a bit of She & Him (which Thurston referred to as Him & Her during his set)...M Ward and Zooey Deschanel. It was nice and kinda sleepy, but Zooey was clearly pretty nervous or else is just not gifted with a very strong voice fit for a live band with that much volume. You gotta give her credit for trying at least, and she could've definitely picked a worse collaborative partner than M Ward.
After the free ice cream, it was off to Ironworks for some more bbq. Thankfully, the long line moved quickly, and to break up the 12-block walk up Red River to get to Waterloo Park in time to see The Breeders at 840pm, I stopped off at 6th St. for an ATM break, some souvenir shopping and a quick stop in for a pic with my pals hanging out at Casino el Camino.
Breeders were good...some of the new material isn't exactly "main stage at a big free festival" type music, in that the songs seemed to be slow & short and not exactly catchy, but I look forward to hearing their subtleties on the cd. "Cannonball" came about halfway through, and no surprise, got the biggest response. But "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and others from the 1st Breeders record reminded me of how great of a debut that really was, and even the Amps stuff came off pretty well...not sure they touched much from the last Breeders record, which was probably a good thing. My Missouri friend Wes & I agreed that the Deal sisters totally need to do an all-country covers record, as they closed the main set with what i believe is a cover that makes it onto the new cd.
lots of wandering Sat. night...couldn't get in to Jim James playing solo in a church because the line even for badges was too long. Although listening back to the new stuff they played via the npr.org webcast, I'm not sure I'm as excited as I once was about the new MMJ cd. Ok, I'm still excited and I'm sure it'll sound better on the cd, but I'm definitely glad I chose the Alejandro Escovedo show. Just when I thought Jim's voice couldn't go any higher, turns out there's a couple more octaves in there...
Ok, have to do some on-air SXSW commenting & actual playing of music, so I'll add a few more tidbits later...thanks for reading!!
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