I will give you the most basic of rundowns: SXSW is a 3 week festival covering Interactive Media – Film and Music with a entire week dedicated to each field, some usually overlapping – that takes place in Austin, TX in March – that completely takes over the town a la Mardi Gras that falls during Spring Break, that will showcase thousands of bands attended by 10s of thousands of registrants.
ok? OK –
Day 1 – March 14th
I learned alot last year about throwing a showcase – I learned alot about what to do and what NOT to do. For all the success and press we got out of that little shindig last year, clearly ALOT of mistakes were made
I had people coming up to me the entire festival asking me if I was “that dude that threw that boxing ring thing last year” constantly – Easily 10x as many people that were actually there – That’s something that I’m very proud of – I wanted to do something different – Something people would remember and knowing that I accomplished that makes me happy –
After that I ran over to Stubb’s to try to catch Fiona Apple. I’ve never seen her like most people, due to her neurosis that keeps her from touring, or even speaking properly has eluded most people from seeing her perform. I get a hero’s welcome when I go to Stubb’s, so thankfully their was no line or any other indignity suffered (I would save that for the rest of the week) – I get in and go right up to the side of the stage that my friends and kind staff of Stubb’s afforded me.
I was most certainly looking forward to hearing some new tunes, but since I’ve never got to see any of her material live before I was hoping to hear a few tracks off her 2nd LP When The Pawn – It holds a special place for me as it always transports me back to a special time.
I got my wish and I got in early, it was almost like she was making up for not touring that record as the first four songs were from that LP.She still looks really good, and she sounded good too, but at times her intensity just over rode everything and she would shout the verses or change them up completely to account for her sudden thrusts of anger. I had always wondered how legit all this was, cause admittedly it can be a bit much. Like how much of this is manufactured and I gotta tell you that being this close to it, made me a believer.
I’m not saying that it wasn’t ridiculous that she required two handlers to get her on and off stage – who she kept looking over to for approval/reassurance. Or how they would have to come out and remind her to drink the tea on her piano, or when she would look lost to offer her a towel. It was all a bit much, but her elusiveness has reached such legendary heights over the years that it was thrill just to even see her, let alone this close and see her perform. The new songs were really good too.
On the Bound
Paper Bag
A Mistake
Anything We Want (New Song)
Valentine (New Song)
Sleep to Dream
Extraordinary Machine
Every Single Night (New Song)
Carrion
Criminal
After she finished, I stuck around to see Sharon Van Etten, another songstress that I was recently turned on to. Her stuff was a little quiet for the cavernous Stubb’s as well as first day excitement, but she got a great reception from the crowd and I thought she sounded great.
After that, I walked around Stubb’s to meet up with my friend Lena – A talented artist and a total babe – She’s a great writer and has a new musical project that she will be debuting later this year – you can check that out here –
We talked a caught up a bit but then she was leaving so I grabbed another beer and while waiting for Dan Deacon to start his set.
Though I am not even remotely Deacon’s demographic – nerdy-teenage-smartass hipsters in bright clothing – He has always been entertaining in the few times I’ve seen him perform.
Deacon is also likable for his slacker appearance – He’s overweight, balding and the last person you would think could lead 2k people in a dance freak-out, so his improbability gives him that underdog factor.
However he is also from D.C./Maryland and has that zero bullshit quality as well – Without being dickish he exchanged words with the stage hands that were growing impatient with his setup time and his equipment failure. At one point he even said into the mic, “We got it, and you don’t need to speak to us like we are children” – later for which he apologized on the mic for and even lead the crowd to show appreciation for the crew who I think took it as sarcasm but it still seemed genuine to me.
Known for snarky impromptu, he then started a parlor game among the 2k in attendance and created a giant dance circle while he was giving direction via a megaphone. Good times –
Trickykid alumni Never Got Caught along with Clutch toured with them as well,so I’ve gotten friendly with them over the years as well as they have become one of my favorite bands. So I was excited when they invited me over to their showcase.
I get there, and suddenly I see a familiar face onstage while they are getting setup – Their is a camera crew filming this for a show and its host – Anthony Bourdain who’s career is a constant reference at my mother and sister’s homes. I even took them to see him on his tour last year.
In what seemed like a millenia to get properly sound-checked, the bass player knew he was holding up the party, and finally threw his hands up after shouts of “Goddamn, it doesn’t have to be perfect” started emitting from the crowd- and got the show started.
They were fucking deadly as always and they played like 8 new songs. The newer stuff sounded more straight up rock which is direction that I’m happy that they are increasingly headed in. Starting with Black Sabbath’s Children of the Grave and ending with their hit Freya that’s also become a staple of Guitar Hero – with all new stuff in between.Ok, wanna get even heavier? – Where could this night take us now, How about across the street where Corrosion of Conformity were playing a dive bar for $5.00? – Perfect.
A brief history lesson of C.O.C. – For the first ten years of their existence their were a three-piece (sometimes four) punk juggernaut with a blistering sound and a downright frightening image. They were ones of the bands when you were younger that you actually feared.
In the early 1990’s they acquired new member Pepper Keenan, who not only took over on vocals but on the later albums, his taste/persona seemed to take over the would band. His first record with them, Blind turned them into a straight up Heavy Metal band and then with the next three (and finally commercial success) they became this southern fried, blues-y Pantera-ish entity that made them completely unrecognizable from the former years, especially after drummer Reed Mullin left the band.
For most people this was their first time hearing the band and thought they were like this new Southern Rock band, which you can imagine completely alienated, their former punk rock faithful.
If I was being truthful, even though the purest will condemn this, when I want to listen to C.O.C. its those three southern rock albums I like the best, and probably haven’t purposely listened to those early records since I first heard them as a kid.
Well for this tour, Pepper Keenan is absent, (actually in the band Down with Pantera member Phil Anselmo) – Reed Mullin is back, C.O.C. are once again a three piece, just released a new album that’s a complete return to its punk rock roots and this tour they will be playing that stuff and only that stuff to celebrate its full-circle return.
Though the sound in this place is dismal, they still kicked severe ass – Though I totally miss Pepper, I can’t deny that Mike Dean is actually better suited as a front man than him. He’s more engaging, more menacing, and has the between song banter down flat, something that Keenan has always suffered with. I saw the show in Dallas a few days prior and both of these shows were just brutal and way exceeded my expectations.Setlist:
Bottom Feeder
Psychic Vampire
Loss for Words
Vote With a Bullet
Mad World
Consumed
Seven Days
Your Tomorrow
The Doom
The Snake Has No Head
The Moneychangers
Deliverance
Rat City
Holier
Hungry Child
Leeches
Technocracy
What else is left? How much further can this night go? – Now I had to go get my car and head over to Lustre Pearl (which was easier said than done) to end this first night with Mobb Deep.
I was also their to meet up with my buddy Matt, who I would be staying with on this trip. My man loves that gangster shit, and now that it was almost 2am and we hadn’t seen each other in a year, I got a drunken hero’s welcome haha.We left there to get some late-night drive thru before heading to his place. I hadn’t seen his new place since he moved in and their I was introduced to his roommates’ sister and her boyfriend as well as the couch I would be living on for the next week.Stay tuned for more…..Photos –
Roy Turner
Eric Danton
Chris Ellis
