We wake up again to more weirdness from our host and get the fuck out of there as fast as we can. Thankfully no sign of car trouble as we head downtown for Day 6.
Day 6 – Mar 14th
We parked the car far down a street off Cesar Chavez and decided to walk up after people were offering us to park in their yards for $20 – sorry to sound cheap but I mention it to illustrate just what the vibe was like this year, just a weird gimme gimme attidtude all around. I asked Jess to remember the name of the cross streets, this would come back to haunt to me. But for now we made our way across the freeway for the MTVu Woodie Awards.
MTVu 2013 Woodie Awards – Red River & 1st st.
I’ve attended this event the last few years but only with the agenda of it as simply a stop-off for a place to relax. Loitering in the truest sense of the word, because I am only there because I know that I can get a free decent meal, plenty of free booze, use a decent bathroom, charge my phone and relax in the shade and let the branders swath me with their wares.
I don’t think I’m alone in this respect becasue the “awards” are not prestiguous and are only an after thought. In the foreground however basically all this is, is a chance to produce content that will attract advertisers and appeal to a snapshot of current youth culture. Where I think I differ is that I also usually have not only no interest in the performances but most likely have never even heard of the performers. This year was no different expect what came this year was a healthy dose of self-awareness that said that I was way too old to be there and should have known better.
Like any award show its starts off with a host or co-hosts that have been selected to give the impressoin to the viewer that this program has their finger on the pulse of current pop culture….but with an edge!
It is supposed to be the College Awards right? This
year’s edition was co-hosted by Machine Gun Kelly and Tegan & Sara.
Again the “awards” are meaningless and its just meant to film some kind of MTV Spring Break kinda special showing young people dancing in the sun to the latest overhyped acts. The very first band Jessica and I ever saw together which isn’t anything really to brag about was Atlas Genius – It was totally by proximity and at a festival and beyond that I have no interest, but because of that it kinda reminds us of one of our first dates and that’s the only reason they held our attention.
Atlas Genius
We sat through two more painful sets of “new-comers” being heardled as “the future of music” – of Alt J & Joey Baddass – like Travis Scott before him and who knows how many others, who follow a horrid current trend of replacing the “s” in their names with “$” – fucking barf. We endured it long enough to eat dessert and charge our phones which also made impossible again by the seflish of these people. One girl who identified as probably the “mean girl” of her high school given the current parlance of her hipster headband, was taking up all five spots for her and friends – like she was on phone detail and took up the whole station. Finally I unplugged one of her five phones and tossed it to her and said “this one is done”, and plugged Jess’s in.
No longer able to withstand the attitude or the shitty music and our mission of fuel-up complete we headed out and briefly entered what felt like the Twilight Zone.
I knew what our plans were for later but in the interim I had a few other ideas.
One, being around the corner from the Convention Center, I don’t know why I didn’t think to just go there to charge our phones and avoid the “Heathers” of the world and it was indoors.
However what greeted us was a seeminlgly unending string of baffling randomness:
Allow me to indulge –
Just before we enter the Convention Center we see a scammer that’s in the same vein of the people dressed as super heroes on Hollywood Blvd but tailored to Austin’s more bohemian culture as she is dressed as pulp writer, complete with fedora, dangling cigarette and old-timey typewriter – I don’t know what her scam was but I’m sure it was good.
Once inside, and I’m not kidding here – In order to charge your phone, you had to have had RSVP’d!!! – Like you must do for everything at this convention, I could make a joke like “Man, I bet you even have to RSVP to charge your phone” – and this was now a reality as well as it was one in/one out for the bathroom.
Speaking of which is where the next round of weirdness came – The boys & girls restrooms are seperated by about 20 yards and told Jess I would meet her out front of hers. After finally geting to use the restroom, I make it over to the girls’ and while waiting outside for Jess, this weirdo apporaches me – thin, late 20’s, balding & bearded, cardigan sweater – Here’s the exchange:
Creep: (softly) “Well….there he is…”
Me – “Huh?”
Creep: “…there you are…”
Me: “…huh? are you talking to me?…”
Creep: “…you said that already…”
Me: “…wait…do you know me?…”
Creep: “…I do now…”
Me: “…ummm…no you don’t…”
Creep: “…so where are we going?…”
Me: ” GO FUCK YOURSELF”
Creep: “…umm…are you sure?…”
Me: “FUCK OFF”
Creep: “…umm..ok…bye…”
Me: “FUUUUUCCCK OFFFFFFF”
Totally weird – finally Jess comes out and I tell her what just happend as we try to find an outlet for our wall charger that we brought. When we find one, I go find a couch to chill on while Jess keeps watch, and when its my turn to charge my phone, I go back to where Jess is and there is a girl dressed in like slutty rodeo gear with the long fringe in just a tube top and short shorts – I can’t resist, so I walk up to her and ask ” Is their a burlesque show happening soon?” –
She just shakes her head and says no, like whatever what make me ask that question and temporarily seemed to have forgotten what she has chosen to wear today. Right then her “boyfriend” swoops in with a huge SLR camera and says “Go ahead, get in there, I’ll take your picture” – I decline but make Jess do it – She can barely contain her laughter –
The “boyfriend” was really dissapointed that I didnt wanna be in the picture and Jess and I contended later that these two were playing some game where they enjoy the attention she gets, take pics of her with admireers and get off to it later.
We had plenty of time to discuss this as when we walked out of the Convention Center, we got turned around, and in the ultlimate dispaly of twilight zone-ness/dim bulbery as we were looking for the Doritos stage which features a 60-ft tall Doritos vending machine, we were somehow unable to find it.
More like the Bermuda Triangle as how did we suddenly lose a 6 story tall monstrosity across the street? We walked everyhwhere except right where the machine was.
What should have taken 30 seconds, took 30 minutes and started to feel like I had been drugged – when we finally did find it, we had to circle it three times just to find its entrance. Our purpose was to find out the set-times for this evening’s event – We knew what our plans were over at Stubb’s, but I was hoping that if time allowed, we could catch a bit of Public Enemy. I have seen them in Austin more than in any other city for some reason. Sadly, the streak ended as they weren’t going till much later.
OK fuck this, let’s get over to Stubb’s for the main course –
Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players w/ Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Nielsen & more – Stubb’s BBQ – 7th & Red River
Even more so than last night, I anticipated tonight to be the ultimate shit show out front of Stubb’s – Other than the Prince show happening on Sat (which details and confirmation were still a bit hazy at this point) you couldn’t point to a bigger show with a more jaw-dropping lineup – not only this year, but few shows could be in contention with this one as being one of the biggest and most anticpated shows here ever.
And to add to the exclusivity, this was only the sixth time or so that this collabaration has performed in support of Dave Grohl’s excellent documentary Sound City – but tonight might be it’s last.
When we got there, in addition to the normal cluster fuck surrounding the entrance, their was now an added layer of a human wall of SXSW volunteers standing arm in arm like they were petitioning the Keystone Pipeline. While watching, I observed that it was the insistance of one overzealous volunteer and a few “cooler” ones refused to take part, and I thought how ridiculous…..until we actually saw some girl try to run past them mob style!
The prodcuers from the film that invited us had to reach through this human barridcade from the inside to reach for us to pull us in. Whew!
Once inside I could see that we were some of the first people in so we had no problem getting a decent place close to the stage. On the way I ran into some old Dallas pals’ – Toadies Manager Dale, and other local cronies Tony & Aden –
Opening the show were the Meat Puppets who the last time I saw, they were the openers on the last Ween tour I did back in 2010 for a brief jaunt that ended in this same building. Of the brothers Kirkwood, I know that Kurt has lived here for a long time and do I really need to mention their linage with Dave Grohl and Nirvana?
Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players are a revue of the recording studio’s alum, and of course his fellow Foo Fighters.
To start things off Dave Grohl comes out followed by the rest of the Foos and establishes himself as band leader and emcee for this ensuing (and final) celebration:
“Ladies and gentlemen, since this is our last time doing this, it’s going to be a long fucking night, Buckle up!”
One it showed it didn’t have to be a popularity contest and that Grohl wanted his contributions known, not to mention it had to be practical to find who could do a mini-tour like this – I’m sure Paul McCartney (who also appears on the soundtrack) was unavailable. And it was well placed given what was to follow.
P.S. I love the group photo on the kick drum of Pee Wee Herman, Rodney Dangerfield and David Lee Roth –
Setlist:
Set 1
w/ Alain Johannes:
A Trick With No Sleeve (Sound City Soundtrack)
Why (Eleven)
All My Friends (Eleven)
Hangin’ Tree (Queens of the Stone Age)
Reach Out (Eleven)
Grohl would excuse each person by expressing the sincerest of gratidtudes to them, hugging them and re-introducing them before bringing out the next guest. And next up was a freaking doozie – it seemed surreal when he said her name, and just like that, out walked Stevie Nicks.
She looked good, she sounded good and when they decided to do Landslide acoustiically with just her and Grohl I wasn’t the only one choking back tears.
Set 2
w/ Stevie Nicks
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (duet w/ Dave Grohl)
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
You Can’t Fix This (Sound City Soundtrack)
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac – acoustic w/ Dave Grohl)
Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
Next up Grohl introduces Chris Goss from Masters of Reality and Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine who took over on drums. Again this may seem like filler but I liked how important it was to Grohl that they be here. Also for a Kyuss fanatic like me having Goss in the house who produced more than a few of their albums, the last one also being at Sound City, was awesome. And now we were gonna hear some Masters of Reality with Brad Wilk taking the place of the legendary Ginger Baker.
Their were more than a few people around me asking me who they were etc and I was more than happy to fill them in. We had met Wilk the night before with Dave Catching & crew at the Nick Cave/Yeah Yeah Yeah shows and he was totally cool. That first Rage LP was recorded not only at Sound City, but unbeliebably it was done live.
Set 3
w/ Chris Goss & Brad Wilk
She Got Me (Masters of Reality)
It’s Shit (Masters of Reality)
Time Slowing Down (Sound City Soundtrack)
Domino (Masters of Reality)
The Blue Garden (Masters of Reality)
The show really had a last-day-of-summer camp feel and has he thanked Goss & Wilk as they were leaving the stage, he brings out his next guest. Keep in mind we knew who was billed, and have seen the movie and heard the soundtrack and know who’s on it, but as far as how this was going to be presented/executed we had no idea. It really felt like it was Dave Grohl’s teenage record collection coming to life – It just goes to show you what good people do with their money. Some people have car collections and are on MTV Cribs flaunting their wealth, and then you have guys like Jack White and all the good things he does with his Third Man Records collective and guys like Dave Grohl making this kinda magic happen.
You can tell that he does not take this for granted which only made it all the more enjoyable. The look of glee as he brought out his next guest Lee Ving of Fear was palpable to the entire event itself.
Ving started out playing some fierce harmonica and praising the city of Austin and threatehening to move back here soon, before the punk took off with his tradeamark “1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4!!!” and went into the original song from the soundtrack before rolling out the great Fear punk classics. Brad Wilk who had just left the stage stuck around hanging on the sidelines singing every word.
Set 4
w/ Lee Ving
Your Wife Is Calling (Sound City Soundtrack)
I Love Livin’ in the City (Fear)
Gimme Some Action (Fear)
Beef Bologna (Fear)
Foreign Policy (Fear)
I Don’t Care About You (Fear)
We are 21 songs in and Grohl reminds us that their is so much more coming. Probably the most out of place performer on the bill was the next guest for which Grohl acknowleged it in his introduction by saying “Our next guest is probably the last person you would see replacing Lee Ving onstage, but ladies and gentlemen (as he takes the stage) THAT is Rick FUCKING Springfield, YOUR WELCOME” –
You could sense a battery of emotions with Springfield: Primarily it was trepdiation – he seemed to be saying “No one wants to hear Jessie’s Girl in 2013 especially after all that they have seen tonight” to “Are you SURE you want ME, Dave?” – to totally enjoying suddenly being back with the cool kids who want to jam with him now in his 60s. It was also fun to see the rest of the Foos being totally resigned to hired hands if their was any question who leads this band, as they indulged their leader with stone faces. Though Springfield’s body lanugage seemed to be expecting everyone to turn on him at any moment and say “APRIL FOOLS!”, he actually played well, enthusaicatically and looked great.
Set 5
w/ Rick Springfield
The Man That Never Was (Sound City Soundtrack)
I’ve Done Everything for You (Sammy Hagar cover)
Love Is Alright Tonight
Love Somebody
Jessie’s Girl
Besides finally getting to see Stevie Nicks of course the next one-two punch was probably my favorite moment of the evening (and yes we were far from over).
Rick the Springfield was now being replaced by Rick the Nielsen of Cheap Trick fame. Grohl also introuduces Krist Novoselic to the stage to much fanfare as now with Pat Smear, every living member of Nirvana is now on stage. I get that as the logical choice, but however on the soundtrack this lineup was rounded out by my man Scott Reeder from Kyuss on bass and I would have liked to have seen him make an appearance as well.
Then Grohl calls out Corey Taylor from Slipknot whose music I am not a fan of but everyone seems to like this dude, everyhwee I go.
Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins comes down from the drum riser to sing as well leaving Grohl to ask “Ok so we need a drummer” giving the obvious implication that he was going to fill the spot.
Starting with the usual Cheap Trick set opener Hello There, I was now offiically losing my shit and going crazy! – Taylor sharing vocals with Hawkins turned out to be a bit tepid affair as apparently they had done some shows without Taylor that he jokingly lamented onstage and I guess Hawkins took his place, but now having to share vocals should have kept the fun vibe going but Hawkins was taking it waaaay too seriously and clearly enjoying his brief run up front and not wanting to share – even Taylor kinda threw his hands up at one point as if to say “Ok dude if you want to sing karaoke this bad, it’s all yours” –
This was still the most fun portion of the night and everyone was going crazy – It was fun to see Nielsen tease Corey Taylor and express other perfectionist quirks that surely annoyed the other performers. I was annoyed at Novoselic as he seemed embarassed to be there and when Nielsen gathered everyone for an old school bow at the end, he refused to participate. THIS GUY was embarassed? –
He was wearing a wide brim floppy hat with a chin string and bright baggy women’s clothing on his almost 7 ft tall frame but yet was too cool for Rick Nielsen.
Set 6
w/ Rick Nielsen, Corey Taylor, Krist Novoselic
Hello There (Cheap Trick)
Stiff Competition (Cheap Trick)
I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick)
From Can to Can’t (Sound City Soundtrack)
Ain’t That a Shame (Fats Domino cover)
Surrender (Cheap Trick)
Over 30 songs and 3 hours in and we still had one more to go! – When at last Grohl welcomed John Fogerty to the stage. Always awkward as Fogerty is, when he walked up to the mic and did the opening rap to Travelin’ Band all bets were off, if he could still do this – he killed.
When they went into the intro of Born on a Bayou, Grohl could not contain his giddiness and closed his eyes and threw his head back and appeared to be having a orgasm, you see the chills on his arms across the venue, it was magical. Not lost on Fogerty either as he said that one of the main motivating factors for his participation was “The look of pure joy this kid gets on his face when he’s playing my songs”. We all had a similar look tonight.
Set 7
w/ John Fogerty
Travelin’ Band (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Born on a Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Centerfield
Keep on Chooglin’ (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
“It’s my life’s greatest gifts that I get to call up these people who I consider heroes and have them come onstage and jam with me,” were Grohl’s parting words among a million thank yous to everyone and to the crowd. Most impressive was Grohl himself, who remained on stage, without a break, for over three hours. He led the band, played every instrument (guitar, bass, and drums), sang on most every song, and MCed between sets. “He’s a national treasure!” exclaimed Chris Goss. It’s hard to disagree.
So what is there to do after this – I think I’m good for the rest of the festival. We started walking back towards the car that was several miles away and since it was on the way, we stopped off at the Scoot Inn, the site of where our showcase will be this Saturday.
Wu Tang Party w/ Ghostface Killah, U-God, & more – Scoot Inn – 145 4th St.
So if you can even believe it that we were still going but only briefly – If this venue wasn’t literally close to the street where we parked, on the way and I didn’t wanna check in on the venue where we were having our showcase, we wouldn’t be here at all. Also as much as I love Wu-Tang and hip-hop its no secret how bafflingly dysfuntional they are and you never know what your going to get. But I’m happy to report that they were kicking ass and too bad that I was too tired and spent after what I had just seen to really care.
We stayed for a few tunes and I spoke with some of the staff about Saturday before heading to find the car. I love Jessica to death but when I asked her to remember the cross-streets the streets she committed to memory run parallel – How the fuck were we gonna find the car, this late, in the middle of the night?
– Thankfully we were finally able to locate it without too much trouble and get the fuck out of there.
Stay tuned for the final installment!!
Photos –
Roy Turner
Dana Yavin
Taylor Weese
Miharu Kato
