Walking down the street after parking about a mile and a half away from downtown, we run into In-Flight Safety’s John Mullane, wandering the streets, unable to find his hotel.
This pretty much sums up the South By Southwest experience.
The sheer immensity of this festival, the amount of bands playing at any given time, and the many options across an area of a few square miles can leave one a little dazed and confused.
That brings up a quote from that famous Austin-shot, 1993 movie, Dazed and Confused. To paraphrase, sitting at the top of the moon tower, scanning the horizon, stoner-dude Slater rhetorically asks his friends: “How many people out there do you think are doing it right now?”
While his question centered on more primal urges, the same can be related to SXSW. Think about it: 2000 bands over five days at dozens of venues. How many bands are playing at any given moment?
The crazy part is almost every place we visit over Wednesday’s SXSW events are packed with music fans, seeking out favourite acts and those they’ve read about on some music blog, seen in the pages of some glossy magazine, or heard about from someone on the street. Word of mouth goes a long way in this town at this time of year.
Music-wise, the day starts slowly. Unfortunately, I’m not deigned worthy enough to get into the Canadian Blast BBQ because I don’t have a badge (note to organizers — if you show a Canadian passport and a wristband, you should be able to get into this thing). So I head on down to Red 7 in an attempt to check out Baltimore up-and-comers Lower Dens, whose new album, Twin-Hand Movement, has been blowing my mind.
The line is brisk and I get into the USSR-themed bar only to see the band has been replaced by some other act, so I stick around to check out Rainbow Arabia, a blissed-out electronic duo fronted by a pretty lady doing her best Kate Bush impression.
After a few songs, I book it next door in anticipation of seeing The Pains of Being Pure of Heart at the Beauty Bar Backyard as part of the eMusic day party. I make the right move as there is a line-up inside the venue to get to the backyard stage with capacity set at 225. It’s well over an hour before the Pains set and thankfully, after waiting patiently for 15 minutes or so, we are allowed entry into the back venue.
From there, we are treated to Stooges-inspired, in-your-face rock 'n roll from the Brooklyn-based quartet Obits. These dudes are a bit older but they have a great groove and simply know how to rock out. Signed to Sub Pop, Obits carries on the fine tradition of gritty, exciting alternative acts on the label.
Next up is one of my favorite new bands of the last couple of years, The Pains of Being Pure of Heart, who are about to drop a fantastic new album, Belong. Think the pop romanticism of Stars mixed with the concise catchiness of classic Teenage Fanclub (lead singer Kip Berman gave props to someone in the audience wearing a Fanclub tee) and you get The Pains, a band that recalls the best of Belle and Sebastian with added muscle and NYC-cool.
This brings me to another great thing about this music festival.
While it requires some planning and a lot of walking, SXSW provides these wonderful moments when you get to see really great bands within spitting distance of the musicians. I’m standing in the front row to see a band who is about to release an album produced by Flood, the same guy who has produced masterworks from Depeche Mode, U2, PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. I actually paid for a ticket to see them in April at a show that will feature hundreds of attendees. But today, in Austin, I’m close enough to be sneezed on by the bass player and I’m sharing this experience with two hundred lucky people.
After a killer set by Pains…, I head on down to Spill AKA Planet Quebec for the M for Montreal Poutine Party. Sweet, delicious, gravy-smothered poutine. There I discover Random Recipe, a high-energy outfit consisting of charming female duo Frannie Holder and Fab (no last name) who rap, sing, bounce, and nursery rhyme over live percussive beats and guitar riffs. They were nearly as good as the poutine. High praise, indeed.
Recharging over dinner, our crew — consisting of Dave Jaffer of Montreal’s The Hour, my lovely host Carrie and her friend Amy — head back towards Spill for the rest of M for Montreal line-up. We are held up momentarily when the corner of 6th and San Jacinto becomes Halifax corner when we run into Great Plains singer/guitarist and Jenn Grant/Classified drummer and all-around nice guy Sean MacGillvray. His hellos are quickly followed by more greetings from the East Coast-bred hip-hop contingent of Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, Timbuktu, Ghettosocks and Ontario-MC, More or Les.
We then catch the last couple of songs by Polaris Prize winners Karkwa who sound like a Francophone Coldplay. There is nothing to suggest that French lyrics would hold this band back from crossing over to English-speaking radio. It's commercially accessible as any Quebeçois band as I've heard.
The best part of the night came courtesy of Montreal veterans The Dears. Frontman Murray Lightburn is a lightning rod of rock star charisma. High drama and a croon straight from the vocal chords of Morrissey make him one of the best voices in Canadian music.
“In 40 minutes I will be 40-years-old,” said Lightburn before the start of his set after battling through technical difficulties. “I’ve been rocking in an independent fashion for twenty years. I’ve been rocking longer than some of you here have been alive.”
The Dears have unfairly been criticized by some critics as overstating their melodrama in songs that often careen over the five minute mark. So much so, that Pitchfork recently gave the new Dears album, Degeneration Street an ungodly 2.4 out of 10, a completely unfair assessment as to the talent this group offers.
It can be said, however, that Dears albums do not even begin to come close to sheer immensity and ferocity the band puts into their live show. To put it lightly, this band kicked my ass in a turn-it-up-to-11 kind of way that won me newfound respect for the Montreal six-piece who should be just one notch below the Arcade Fire in terms of live chops. Just a stellar performance all around and left me wanting to hear another hour of this band.
So inspired by The Dears, I take two new Canadian friends who are in town for the festivities to Club Deville to see a headlining set by British-based buzz band Yuck, whose music is anything but. Yuck may have the worst band name on the planet, but it’s like a boy named Sue — you just place the pressure on yourself to be that much better than those expectations.
And Yuck delivered on the hype. Many have said this band is the second coming of Dinosaur Jr. and that’s a fairly accurate assessment except for the fact where those 90s alt-rock legends plied their wares in thick, grungy stoner vibes, Yuck one-ups them with huge doses of simple melodies. I’m looking forward to hearing their self-titled debut that just came out on Fat Possum Records.
As for Day 2 of South By Southwest, we saw and did a lot and we have so much more to come with free shows featuring The Strokes and Twin Shadow, Jenn Grant, and much, much more.
Day 2 Weather: Partly cloudy, clear at night
Temperature: 24 degrees Celsius
Steps walked in Day Two: 13875 or nearly 7 miles or 11.27 kilometres
Grand total steps walked: 20,850 or 10.5 miles or 16.90 kilometres
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