SXSW - Saturday 2009

Good take on the changes at the festival from MBV.

We started our last day of music nirvana with a hoof out to Jovitos near South Congress. The TexMex restaurant was venue for Twangfest, a sorta alt-countryish gathering of Bloodshot-esque bands being hosted by a St. Louis radio station, which explained the strongly Midwestern lineup. Gorgeous day…so even though I was unenthusiastic about the acts, it was a joy to be at this event:

Romantica (38) - Pleasant alt-country from Minnesota.

Waco Brothers (39) - When they are on, as they were, they are great fun. 
Unfortunately, more often than not they are off, so I tend to avoid them. Still, GREAT set. They stuck to the shuffles and higher energy material that plays to their strengths as a band.

Steve Dawson from Dolly Varden (40) - Boring.


Excene Servenko (41) – Sadly, the legendary punker from X is now living in Jeff City, Mo and has also gotten boring.


Magnolia Summer (42) – Blah St. Louis guys playing rootsy stuff with aspirations to do more.

So, the Twangfest run wasn’t so great. But it woke us up, got us appropriately prepped with beer, so we wandered over to South Congress, poking our heads in Yard Dog to be reminded that The Silos are immensely boring, before walking the packed sidewalks of Austin’s most hyped street. We stopped in to an outdoor pizza stand and caught:

Mt. St. Helen's Vietnam Band (43) – Another blogosphere hype band and another example of folks trying hard to do something different, but ending up with a convoluted sound. They had interesting songs with quick, quirky time changes that threw things off balance. Instead of the intended “keep ‘em guessing” aesthetic, the songs just felt like a bunch of semi-interesting clips glued together in slipshod fashion. I will definitely steal the sleigh bell/tamborine stick idea for percussion and live stuff…



Saturday nights have often been incredibly unsatisfying at SXSW. What should feel like a crescendo is often just disappointing with a mad dash to find interesting bands while an extremely early morning flight looms, limiting beer consumption… Every year, there are discussions of leaving Austin on Saturday in the future. That would have been a shame this year, as I felt that this evening had some of the highest notes of the weekend, largely at Emo’s which is a dump that happens to have great sound both inside and out:

Funeral Party (44) - Great great great.
Tons of frenetic energy from this young LA band. Angry guitar riffs over one of the strongest rhythm sections of the weekend, with a charismatic lead singer who barely avoids being annoying with his stage theatrics---he had the crowd in the palm of his hands… I’ve since downloaded a strong EP and will be watching these guys for something good in the coming months.

Efterklang (45) – Danes who brought a very different, albeit just as affecting energy to the stage. Where Funeral Party was aggressive, Efterklang was just happy… Sounds lame, I know, but it worked. They were just geeked to be on stage, beaming out at the crowd. And their dense quirky music, complete with four part harmonies, magnified that joy into an intense happy ray that had its way on the crowd. Not sure how to describe the music other than to note that they played long, cyclical songs built around very dense soundscapes that featured electronics and an array of multi-instrumental layers. Cleverly, the built up sound was augmented by very simple percussion parts that were highlighted by the murk below and prevented the songs from ever even edging on boring.

Yelle (46) – Out in Emos Main, we joined a capacity crowd for France’s gold lame body suit clad dance queen. The crowd loved her. We did not…

An Horse (47) - New Zealand twosome guy girl rock combo. Earnest indie. Just ok. A bad slot following two great energy bands---though apparently DeRo loved them (along with Yelle). Huh…


Clipd Beaks (48) - Uh oh. A mess of feedback in nothing but the worst way…


fiasco (49) - NYC skate punks with a bit of an Yngvei Malmstein fetish.
 Very interesting. Should have stayed for more.

The Knux (50) – I felt bad dragging Pete to a show that highlighted everything bad about live hip hop: stupid “put your hands in the air” stuff and horrible booming sound that obscured the cool samples that make these guys interesting. VERY disappointing.

To end the night, Pete and I walked past the massive line for one of Kanye’s unannounced sets (we had no idea---though I imagine it would have been impossible to convince Pete to stand in line for Kanye, particularly after the previous mess of a set) and into a random UK showcase…


Friends Electric (51) - Random Welsh dance group with a random Ibiza sound.


Sons of Albion (52) – We were ready to go, but saw some fascinating looking characters hanging around in the bar. A Robert Smith-looking guy in a marching band suit? A middle aged woman in a sparkle-y gold dress that she probably should not have left the house… And an oily cartoon English pimp. So we stuck around hoping they would take the stage. They did not. Instead, so lame guys in leather jackets played half a metal song before we wandered out in search of a cab and a three hour nap before flying home.

Thanks to Pete, Steve, Kyle, and Steven for a ton of fun! Nate and Jeremy, sorry we missed ya.