3/14/03
8:00 pm
WE @ Beerland
The main attraction at Austin's new home for punk rock was a showcase for the Gearhead label, including the Lazy Cowgirls, the Turbo AC's and new Gearhead signees the Dragons. Before all that, however, came Oslo's WE. Playing heavy hippy psych rock as if the music had quit evolving around 1974, the Norwegian quartet almost seemed like a parody of a 70s rock band. The shirtless, skinny singer (and he is a singer, not a shouter or a growler) had long hair and a mustache that made him look like he'd just dropped in from a time machine; the photographers in the audience loved him, especially after he donned a Mardi Gras headdress for one particularly epic number. Fortunately, the band had the musical muscle to back up its retro image; tunes like "Red Morning," "Dinosauric Futurobic" (also the name of its latest album) and "Jinxed" (about playing in a band) sported strong melodies, the right touches of trippiness and heavy grooves. The guitarist was particularly impressive, especially when he combined his frequent slide work with his wah-wah pedal. Fans of Hawkwind, early Orange Goblin and Monster Magnet would eat these guys up. As I'm one of those folks, I'd have loved to get my hands on WE's new record, but none were available at the show. Have to track it down later.

9:00 pm
The Darkness @ The Blender Bar at the Ritz
I've been waiting for this since last year's fest, when I stumbled across the Darkness at the acoustic stage at the trade show and snagged a copy of its three-song demo, which has subsequently spent a great deal of time in my player. I missed the British band's 2002 showcase due to other commitments, but was determined to catch it this time. The self-confident foursome plays unabashed cock rock, in the 70s arena rock style, with just enough 80s glam metal flash to spice things up. One guitarist sported a Thin Lizzy t-shirt, which pretty much says it all. Harmony guitar parts, booty shaking, costume changes, behind-the-head solos—the Darkness threw the works into its performance. Big beats, big vocals and, most importantly, big hooks abounded in songs like "Love is Only a Feeling," "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" and "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," as the Hawkins brothers rarely passed an opportunity to show off their picking prowess. Except, of course, when frontman Justin, clad in an open-chested jumpsuit stolen from Freddie Mercury's grave, was demonstrating his zillion octave range; white boy falsetto rarely sounds this natural. The closing anthem "Love On the Rocks With No Ice" charmed and bewildered in equal measure. As did the rest of the show—I find it highly amusing to think of all the diehard hipsters in the audience scratching their heads, trying to figure out whether or not these boys were kidding. (They're not.) But the Darkness wasn't there to be studied; it wanted to have a good time, and we were all invited to party with it.

10:00 pm
Rock City Morgue @ Red Eyed Fly
This oddly-named New Orleans combo was compared to the Birthday Party in the SXSW catalog. I don't know what dope the person who wrote that was smoking, though. There's nothing about Rock City Morgue's Goth/glam-tinged rock & roll that suggests Nick Cave's legendary band. The group (which includes former White Zombie bassist Sean Yseult) took the stage in eyeliner, makeup and Goth accouterments; frontman Rik Slave looked like a demented funeral parlor attendant who forgot to change clothes on the way to the gig. He had a great, grainy rock & roll voice, though, and the rest of the group gave him the riff-oriented context in which it would work best. Cuts like "Guilt Trip" and "Beware" were fast, hard and catchy, and the group seemed to really dig playing them. The band was a lot of fun to hear, and I was inspired enough to pick up an EP on the way out.

11:00 pm
Sourvein @ Room 710
Next up was the biggest disappointment of the evening. Not because Sourvein is a bad band—far from it. It does the screaming, pounding stoner doom metal thing as well as anybody. Burly, rude and heavy as a drum case full of Black Sabbath records, Sourvein came off as a slightly more melodic Eyehategod, spewing hate and vengeance as viciously as possible for a band that would rather get drunk and high than gnash its collective teeth. "This song is about a Nova, a handful of coke, a dirt road and a river of whiskey," announced the singer just before "Dirty South." That pretty much nails it. While Sourvein was quite good (and very well-liked by the crowd), it was a disappointment simply because it replaced an act I'd been waiting months to see: Place of Skulls, the contemporary doom metal band that includes guitarist/singer Victor Griffin, formerly of Pentagram and Death Row, and recently-inducted guitarist Wino (of the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, Saint Vitus, etc.). I have a great deal of respect for Wino and was really looking forward to seeing him play, so I was unhappy that I was missing him. No explanation for the band's absence was forthcoming, either. It would have been nice to know why the Skulls were held up. Oh well.

12:00 midnight
British Sea Power @ The Blender Bar at the Ritz
Getting back into the supposedly buzzed UK showcase was fairly easy; all the more time to get comfortable in anticipation of British Sea Power. An indescribable combination of pop melodies with the avant-garde tendencies of the Fall and Pere Ubu, BSP kept the long songs on constantly shifting ground, maintaining interest on the part of the audience even though none of them had ever heard these songs before. The young quintet had already mastered the delicate art of utilizing dissonance without tripping into white nose, and the singer had a commanding style that declaimed as much as it sang. The band, which adorned the stage with leafless trees and stuffed birds, barely let up to catch its breath between songs; that and the relatively brief set kept the crowd into it, even when one of the guitarists was throwing a chair or his ax at some unsuspecting critic's head. (Hurling large, potentially dangerous objects into the crowd must be a regular occurrence at BSP shows; a roadie appeared to take the guitar away mere seconds after it hit the ground.) The young band still has a ways to go before it's completely compelling, but it's off to a promising start.

1:00 am
Singapore Sling @ Spill
Iceland's Singapore Sling closed out the night for me, with its garage/psychedelic rock/pop. Building its tunes around simple riffs and repetition, the Sling sounds like nothing so much as a less-intense Warlocks. I must admit, I found it difficult to really get lost in the music the way I do in that of the Warlocks, but that may have had as much to do with my extreme fatigue as any qualities of the band itself. The band did little to directly engage the audience, which seemed to love them anyway. Singapore Sling is a perfectly cromulent band; maybe if I see them again when I'm fresher I'll appreciate them more.

previous: 3/13/03 | next: 3/15/03—Otis Taylor, the Lanternjack, Howling Guitar, Porn (The Men of), Keller Williams, Joe Jackson

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