Letters to the Editor
SXSW OVERVIEW
BEST SHOW: British Sea Power at Rockstars, Friday, March 19
British safari military outfits. Plastic mallards and owls. Lots and lots of foliage. I've just described a few things you can expect to see on stage if you ever witness BSP in concert. This young Liverpool quintet had been gestating for several years, but they finally burst from the cocoon with a transcendent debut album, The Decline of British Sea Power, on Rough Trade last summer. With a string of majesterial singles behind them—"Remember Me," "The Lonely," "Fear of Drowning," "Carrion"—BSP instantly recall the heady days of Echo and the Bunnymen's pop-psych masterpiece Heaven Up Here.
BSP are veterans of SXSW, having performed on the same bill as The Darkness at last year's British showcase at the Blender Bar. This year was pretty much a repeat of last year's performance, but you won't get any complaints from me because both shows were tense, weird, dazzling displays of rock'n'roll prowess. One of the reasons I love this band is because they are hellbent on terrorizing the venue staff during their SXSW performances. Instead of a standard 40-minute showcase set, BSP played for 70 minutes this year. This was in large part due to their closing number, which over the course of 20 minutes teasingly had several false endings, only for the band to build to yet another frenetic crescendo. One of the bar staff was the first to crack, but in a positive way. Leaping on top of the bar, the bartender was shaking his head furiously in time to the maelstrom being created on stage. BSP's guitarist, Noble, wasn't about to miss his chance at bonding with the new convert, so he also made his way on top of the bar and encircled the bartender with his arms while continuing to play the guitar. At this point, Rockstars' manager and a security guard barreled to the side of the stage in an effort to intimidate BSP's road manager and get the band off the stage. The road manager just gave a shrug as if to say "There's not a lot I can do about it. They're in the middle of their set and they're lost in the music." The security guard prowled about the stage and tried to stare down the band. The band countered this by ignoring him completely, and simply staring into space. The bass player climbed on top of the shoulders of the lead vocalist. The guitarist careened wildly into both of them. The keyboard player/percussionist leapt into the crowd and prowled about the venue. During all this activity, the band kept playing with wild abandon. When they eventually decided to end their sprawling epic, and make no mistake, it was entirely THEIR DECISION to do so, they slooowwwly wound things down. By this point, much to their credit, both the club's manager and security guy were laughing at the sheer absurdity and exhiliration of what we had all witnessed.
WEBSITE: britishseapower.com
ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
- Nellie McKay and Josh Rouse at their Waterloo Records performances
- The B-52's at Stubb's
- Demolition Doll Rods performing the VU's "Heroin" at the Jackalope
- The Veils performing at the Rough Trade showcase at Rockstars
Randy Haecker
Publicist, Sony Legacy
