SXSW 2003

And lo, once again, it was That Time of Year, as the umpteenth South By Southwest Music Festival descended upon the River City of Austin, Texas. And it was…pretty damn good, actually. Once again, there was little at the convention, either in the panels or the trade show itself, that held my interest overly much. In the case of the music, though, which is the whole point of the thing in the first place, there was little about which to complain. Read on.

3/12/03
8:00 pm
Twin A @ Hard Rock Cafe
The Hard Rock Cafe is not the ideal place for a concert. Despite the rock & roll theme, the sound is always iffy, due in no small part to the placement of the speakers a good 20 feet above the stage. The sound is no doubt great for those on the balcony, but for the rest of us on the floor, and that includes the performers, much of the music gets lost in the cavernous vaulted ceiling. This didn't seem to affect tonight's first act much, however. Maybe that's because New Jersey's Twin A sounds born to play arenas. The trio trucks in dramatic widescreen rock/pop, not unlike that practiced by the late Jeff Buckley, Ours, Remy Zero, Starsailor, etc. Bald, burly frontman John has the perfect voice for it, a soaring, soulful tenor, and his amplified acoustic guitar and its battery of effects complimented his pipes perfectly, though his hyperromantic lyrics need some work. With ringing guitar tones, Zeppelin-like dynamics and flowing melodies, the music sounded much like other bands of this ilk, though played very well. The busy bass player and groove-addicted drummer, who got almost funky at times, helped set Twin A apart from its brethren, and it's the little things that often make a difference in art. I didn't feel like rushing over to buy a CD after the band's set, but I felt it was a nice way to kick off the festival.

9:00 pm
Brother Eye @ Buffalo Billiards
With only one band tonight I felt I absolutely had to see (the Turn-ons; see below), I found myself poring over the artist descriptions in the SXSW catalog looking for other acts to witness. Brother Eye caught my, ahem, eye immediately due to the name—it's not many groups that name themselves after Jack Kirby characters, especially ones from an obscure series like Omac. Then I saw an endorsement from Jason Cohen, one of my favorite rock critics, as well as a general disagreement about description (the names Cheap Trick, the Pixies, the Replacements and the Cure were thrown out), which is always a good thing. Thus I found myself at 9:00 in the bizarre environs of Buffalo Billiards, all cowhorns and pool tables, rocking out to what would be my favorite act of the night. The Pennsylvania quartet plays rootsy, melodic guitar rock, with hooks, harmonies and a variety of guitar effects and fuzztones keeping the tunes from sounding samey. The frontman was a tough-looking customer, but he had an appealing twang in both his voice and his heart. He also possessed an oddball, non-sequitorial sense of humor that led him to toss a copy of The Truth About Fonzie, an old TV tie-in, into the crowd. Playing cuts from its Dave Fridmann-produced debut, the band rocked simply and soulfully, never getting too raucous but never, ever staid, either. Tunes like "Dry Summer" (about being a teenager with no access to illicit substances) and "Inger Lorre" (a tribute to the star-crossed frontwoman of the Nymphs) had the perfect blend of energy, melody and heart, and made me crave a copy of the album badly. (Too bad the group didn't seem to have any with them.) Brother Eye closed its set with a pair of covers, a rocking take on Paul McCartney's "Jet" and a gleefully rough-and-tumble rush through Julian Cope's "Out Of My Mind on Dope and Speed," dedicated to Cohen. Simply excellent.

10:15 pm
Youth Group @ Hard Rock Cafe
Since the Hard Rock has allotted its acts much shorter sets than usual (only 30 minutes apiece!), I was able to see more bands than usual for one night. Next up on that bill was Youth Group, an Australian quartet that had brought some of its own American fan club with it. The band's melodic guitar pop, sometimes jangly, sometimes crunchy, occasionally psychedelic, isn't anything new, especially from a part of the world that produced the Clean and the Church, but it's done very well, and the group seems jazzed to be playing it. Songs like "Lillian Lies," "Baby Buddy" and the long, jamming closer (the name of which I didn't catch) make nice use of dynamic shifts and instantly appealing melodies, and sounded for all the world like the underground guitar pop of the 80s. Which is a good thing, trust me. Youth Group also had the misfortune of highlighting another flaw in the Hard Rock's skewed stage setup: the lighting. The frontman asked politely for the stage lights to be turned down, as they were much too bright. After his question, a comical procedure of turning the lights on and off ensued…during the performance, mind you. It seemed that the lights could be either all on or all off, with nothing in between. Eventually the problem would be corrected, but not during Youth Group's set. Ah well, it didn't hurt its music.

11:00 pm
The Turn-ons @ Hard Rock Cafe
Following Youth Group was the Turn-ons, which was my personal buzz band of the night. I've been a fan since I wrote about their wonderful EP Love Ruined Us, and I was looking forward to seeing them play at last. (Not to mention picking up a copy of their self-titled debut record, which I hoped the band would be selling.) I have to admit to a certain amount of disappointment, though I suspect it stems less from the band's performance than from my own expectations. The Seattle quintet played a set of brand-new songs, with only the EP's title track taken from their records, and most of its new tunes lean heavily on the psychedelic indie pop ballad side of its personality. The glam side that made the group so fetching had apparently been purged from its makeup, which is a shame. The preponderance of slow tunes dragged the set down, though whenever singer Travis DeVries put down his guitar and stepped up to the mic weaponless, the energy level shot up dramatically. It didn't help, of course, that the club's mix was particularly spotty during the Turn-ons' set; the singer's fragile vocals were all but lost in the echo of the guitars. In retrospect, it was a solid run through some fine songs; if I'd kept my mind a bit more open (like the rest of the crowd, who dug the band just fine) I would have enjoyed it more. Next time I'll repeat the mantra "Clean slate, clean slate" to myself and I'll be fine. (And yes, I did pick up the first album.)

11:45 pm
stellastarr* @ Hard Rock Cafe
New York's stellastarr* (no, I don't know what the asterisk is for) came with its own following, much like Youth Group earlier. (Keith Morris, frontman for legendary L.A. punk band the Circle Jerks and now apparently an executive at V2 Records, was also in the audience, but I couldn't tell if he was digging it or not.) Strangely, the NYC quartet was also the third band in a row with a Fender Jaguar. At any rate, stellastarr* played a version of alternative rock as performed by a group of sugared-up preschoolers. The guitarist seemed like he might fly off the stage at any minute, while the singer yelped like the bastard spawn of Cinjun Tate and John Lydon. He crooned one minute and declaimed like a madman the next, and that unpredictability made the group fascinating to watch. Its tunes weren't bad, either. This combination of factors gave stellastarr* the crown for audience favorite of the night at the Hard Rock; I imagine the band sold a ton of merch afterward.

12:30 am
The Realistics @ Hard Rock Cafe
The final act of the night, both at the Hard Rock and for me, was the Realistics, another New York combo and quite possibly the most energy-spewing band I saw all night. The quartet performed a solid set of new wavy power pop, the kind that evolved in the late 70s out of the garage rock and British pop of the 60s, but did so as if the members had collectively drunk about twelve gallons of coffee. The drummer attacked his kit, the keyboardist jumped from Rhodes to Moog to organ as if he wanted to play all three at once and the guitarist threw himself into the catchy tunes. The bassist was particularly, um, peppy—he twitched even between songs, as if standing still was simply not an option, and he leapt about like a maniac when the band was in full flight. I'm not sure if I'd really give sharp pop tunes like "I Can't Decide" and "Why Didn't You Stay" many listens in a disk player, but on stage they were perfect nuggets of melodic energy. Like stellastarr*, the Realistics had many fans present (after the set a woman turned to me and said, "The Realistics are great but stellastarr* is where it's at in New York right now—I guess the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 15 minutes are up). The group would've earned itself an encore, since it finished at 1:15, plenty of time before closing, but it had pretty much trashed the stage by the time it was done. That's fine; it gave me a chance to check out the merch table before heading home early. While only one band tonight was truly revelatory (Brother Eye), it was still a solid evening of rock & roll entertainment, and a nice way to ease into the festival.

next: 3/13/03—White Cowbell Oklahoma, All Night, the Forty Fives, the D4, the Formula, Sahara Hotnights and more!

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