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| Starcrawler |
"C'mon You Dads!"
Yesterday got away from me a little bit. My alarm went off, and I kind of just sat and stared into space in my hotel room before deciding that it was time to venture out and get some coffee. I planned on taking it kind of easy, since we have our big show today with a 10am load-in. Things didn't go quite as planned.
Back up a little first.
I spent Thursday morning getting the show listings and my daily recap together; and, before I knew it, it was 12:30. I gathered up my stuff and walked the few blocks over to Sidewinder where I caught Montreal's Common Holly. The project of Brigitte Naggar, Common Holly make intense, personal music in the vein of someone like Mitski. It's amazing how early 1pm feels when you're spreading yourself thin. Naggar commiserated a bit with the audience, "Who's tired?"
After that set, I caught Snail Mail on the Sidewinder outside stage, and I could see why the band really seem to be striking a chord with people.
In my quest to take it kind of easy, I decided that I'd go sit in on a "Writing About Music Panel" that featured Ryan Schreiber (Pitchfork), Marcus Moore (Bandcamp), Puja Patel (SPIN), Chris Mench (Genius), and Andy Cohn (The Fader). It touched on a lot of things I think about a lot, like criticism vs curation and writing about emerging artists. Time well-spent.
It was already late afternoon at this point, and I figured that some time with friends over at Little Dickman's Hard Luck Lounge showcase would be nice. They had a great line-up there, and I managed to catch Stuyedeyed, Grim Streaker, Dentist, Pink Mexico, Ex-Girlfriends, and Gustaf. I'd seen all of them before back home with the exception of Gustaf. Fronted by Lydia Gammill and featuring members of Sharkmuffin, Ex-Girlfriends, and The Big Drops, Gustaf is a wild experience of dance music, poetry, and Tarra Thiessen's voice through some kind of distortion pedal or vocoder. It has to be seen to be understood.
I headed back into town from there where I sat in my hotel room for an hour or so before working up the energy to catch late sets from Nashville's Pujol (Valhalla) and the "semi-legendary" Wedding Present (7 Grand). I've loved Daniel Pujol's garage-y, southern tinged, punk rock since seeing Pujol open for Screaming Females a few years ago. The band have been busy working on some new songs, apparently, and the ones they did on Thursday have me looking forward to the new record. The Wedding Present have been at it for around 30 years now, and their jangly post-punk has been a huge influence on lots of the music that I love. For a good portion of their 35-minute or so set, I just closed my eyes and soaked it in.
Somehow, it was now around 1am already; so I trudged back to my hotel room where I vowed that the next day would be focused on re-charging. It started off that way. I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast and slowly strolled over to the Convention Center where I caught the noon set from Sunflower Bean. The band have a kind of a 70s, psychedelic pop vibe anchored by singer Julia Cumming's voice. I'll say it again. While the Convention Center feels like a big conference room, the sound is miles ahead of much of what you hear around SXSW.
I walked back over to the Cedar St. Courtyard for a quick set from Philly's Hop Along. Singer / songwriter / guitarist, Frances Quinlan, is even more amazing live than on the band's records. So glad I didn't miss them.
Back over to Austin Convention Center for the tail-end of the set from Natalie Prass and the full set from Nashville country music badass, Nikki Lane. I texted the Dickmans, and we met over at Cheer Up Charlie's for California surf punks, The Frights. Following that, we met up with our buds Matt Chrystal and Joe Stalker, and headed over to catch another set from Gustaf. It ended up being the most weirdly wonderful set of SXSW so far.
Gustaf had a gig at The Big Easy, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and bar specializing in Cajun-style food. Seeing Gustaf do their thing and interact with the stunned and confused crowd, most of whom were just there to pick up their dinner, will be THE memory of SXSW 2018 for me.
Dinner at Kerbey Lane and then the Dickmans dropped us off at Barracuda downtown where I caught Spanish surf punks Kings of the Beach, another super-intense set from Grim Streaker, The Wedding Present, Public Access TV, and Starcrawler. The sets alternated between the indoor and outdoor "stages," but all the bands played on the floor like we were at a basement show.
Hinds were on-hand going bananas to the NYC garage pop of Public Access TV, and Starcrawler were everything they'd been built up to be for me. At one point, guitarist Henri Cash chastised us, "Hey! I thought this was a pit party, not a room full of boring dweebs." Singer Arrow de Wilde stalked around the stage like the scary girl from
The Ring, spitting water, tossing personal belongings from people's backpacks, and taking her wireless mic all through the venue. She tried to whip up the crowd of SXSW badge holders, screaming, "C'mon you dads!" Catching a set just inches away from the band like that isn't something any of us will be doing for much longer.
After midnight and I'd been out since about 10am. Oh, well. 9 bands at our show today and then hopes of running over to the big MGM outdoor stage to close things out (for me, anyway) with A Giant Dog and Roky Erickson. Sorry for the lack of pics today, but I have to be at our show in like 45 minutes, and I'm way behind on my editing. You can always follow me on
Instagram.
