SXSW 2019, Day 1 w Deerhunter, The Beths, PRIESTS, Sweet Spirit, Fontaines D.C., and Black Midi

Katie Alice Greer of PRIESTS

Welcome to Austin

As Rosi and I were walking through the Austin Convention Center to pick up our press badges for this year's South By Southwest Music Festival, I told her, "The key is to pace yourself. Don't try to do too much." I then promptly ignored my own advice.

My flight out of Newark was at 7:55 AM ET, I got to the airport super early; so I could meet Rosi before her flight which meant I was up at like 4 AM. Just before boarding the flight, I saw my friend Joe from Jersey City; and we grabbed a couple of seats together for the flight down to Austin. I was at my hotel by around 2 and having that conversation with Rosi in the convention center by 3. After some coffee and cursory planning for the week, we went our separate ways. Rosi headed over to Hotel Vegas for Strange Brew VIII featuring Thee Oh Sees, and I made my way to Mohawk for A.V. Club's "Just Another Manic Monday."

Mohawk runs 2 stages, an indoor and an outdoor. I posted up at the outdoor stage and didn't bother going back and forth so I could keep my spot. I parked myself just as Black Midi were starting. The London band are young and noisy, not doing your typical pop or rock. They've built a buzz for themselves without too much of an Internet presence, and their set was pretty relentless.

Black Midi

Fontaines D.C. followed them and were a revelation to me. I had no idea what to expect when they came out, and the Dublin band blew me away. Full-on post punk intensity. Singer Grian Chatten stalked around the stage full of stressed out energy. They had lots of fans who'd pushed up front, and I get why. Two bands into the week, and I already have a new favorite.

Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C.

Old favorites, and Austin locals, Sweet Spirit were next on the bill. It's the second year in a row that Sabrina Ellis and Andrew Cashen have welcomed me to Austin (Last year, it was A Giant Dog at Hotel Vegas); and it's a tradition I'd love to maintain. The guy standing next to me had never heard of Sweet Spirit before their set; and, by the end, he was reaching over the monitors to grab their setlist.

Sabrina Ellis of Sweet Spirit

I missed The Beths at their sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg show last week, so I was looking forward to catching them here. The New Zealand four-piece were spot-on live, delivering the songs from their excellent debut LP, Future Me Hates Me, with pop precision.

The Beths

It had been a while since I'd seen and shot D.C.'s PRIESTS. They're another band that brings the post punk intensity, and they are just an absolute blast to photograph. Funny moment: Guy standing next to me was talking to lead-singer Katie Alice Greer and asking if she'd play a song called "White Knights" or something. She said, "That's not one of our songs." He goes, "Oh wait. Apple music has your songs mixed up with this other band called Priest, and I've been listening to both!"

"Well, I hope you still enjoy the set," she said.

Priests

I thought about bailing after the first few songs from Deerhunter. I really wanted to see them, but I'd been up since 3 AM local time and hadn't eaten all day. It was starting to catch up with me. But, once they came out and started playing, I had to stick it out. All the noise, the vocal effects, the songs. Bradford Cox is pretty much a genius, and there was no way I was leaving.

Deerhunter

Weirdly, a mosh pit broke out at a couple of points. Cox leaned over to some of the people in front and asked if they were ok. Then he said, "Don't mosh towards the stage. Mosh towards the exit."

When it was all done, I climbed up the hill back to my hotel and enjoyed a late-night (early morning) dinner of the honey roasted peanuts and Wheat Thins Chips I got in the goodie bag from the hotel. My feet already hurt, and I'm a little beat; but it was so worth it. I'll see if I can't follow my own advice going forward.

New Video from Washington, DC's Priests

Priests' Katie Alice Greer

"Pink White House"

...and I leave you to go make dinner. But first...

Just when you were asking yourself if you could possibly endure 6 more days of America's poisonous political culture, here come Washington, DC's Priests with the next single from their upcoming Nothing Feels Natural. "Pink White House" is another entry in the band's catalog of politically-charged, musical performance art.

Singer Katie Alice Greer -- who directed the video -- promises "Anything you want... ...Any way you want" to a population that numbs itself with sitcoms, streaming, and nostalgia. "Feel like you participate," Greer sings. "Fall for numbers 1 or 2." "You are just a cog in the machine."

The angular guitars soundtrack scenes of gluttonous consumption and of our distractions, literally, killing us.

Oh, plus it's all really funny.

Check out the video for "Pink White House." Nothing Feels Natural is due from Sister Polygon Records on January 27th.

Priests were one of the casualties of the canceled third day of the New Alternative Music Festival back in September, but there will probably be more chances to see them live -- which is something very much worth doing -- as the album release gets closer. As a matter of fact, they'll be playing Brooklyn Bazaar on January 28th.

Don Giovanni Showcase / Screaming Females Record Release at The Knitting Factory Brooklyn, 2/28/15 (PHOTO LINKS)

Night 3

Here it was three weeks since Night 2 of the 2015 Don Giovanni Records Showcase and time for the third and final night. New Brunswick power trio, Screaming Females, had put out Rose Mountain earlier in the week; and this evening would double as their record release show. Also on the bill were Cincinnati's Vacation, Appleton, Wisconsin's Tenement, and DC's Priests. When Night 3 was announced, it sold out quickly; so Don Giovanni added a second, late show. I'd be attending the early one.

I saw Don Giovanni co-founder Joe Steinhardt briefly before I went inside the Knitting Factory's performance space. He looked a little harried. I can imagine that putting together two separate 3-plus-hour shows and ensuring that everything runs on time might be a little stressful. As it turned out, the early installment ran like clockwork even with a few, brief onstage technical difficulties.

Vacation

Unlike the previous two nights, Chris Gethard wasn't there to host this one. Instead, Vacation came out unannounced right on schedule just before 7pm and lit into their set. 2013's Candy Waves was a standout album for me that year. I hadn't seen the band since last year's showcase, and it was cool to hear "Horny Politicians" and "Pyro Hippies" live again. Singer / guitarist Jerri Queen gave the songs all the snottiness that I love hearing on the record.

Tenement

Tenement were next and played a set that, I think, clocked in at around twenty minutes. They were relentless, though; and didn't pad things out with any stage banter. There were several chants for more as the band walked offstage.

Last year, Night 3 fell on CoolDaughter #1's birthday, so I had to miss the show. That was the night that Priests played; and, until last night, I'd still never seen them live.

Priests' 2014 Bodies and Control and Money and Power is a short gut-punch of politics and paranoia. Saturday night, guitarist G.L. Jaguar and bassist Taylor Mulitz combined riffs and basslines into some kind of not-quite-surf / not-quite-post-punk sound doled out in short, frantic bursts and punctuated by Daniele Daniele's drums. Vocalist Katie Alice Greer was a force, delivering the band's lyrics decrying consumerism, television, and disposable culture as she moved frantically onstage atop a pair of perilously high heels. Her stage presence and the band's sound were impressive and nearly stole the evening. Nearly.

Priests

Screaming Females took the stage at around 9pm and played a set featuring both Rose Mountain cuts and favorites from their back catalog. The Marissa Paternoster-designed Rose Mountain logo adorned the amps and bass drum. I feel like the band are poised to blast off to another level of popularity. Their set was the same controlled intensity and fury that I've seen show after show, and it's what's gotten them to the verge of blowing up.

The crowd had been pretty calm all night, but I think some mosh pits started at some point during the set. I felt myself pushed up against the stage several times, anyway. I was too fixated on taking pictures and screaming lyrics with my camera held up to my face to really see what was going on behind me.

Bassist Mike Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty held things down as Paternoster stalked the stage, bellowed lyrics into the mic, and did her furious soloing. People seemed to have a good handle on the new songs already. I've had the record in very heavy rotation since it began streaming at NPR. So too, apparently, have many of the people in Saturday's crowd.

Everything was done before 10pm, and we filed out to make room for the next crowd. Each of the bands on Saturday's bill was intense and unique. I often wonder how bands are physically able to tour and play shows every night. I can't even imagine having to do two performances at the level I saw from each band, but I'm sure the late-night crowd got something just as special as I did.

Screaming Females

Here are links to photos for each of Saturday's bands. I went a little nuts during the second half of the evening.

Screaming Females
Priests
Tenement
Vacation