Wednesday, March 15, 2006

SXSWednesday

As planned, we headed out to Emo's at around noon on Wednesday. We couldn't have asked for a more pleasant day--slightly overcast with temps somewhere in the low 70's and the usual high chance for precipitation that goes along with SXSW. But the clouds held it in long enough for us to get in out of downtown high and dry.
Not much has changed at Emo's: you can always depend on some free SXSW goodness to happen there, and it did. The first band scheduled to play Emo's outside stage [The Strays?] didn't show, so we had a half-hour to sit around and peoplewatch from the bleachers facing the outside bar. As you can see from the pic, the cool people had not yet arrived [unless you count Kim and me].

The first band to take the outside stage was What Made Milwaukee Famous. They hail from Austin, but I'm sure Milwaukee would have been proud to be represented by these guys this afternoon. Kim and I had seen them once before and they were, ehh...okay. Today, they put on an energetic show providing a nice kickoff for our SXSW 2006 for Freeloaders.

What Made Milwaukee Famous

You can also count on the band for all of your elevator repair needs [check the work shirt].

Zykos took the stage, next, and put on an impressive show. I had only heard some recorded stuff from them prior to this performance, and I wasn't all that impressed. What I saw today was very promising. Austin still produces some good bands! I'd like to hear some of their new material with better studio quality.

By this point, the bar had been raised for the afternoon. And I'll be damned if Sound Team didn't clear it by a mile. It seems like a couple of years ago Kim and our friend Natalie saw them open for Dressy Bessy, and they said this band was really good. I finally heard their EP, this year, and it's okay. But Kim and Nat knew what they were talking about. Sound Team far exceeded my expectations and put on the best show of the day. Their sound reminds me a little bit of The Walkmen, but it's a bit more diverse--maybe a little less raw energy.

Sound Team

BTW - Check out the cool Gibson Firebird geetar on the left with the PAF-style humbuckers [click the pic]. I wonder if that's original: I've only seen these guitars with the mini 'buckers.

Following Sound Team was The Ponys [pictured above]. I missed these guys the last time I did SXSW, so I was looking forward to this show. They were much tighter live than I expected--maybe even tighter than their recorded material. They've got their act together. We were a tad disappointed, though, that they only played one song from Celebration Castle.

We couldn't tolerate the next band on the outside stage, so we headed indoors to see what I thought was going to be a set by Dengue Fever. I guess I had this written down incorrectly in my schedule, because it was actually The Deathray Davies just beginning their set. I've seen these guys listed in the Chronicle music listings, but had written them off as a just another average band with a punny band name. They were actually pretty rockin'. I'm glad I finally got to see them--for free! I'd like to check them out again.

Next, we walked up the street to Red Eyed Fly to see Calla. It's been years since I've been in this club, and a lot has changed. The back patio that used to be a tree-lined terrace overlooking a creek is now almost completely enclosed. I kind of miss the campfire ambiance they used to have there, but they did a good job on the renovation. And, as you can see below, the place is still well ventilated.

Calla took their sweet ass time setting up. When they finally took the stage, we noticed something was missing--the second guitar player. When we saw them a couple of years ago, they were a four-piece. Today's performance was good, not great. We missed the texture that the additional guitar added. I haven't really heard their new recorded material, though. Maybe they were trying to get away from that layered shoegazer sound and needed to drop that guitarist in order to do so. Bad move. It sounds like they're writing the same style of songs they did as four-piece while leaving out piece #4.

Calla - flying in the missing guitar formation.

We left Red Eyed Fly and crossed Red River to Club DeVille to see The Drams--only, they played at the same time as Calla. Damn. So we decided to call it a day and go get some grub.

We talked over our dinner options while riding the bus back to my parking garage, and this guy sitting across from us says, "Hut's . . . it's 2-for-1 night." How could I forget about Wednesday night at Hut's? It's crazy to think about how many burgers I've downed at Hut's 2-for-1 night. I think we went there almost every Wednesday for a year [or more] back in '99-'00. Now, I maybe eat there a couple of times a year. But when we walked in to Hut's this evening, the little manager guy noticed me and said, "Tommy, right? Table for two?" Wow.

SXSW Music Day #1: I have to say today was a good day--didn't even have to use my A-K. We ran into some old friends and even met a couple of nice folks from Minneapolis. The crowd wasn't too bad. It's early on, and everyone is still friendly and full of energy and enthusiasm. Maybe the hipster plane has not yet landed. I expect the crowd will increase as we approach the weekend.

1 Comments:

At 8:57 AM, March 16, 2006, Blogger -tommy said...

I didn't manage to get a good picture of Zykos or Deathray Davies.

These pics are kinda lame. I will try to do a better job of capturing the scene, today.

 

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