Yo.
I like to do a recap every year on what went down, mainly so I can remember exactly what happened and save it for posterity, since its all such a blur, but also for other people interested in what is going on with this weirdo rock thing and sharing perspectives, but I think I am going to do it a bit differently this time. SXSW is a major vibe bomb for everyone. Without going to far into it, it was really sad what went down in front of Mohawk this year, and I do think it weighed on everyones conscious a little bit. Before that happened, i noticed people driving like batshit crazy style (as Thor would say "drunk driving is for rich assholes", well sxsw is pretty much the largest rich asshole magnet known to man). Then afterwards it seemed like people were driving with more courtesy. I couldn't help but think of the short story "The Lottery" which like any good middle schooler I read. Basically the town sacrifices one random person to "ensure" a good harvest because they are superstitious or something. At least thats how I remembered the story going.
But yeah, I am very tiptoey, because the whole vibe bomb thing casts a pretty wide net. For example, someone left a mini-Korg at one of the shows I did and I posted it on facebook "is this your mini-korg?" yet I couldnt help but wonder, actually I thought it like this, "probably someone is going to see that post and think i am bragging about what a great guy i am getting ppl their gear back, and they are going to hate me for it." Because people do think like that, trust me. Its weird the ways you can inspire hatred, and its worth being tiptoey about. Some of the best advice I have gotten recently, or maybe it wasnt the best advice so much as it was the advice most applicable to my life, was sort of second hand......I was at dinner with my dad and 2 of his business associates (he is a wine importer) and this dude who is now like the #1 salesman in Austin or Texas or something, his bullshit is real good ol' boy style, but I have met this guy enough times to know its an act, he said something about this woman in the business and he said, authoritatively "she needs to keep her mouth shut." The way he said it sounded real chauvy, but it was a little more nuanced then that --- actually I had been looking over at my dad cause i got confused what to do in this situation (I have no business with these guys obviously, i am just sort of at dinner) and the answer was, hey everythings cool, you just need to keep your mouth shut. Thats what I should have been doing, just watch, learn, and be comfy while these guys do their shit. So I took it to half-mean the guy was talking to me, and actually telling me something really helpful. But also, in a way, this is the liquor sales business in Texas we are talking about, not the fuckin friars club or whatever, this guy would have no trouble saying some other male needed to "keep his mouth shut", it actually is important business information and probably appropriate in a weird way, and he is actually doing his job to talk about this other business actor in the same way, be that actor male of female (as well as being convincing as a salesperson by talking authoritatively in that manner). double edged sword of equality.
And I do have something to say a little later about what women face, especially being in bands, cause I didnt really notice it before this year, but women do have it harder in certain basic regards --- harder getting the soundman to do his fuckin' job, harder because x number of ppl you meet are all trying to get in your pants (at all levels of industry), and if you do you are slut shamed and if you dont they just all get mad at you, and its difficult. like, wow. Or maybe i should say its tricky. As a guy, I face certain things too, but I think all and all humanity would be better served if the average guy had a better understanding of what the average woman goes thru in certain situations.
Peoples gear getting stolen is a major fucking vibe bomb. Its happened to me in years past. This year, miraculously, I lost nothing except my computer charger (who knows, maybe its around here somewhere). But Cloud Becomes Your Hand and Moonsicles definitely got gear stolen and it just puts such a bad taste in your mouth. Moonsicles was down to play this art gallery show I had set up for them at 5 AM, and they had to cancel because they had their gear stolen --- I cant imagine they would have agreed to play at 5 AM unless it was something they were excited about, so think about that for a second. Cloud Becomes Your Hand, I exchanged with those guys this pissed off sideways knowing glance because "its always at the best shows that your gear gets stolen, isn't it?" you let your guard down for one second because you are having such a great time, and the vibe of the place seems legit like you are welcome and at home, etc, and boom, that show just cost you $1000 to play. Fucked up shit. And that aggregates and it matters. CBYH has really nice gear, they are serious musicians from Brooklyn and they have an electric vibrophone and a violin player and a lot of electronics -- some people would probably see all their fancy gear and assume that they are rich or something, but I see it a bit differently -- I assume all musicians are basically broke, so if they have more money invested in their gear it probably will make it even harder for that band to replace. "oh theyre rich, they have all this nice gear, they can probably afford to replace this." bullshit.
SO that was some of the negativity. There was a lot of positivity too -- MAJOR positivity. I met a lot of cool people and psychedelically bonded with some people who stayed at my house. There were some people who legitimately get what I am doing, and why, and that means the world to me, because the status quo basically feels like you do all this shit for other people and then you get misunderstood and people treat you with suspicion. I will say, that when it comes to the Major League Baseball of Rock and Roll, you need to punch your own ticket, and there is no way around that, unless you want to be at the mercy of someone else's beck and call. as Jerry Jeff Walker says, "if you want to be free, you have to be your own boss." So I have been trying to do that, and in a weird way that could be considered an expression of the will, or of the self, but the way I do things is really about other people, thats actually a trick that I think is what makes the whole thing work, and what other people by and large miss.
I got to book a lot of my friends bands and I got to see a lot of my friends from out of town all at once. I got to see my friends in Austin lose their shit on a number of occasions, and I personally got to lose my shit (i mean this in a good way of course, as in "i just saw the most awesome band and the whole crowd was losing their shit"). I had this thought towards the end of the pool party like about the absurdity of the situation is the sense that I was asking myself the question "so is this what it takes to get me off?" Like why should it be going to Herculean lengths, planning something for 3+ months, dealing with a mountain of bullshit, etc, .... why cant i just be a normal person?! ha. But it all works --- the best things that happened to me over sxsw are weirdly mundane in a way --- my parent's told me they loved me, my best friend's dad called me a man, and I went on a sikk ass date, which I have no idea how that happened, first of all people dont even go on dates any more, and second of all I am typically retarded when I try to talk to a woman I am attracted to.
The thing about rock and roll is it really expressed the peak of what humans are capable of, the individual and also as an aggregate, and most people dont have that much of a reference point with peak experiences. Anyways, more blogging recap to follow but I am going to keep it brief to the point of being curt and also not really talk about Austin bands since that would turn into a circle jerk real fast, obviously I only went to see or booked Austin bands that I really like and also that I want to support their music because I believe in it.
PEACE
Sunday, March 23, 2014
ESCAPES 2014 // SXSW RECAP pt 1, preface
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Exclusive Thoughts on Escapes day 3
...and so we continue. Again writing from the starbucks in Athens at College and Broad. Played my first quiet hooves show last night! I didnt really know the notes, or like, the keys or the song names, just kinda how the songs go, so it was a little rough musically, but I did my best to make up for it with pure rocking out. I was on congas for a few songs, so that is easy to rock out on. I think I've got a good look right now, mid-fro and mid-beard, makes the crowd think they are looking at something besides a lackey boy. I am looking forward to knowing the material well enough to sync in with what the band is actually playing...3 more days of practice left. I went to 5 Star and ate the Meatloaf because I want my brain to function at a high level, and think it needs nutrients right now. After Escapes I felt like my mind was a total blank slate, like I had just smashed it into oblivion. Being here for 4 days I kinda feel the same way again...like I never totally recovered and also I have been doing like 3-a-days which is a spring football workout term for completely busting ass trying to learn a retarded amount of music in a very short time. I got a solid does of amateur's glory in and then this morning Mercer brought me back to earth...I need to stay in the woodshed until the last possible moment. Noone said it was gonna be easy. The Hooves are really helping me learn the songs, and because of some stuff they have showed me in practice I am able to listen to the recordings (which have no guitar on them, basically) and pick out what the parts are supposed to be. Javier the usual guitar player is not in town right now, so I can't just pick up the parts off of him, but it is working out, I just need to get back in there. But first some procrastination / mind focusing.
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Alright, the greek plates had been smashed, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, and we had had 2 nice nights already. Would the momentum hold? I was pretty sure it would on the 3rd night, Sunday. R Stevie Moore was the headliner, and Austin is an "R. Stevie Moore town," that's what I told them at least, it was true.
SUNDAY March 11th
The show got off to a rolling start. I forget what I did during the day, but I feel like i was glad that the show didn't start until 7 PM, cause I was still a little stunned from the break in. I think we started at 7:20 and Albert (Ferdinand Rising) played first in the big room. Artificial Earth Machine is an Austin guy who I had never met or seen perform but had gotten in touch via email, so when we were booking it we just kept adding bands at the beginning of the show and he was one of those. He was great! Good music and a cool light show. He gave out free CDs people eagerly grabbed them. The music was in a consistant vibe, it felt like a long build, everyone knew what was coming later in the night and for the most part the artists that we stuck on this day were folks who had some connection or were inspired by R Stevie's music, so I think that led to the sound being a little more focused. I dont remember Dude Magnets maybe i was setting up. Hooded Fang and Odonis Odonis were 2 Toronto bands that Jordan Michael had booked and seemed to know each other. The music was excellent, the guitarist for Hooded Fang was a little bit like jittery, like the guitarist in Christmas. And they had a really charismatic female lead singer. Odonis Odonis's vibe was a little nortern hard rock, a little artier than a band like Northern Liberties, but that same kind of north urban hard rock vibe. They were loud and heavy and well melded, you could tell they were tour tight. They probably were wearing some black clothes, I donno, the singer was good and had some skater vibes, I think he was prob a real young guy, 23 or so if I had to guess. I dont think you could call that band bright eyed and bushy tailed tho, it seemed like they were railing against a society that did not speak for them (<---dry humor). Oh yeah, Sunday was the day that Gangi and Mercer got in. They were supposed to get in before the show started, but were late starting in from Marfa, and also didn't catch the turnoff from I-10, so they went all the way to San Antonio before hopping on I-35 and that set them back another hour +. So I was running the show. It was running a little behind, but there were slots later for Man's Trash (mercer solo). They were running a little extra late on his account, so we wanted to make sure everything was gonna be cool with Gangi's set. Actually, something really cool happened with that. But yeah, back to 9 PMish. Roo played the small room and were sweet. Those guys have good consistency and always play that room well. Its hard for me to remember which I Love You set was which, but I think this is the one that Justin played in the big room and there were girls dancing. Maybe they were on drugs, there were a couple chicks all dressed up and one of their butts came out at one point, dang! I think his set benefits from a little aggressive flair like that...he is out of a Chicago warehouse scene and its nice to have some cultural signifiers harken back to the origin headspace (dancing chicks on drugs with their butts coming out.) La Panza played, that was cool for me. Those guys are good man. They are originally from Lubbock, had moved to New York, and now I think they are gonna try and find the right sized pond in Austin, so I'm gonna try and grab em for a bill or 2 with my band before they get too big :). They said that the dominant cultural institutions of Lubbock went after the college radio station there and it just decimated the scene. We played last summer on tour with Naked Pictures, one of those dudes's bands and they were great. They used to play shows with Tuxedo Killers way back in the day, that's how I first came across those guys, and I think its cool how both those groups of musicians were maybe naively focused on creating output, like a label etc. Naivety is really important in rock, if you went around and told every 16 year old kid that they weren't going to turn into Jimi Hendrix until they believed you it would probably have a very negative effect. And yet, the culture exists, rock culture. I admire them for the fruits of their labor and its cool how it has aftershocks, like how I picked up a used Dan Doyle record from 2006 recently on vinyl. Glad noone ever told him he was never going to sell enough of those to financially make getting them printed up worth it (I donno, maybe he did.)
Whereas the first 2 nights had a crowd of 50+ by 9 or 9:30, the crowd for this one picked up a little later, I think because people were planning on sticking around for the headliner, as opposed to the previous 2 days where folks were mostly filtered out by 1:30 AM (the first 2 nights went until 2:15 or 2:30). The crowd was probably around 35 at 9:30 for this show...will they come? But they did, I would say 10:30 / 11 PM was the real turning point as far as crowd size. Slugbug and Attic Ted were next. Slugbug was great all festival, dang how many times did those guys play? 2 weeks later it's mushing together for me, especially all the bands that played a number of times, how their sets went from day to day. Attic Ted was Grady solo in the small room. I was still running the show at this time.
Ok so probably around 11:30 Rayon Beach plays, on the ground in the big room. It was my first time seeing them, despite knowing Mike from college and having picked up a record and hearing their band that way. It was loud, a tinge of noisiness with underlying pop in a Times New Viking kind of way. Really high energy, really a dude smacking the drums. It was a solid show, that is a touring rock band right there. I love all the bands, but really I like the rock bands. Weirdo pop too, but if a band rocks they don't have to do much else for me, it can be stupid or fucked up or anything, I'll be satisfied. I think Rayon Beach is probably on the brainier side, somehow, but they still rocked, so their intellectualism is forgiven. I got to talk to the main dude about R Stevie Moore for a while. He is a big fan and we discussed creative styles as it pertains to recording. For example, we assumed that RSM used all his tape and was a completest, which has merits, but on the other hand, I do tape recording too and use alot of the space for demoing that makes the final product sound different. Actually if I can get 9 good minutes off a 25 minute reel of tape I would say that is really good for me. If I get 6 I will feel like I am flogging along at a satisfactory rate, and the rest of the space where there is demoing, alot of the time it will be full demos, bass and drums and everything. But its just a different process, I could experiment with the other way if I thought it would enlighten me to some new ideas, but I think I am going to wait until my solo album is done before losing focus and getting away from whats working for me, albeit slowly. So those were the lines of our intellectual conversation. The Lead Pipe set I basically missed because I was setting up, but I avoided making the mistake of running them too early to "get the show back on time" or something...Justin was gonna dub them out and was working until 11 PM or something, so I think they went on more like 11:20 PM. Probably this is about the time Reverse X Rays played. It was my favorite set we have ever done, with a great confluence of playing well and having a receptive audience. Everyone in the band felt the fire on the ass of wanting to play a good show, and that is when we really listen to each other, which pays some good dividends musically. We had gotten out our first show jitters, and it was my turn to veto certain songs in certain places in the set order that hadn't gone well at our first set. I am glad everyone went along for that show, we played great. Thanks to Slugbug and Andy from Quiet Hooves especially and everyone else who let us borrow gear for this set, Joey's bass head had broken and we were completely unprepared as far as having quarter inch cables / power adapters / power cables / all the things professional bands never fuck up. That's the way that band goes, but man we did it! And with all new material, that was the most exciting part. We hadn't proven to ourselves that the music we had been working on for the past ~7 months was any good in a live setting yet. I love that band because we really have an original sound, we never sound like the other bands on the bill. Its kind of a dorky sound a little bit, maybe, cerebral space rock with surf overtones. Maybe its "destined for the late night shift on KVRX" if we ever get it over there, but who gives a fuck, the shows are really fun to play when they go right. The only other RXR show I can remember being that good, and it was for about 1/5 the amount of people was the Sunset 7" release show at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. Man, that was a great show, remember that one? Memory lane, memory lane....
Tropical Ooze would set up on the big stage right after us, and RSM would play on it too, same gear. There was a really interesting Overevo set that night. They did almost an identical set as I had seen them at 1808 maybe a few months back. Its very theatrical....masks and dancing and fake blood, and then a roll in the dirt and an S&M routine. What was so interesting is how different it was based on the crowd. The first time it seemed very intimate to me, like there were like 10 people in the room and somehow 1808 was a safe space to do art of this kind, at the intersection where no one would go. I think their set comments artistically on intimacy, so to me it had a totally different connotation to see the same routine in the same room, but this time at much more of a show that they were a small part of, with people they didn't really know, and also oh yeah the S&M part was a little different for me having an ex-gf in the room / maybe some other girls I liked, etc. Different energy in the air per se, but I think it was cool to see how differently the set was, even tho it was exactly the same. Their set was short, maybe 10 minutes, and when Reverse X Rays was playing Gangi got set up. There was a good crowd, but they were a little zonked from the travelling and the show was running late and I think they didn't want to play their set as their set. What happened was super cool, Me, Mercer and those 2 guys just jammed it out improv style. Eric played drums, Matt keys and background vox, Mercer some high energy bass, and I was just making noises in a microphone. High pitched bird noises, wah wah noises, falsetto half steps back and forth. I think there was delay on it, there must have been. We jammed out a long set some sweet territory, and I felt free, and slightly rock star-ish. When it was done it was time for R Stevie Moore, I guess we must have done that after Tropical Ooze or during.
Alright, well about 1:30 R Stevie started his set. Once Mercer had shown up and I wasn't running the show anymore I started to get drunk. It was a big load off, I was excited to get drunk. I did it via a double whiskey and coke, the quick train to lets-get-drunk. The R Stevie Moore show was good. Not as good acoustically as when I saw them at Emos outside last year, but the energy was raw. I'm not sure if he was instantly in the mood, but you could tell by at least a few songs into it the band was taking the show seriously. I think I already wrote this but I really like the song where it is like "play myself some music" back and forth. I was watching the show from on top of a chair in the back row with some friends from Athens. I think it must have been around 2 AM, but the set ended and R Stevie went and sat on a bench outside. Mercer took the reigns controlling the crowd "hey yall ill bet if you make some noise he'll come back" or whatever and I got the sweet honor of going outside and convincing him to come back in. He did and they played until 2:30 AM. The crowd stuck around. Part of me felt that the gates of time had opened up in a way, like, I had seen the name R Stevie Moore on our spreadsheet for months, but it wasn't going to feel real until it was actually happening. Like I wasn't gonna get my hopes up. Always best to assume all your headliners are going to cancel at the last second right? No actually, when they first showed up I had to go on patrol. I'm not sure they knew they were playing a show on the corner, and the band was a little wtf about the situation ("is there a green room? its a serious question!") Its a point of pride that if you come play our show for sxsw out of all the ones you play it will be the one with 1. the most high soundman, by a significant margin 2. the most chaotic and 3. if something actually needs to be accommodated, 110% we will make it happen. There was a moment where they were deciding whether to load in or not and I had to suggest that it was a good idea. It would have been really shitty if they came and left! That might have been where i told them that Austin was an R Stevie town, and really the show was filled with die-hards as an artist you can't ask for more than to play for that. It might have been 150-200 people that saw their set instead of 800 at Emos, but 1808 has a way of trimming the fat as far as audience members are concerned, so I think its cool to set up a really appreciative audience like that. And it was a special environment. That was the end of day 3.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Extensive thoughts on Escapes day 1 and 2
yo yeah, so i think rather than write the perfect masterpiece Im gonna go more stream of flow of consciousness style. Completely Incomplete, including (most definitely including) the lists, best bands etc.
Writing from Athens GA!!! Next stop in life is Quiet Hooves / Sean Nicholas Savage tour, maybe Im sticking around for a west coast tour with Each Other and Iji, it kinda sounds too good to pass on and I dont think my job for the state will be open yet. I am playing guitar in QH and bass in SNS and learning 2 sets worth of material as close to note for note as I can in a week. Its more work than it sounds, but the music is great!!!! Sean Savage is a real brilliant guy, he keeps playing the ii-V which is pretty funny to me, but I think i get his understanding of music theory. Its really cool because he is always throwing in some saucy changes for the middle part that are really fun to play, and idea the bass rhythms is real like "hey this has gotta keep it moving, keep it funky!" His style is really intricate actually, but in a way where you can play the song over and over again and pick up on an extra rhythm detail like every time, but the music sounds effortless because its all these little things adding up. I guess you would call that understated, or a smooth style, or having a good touch, but it effects the sructure and momentum of the song thats whats really interesting. I love it when little rhythms effect the momentum of the song, keeping the structure going where it wouldnt have enough just off the harmonies and melodies to pull it off. It takes the load off.
Everyone here has so much to do to get ready for this tour, Quiet Hooves played in Atlanta yesterday, I heard it was real fun, but actually I stayed home and practiced for an extra 4 hours then just passed out.
Anyways, lets do the timewarp again and talk some ESCAPES recap. I just wanted to make sure and do it by day
Escapes was 6 days long, Friday preceding SXSW music until the Wednesday of.
Friday and Saturday Zac from Zorch did a lot of booking for, those were sort of his days. More on Zac later, ha :). He had done 1 day of booking last year, and this year we bumped him up to 2 cause he's such a sweetheart. Its cool to have him help out because his taste is basically a good enough combination of fun party bands and bands that draw so that makes the club owner happy. If I had my way none of the bands would draw :). Orthodoxy as far as booking is a pretty central tenement of Escapes, pretty much we try and only book the best bands based on how they sound, but I've been a little out of it on the local scene lately, which I think naturally happens to some degree if you hit a point where you are concentrating on your own shit maybe. But all that community shit is real important to me, I wish there were more hours in the day, cause I would still be on that like white on rice. All the stalwarts, people who put a lot of energy into the scene, like say I donno, maybe you book free shows of weird bands once a month, we try and hook those bands up and these days are pretty primly positioned to create some hook up slots, just cause the crowd is good. Zac did a great job, both of these shows, I think they had good energy, like Friday we were the first ones doing big SXSW shows this year, and it had a great opening night feel. Then Saturday, afternoon i dont really know, cause I had gotten broken into and was dealing with insurance shit, but the crowd was basically as good the second night too. Bangaar played last, speaking of stalwarts, that band is ex-Those Peabodys, who of course have been in about 11dy billion bands. This iteration is great!!! I loved it. They did to. Actually by the time their set ended there were probably only 15 people left, most folks went home around 1 AM to save their energy of get laid I guess. They didnt care, actually I asked Adam if they wanted to pick up a show later in the week "i dont know if yall have work or whatever...." trailing off, but he said "I dont give a fuck!!!" meaning, "rock on, party, balls to the wall!!!" They ended up not being able to do it, but it was so awesome!!!! They should be under the awesome bands-in-situations-involving-material-consequences list, just for that. And they slayed. I told them they reminded me of Wounded Lion, a California band also of kinda-older-dudes, also a 5 or 6 piece, I cant remember. The music wasn't exactly the same, but just the timbre of the energy reminded me of that band. I told them that about the kinda-older-dudes thing which they took as a compliment, which it was, somehow.
I dont know if I mentioned it already but Best Fwiends set that day was great too. They were in the small room, but the crowd when they started was over by the bar, so they were really playing to the bar, which is unusual for that room. One of those guys swooped under the drum mat and started wearing it like a cape, which I wasn't even sure what he was doing until it was over. Those guys are goofballs par excellance, and to me that speaks to something fundamental about the purpose of rock and roll. Also I loved loved loved playing in Bill Bairds impromptu group, which was Bill reading poetry over the impromptu group of me and Jon Horne on guitar skronks, and I think Bradford Kinney and maybe one of the guys from Gangi, or Mercer? No, I think the 4th guy was another local, but my apologies, 2 weeks later I cant remember exactly who it was. Anyways it was special, Bill was rapping at one point about the idea of a music career, with all that trademark droll wit.
Later that evening I got to play drums in The Foolies. The best gotcha of the festival occurred here, here, I'll explain. The existence of The Foolies was Chris Reed's idea. He came down from NYC a week early to chill with friends and put this band together with Esteban being the front man and doing soul covers. At Esteban's birthday party me and Chris Wig had gotten into a tiff (we wont go into details, sorry) which led to Chris W. recusing himself from Spiked Punch. Anyways, I had been trying to buy him a steak dinner for a while to get him to be back in SP in general and also for the Escapes shows. Well, The Foolies practiced at my house for 2 days, but it was a random smattering of members, and Chris was never there but I was told he was playing. Both Chris's had had a practice at Wig's house besides the 2 at my house. Well we had practiced alot, but I had no idea what the band would even sound like when we got on stage. Esteban had stage presence and Reed had learned the bass and it didnt really matter to me, all I had to do was play drums and not give a fuck anyways, I could do that. So Wig's shows up on stage and he is about to play guitar in this soul band and he plays one note, and what is the sound but his trademark steel drum guitar sound which would have no place in a traditional soul band and was basically Spiked Punch's trademark sound of the era he was in the band. I donno maybe he is still in the band, I have to ask him when I get back from tour. The nerve!!! The gall!!! The set ended up sounding like William Shatner doing soul covers with DNA being his backing band, it was glorious, I think we impressed a lot of people before we cleared the room. I really liked when Elizabeth sang These Boots Were Made for Walking, that was an awesome one. And La Bamba was fuckin sweet! The Foolies version of La Bamba would go on to spawn another band, actually, Ill post the video in a sec.
The X Rays set this night was our first in about 9 months. Some folks felt good about it ("a Solid B" -Owen) but I felt like we were capable of much more and was a little frustrated. That's how it goes with RXR, but we would avenge ourselves in all of our minds a few days later opening for R. Stevie Moore in what was objectively in my mind our finest moment ever.
DAY 2: SATURDAY AKA WITCHAPALOOZA
There was no witch shit for witchapalooza, it turned out to be only a clever marketing gimmick. I unfortunately have to skip in my recap to 7 PM, because i was dealing with aftermath of getting broken into.
The mood when I arrived was pretty good. Forever Overhead was the first band I remember seeing, on the big stage. They were good, I'm not sure the sound in that room did them justice, it was a bit heavy on the treble, and we fucked up running their sound because I had just gotten there and we were trading off who was running the show during their set, so there was a little feedback until I could get to the sound booth. I kinda want to compile a babes of rock category at the end, I don't know how tacky that is, but the singer for that band would be in it. IBNUBO played on the floor in the same room and their set was sick. The same acoustics that didnt really work for F.O. worked for them, just because of the style of the band. I think people forget sometimes not to judge a band on one show, because most folks dont see a band and say "oh that sounded mediocre, I need to see that band again in case they are really much better than that." That to me is one of the fun parts of seeing bands, because remember, these are living breathing organisms. Maybe if the set wasn't perfect it was "nobodys fault" kinda like when your parents got divorced. Overall I think 1808 plays much better as a venue when the Outside is available. We are gonna work on that more next year, the issue is you only could get a 4 day sound permit for outside this year, and while the owner gave it to us for Wednesday, he also got it for Thursday-Saturday in the hopes of renting the outside out. The open air acoustics back there are great, so between that and both inside rooms it becomes easier to place bands where you think they might sound the best.
Enter Jack Topht from Buffalo. This guy ended up being a real cool guy. He played in the small room to not much of a crowd for this show. I dont know how the bar took it, just on the grounds of him being a white rapper rapping about whatever to not much of a crowd. They would like Cadence Weapon tho. This guy kinda got booked last minute, and he wins the snowball award for turning one show into like 7, we rolled with Jack all week, he was a cool guy. We got coffee at Karibu, that story is coming later.
I was running around during his set, so i didnt really catch it but i dont remember being particularly impressed at the time, going back to that seeing a band in different contexts thing. The next sets I really remember on the schedule were Popular Culture, which is Henry of Max and Henry aka You and Me's solo project and The Cockerspaniels performing a non-solo show for the first time. Both sets were really cool. Popular Culture, he just had a good look and good stage presence and energetic vocals n' stuff. There was something kinda humorous about it to me. I forget what was on his jacket, but it was a big patch on the back of a blue jean jacket for something, it seemed like an insider reference.
The Cockerspaniels it was glorious!!! Really folks were rooting for Sean. That dude has played solo for so long, but like dude, why aren't you playing with a band! Lets hear the music!!! He records with a full band worth of instrumentation and it really did make the difference live. He performed in a trio, the other dudes I think they were both in Zest of Yore. One of those guys might have played 3 sets that day. Joey did, Reverse X Rays, Spiked Punch, and Slugbug. I played 3 sets the first night, The Foolies, Bill Baird, and RXR. I think to have individuals play 3 sets adds something cool to the show, for one it means there are certain folks who are sticking around and catching a good chunk of it. Bear witness and testify, oh yea. It was great just to hear the harmonies and the low end and both the backing guys were good musicians and could do it justice, I hope they continue to write music as a band, Sean writes great songs.
Holy Waves set I thought it sounded good and was underattended. That band would really benefit from playing outside. They had some great projections with them. They are all switching instrument these days, but I wish they would leave the guy who plays drums like a bat back there. Whatever, those guys are going to keep growing as a band and doing their thing and I feel confident they will get great results just from sticking with it and doing what they are doing. I think noone was watching them because Pataphysics was playing in the other room, maybe we timed it a little off. Pataphysics played a great set. Do those guys always close with Policeman? I love that song, but not as much as I like "Weirdo" which I think they did not play. They are basically off the material of their old album, playing newer shit these days. I didn't catch their whole set, but I have heard "Weirdo" live before really slide into the pocket in an intense way. That's Chef baby, oh yeah. Slugbug was consistently great at Escapes, I think we almost always ran them in the small room, I know that night we did. That was mainly because they have so much gear to set up, we slot bands once an hour in the small room, so it makes more sense from a bookers perspective as far as running the show is concerned. Weird Weeds set was great as always, I was zoning out, prob pretty baked at this point. The Spiked Punch set was pretty hilarious this night. Chris played with us and was partying his ass off real drunk. He had leeway to do whatever he wanted, just cause we wanted him to play with us, and he took it to the max. He was talking to these 2 girls the whole time, before during and after the set. Playing guitar was pretty much an afterthought as far as making sure the band sounded good, but he made sure and played nice and loud. At the beginning of the set he told me "tell me if im too loud or anything." I tried to communicate that message and at one point turned his amp down. After that he turned it back up, wayyy up past where he was earlier, but maybe he turned it down on his guitar at the same time because he wasnt any louder than the initial too loud volume even tho it looked like he should have been even twice as loud. Ill never figure that one out. The conversation with the chicks never ended, actually it was awesome, although I was mildly annoyed at the time, it was hard to take any details of how the Spiked Punch set too seriously, just given I was concentrated on the enormity of the festival as a whole.
Zorch this night I thought played the best of the 3 times I saw them over sxsw. The intensity level was way up. I think Sam is actually playing a little less notey, and Zach is picking up the slack with rolling organ sounds a la The Soft Machine or Quintron. I thought they played exceptionally well this night. No wait, Im confused, the set Im describing was from the first night. The crowd was a bit thinner for them the 2nd night, I'm guessing because a lot of folks came both nights and had just seen them.
And that's the tale of the tape for the first 2 days, more to come.....
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